Japan at The 2008 Summer Olympics - Baseball

Baseball

Japan's victory in the 2007 Asian Baseball Championship qualified the Japan national baseball team for Olympic competition. Japan, along with Cuba, has appeared in every Olympic baseball tournament since the sport was elevated to official status. Japan has reached the semifinals each year and taken one silver and two bronze medals, but has yet to win the Olympic championship.

Roster

Pitchers:

  • Yu Darvish
  • Kyuji Fujikawa
  • Hitoki Iwase
  • Kenshin Kawakami
  • Yoshihisa Naruse
  • Toshiya Sugiuchi
  • Masahiro Tanaka
  • Koji Uehara
  • Tsuyoshi Wada
  • Hideaki Wakui

Catchers:

  • Shinnosuke Abe
  • Tomoya Satozaki
  • Akihiro Yano

Infielders:

  • Takahiro Arai
  • Masahiro Araki
  • Munenori Kawasaki
  • Shinya Miyamoto
  • Shuichi Murata
  • Hiroyuki Nakajima
  • Tsuyoshi Nishioka

Outfielders:

  • Norichika Aoki
  • Atsunori Inaba
  • Masahiko Morino
  • G. G. Sato

Group stage

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Japan 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 9 1
Cuba 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 X 4 9 1
WP: Norge Luis Vera (1-0) LP: Yu Darvish (0-1) Sv: Pedro Luis Lazo (1)


Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Netherlands 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 1
Japan 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 X 6 10 0
WP: Toshiya Sugiuchi (1-0) LP: Alexander Smit (0-1)
Home runs:
NED: None
JPN: Takahiko Sato (1)


Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Japan 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 5 0
Canada 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2
WP: Yoshihisa Naruse (1-0) LP: Chris Begg (1-1) Sv: Koji Uehara (1)
Home runs:
JPN: Atsunori Inaba (1)
CAN: None


Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 R H E
United States 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 4 5 0
Japan 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 5 0
WP: Jeff Stevens (1-2) LP: Hitoki Iwase (0-2) Sv: Casey Weathers (1)
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Japan 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 4 6 9 1
Chinese Taipei 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 4 0
WP: Hideaki Wakui (1-0) LP: Fu-Te Ni (0-1)
Home runs:
JPN: Shinnosuke Abe (1)
TPE: None


Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
South Korea 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 3 5 9 1
Japan 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 3 7 1
WP: Suk-Min Yoon (2-0) LP: Hitoki Iwase (0-1) Sv: Tae-Hyon Chong (1)
Home runs:
KOR: Dae-Ho Lee (2)
JPN: Takahiro Arai (1)


Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
China 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - 0 2 0
Japan 0 3 1 0 0 6 X - - 10 10 0
WP: Hideaki Wakui (2-0) LP: Nan Wang (0-1)
Home runs:
CHN: None
JPN: Tsuyoshi Nishioka (1)

Group table

Team G W L RS RA WIN% GB Tiebreaker
South Korea 7 7 0 41 22 1.000 - -
Cuba 7 6 1 52 23 .857 1 -
United States 7 5 2 40 22 .714 2 -
Japan 7 4 3 30 14 .571 3 -
Chinese Taipei 7 2 5 29 33 .286 5 1-0
Canada 7 2 5 29 20 .286 5 0-1
Netherlands 7 1 6 9 50 .143 6 1-0
China 7 1 6 14 60 .143 6 0-1

Semifinal

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Japan 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 6 2
South Korea 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 4 X 6 10 1
WP: Kwang-Hyun Kim (1-0) LP: Hitoki Iwase (0-3)
Home runs:
JPN: None
KOR: Seung-Yeop Lee (1)

Bronze medal game

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Japan 1 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 6 1
United States 0 1 3 0 4 0 0 0 X 8 9 0
WP: Brett Anderson (1-0) LP: Kenshin Kawakami (0-1)
Home runs:
JPN: Masahiro Araki (1), Norichika Aoki (1)
USA: Matt LaPorta (2), Matt Brown (2), Jason Donald (1)

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