Korea vs Japan @ Jingu Stadium (Attendance: 3500)

Box scores

Japan - Batting

Japan - Pitching

Korea - Batting

Korea - Pitching

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USA vs Cuba @ Jingu Stadium (Attendance: 4000)

Box scores

Cuba - Batting

Cuba - Pitching

HR: A.Despaigne (3, none on in the 8th; 4, 2 on in the 10th)
2B: Morejon

USA - Batting

USA - Pitching

HR: Maggi (1)

SB: Mahtook

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Final Standings

Awards

All-Star Team

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Some notes from the two games

The Bronze medal game wasn't really all that interesting.  Going into the game, I figured Japan would probably win, but not quite at such a large margin.  If anything, that was the surprise.

The USA - Cuba game was a whole other story.  I wasn't really sure what to expect, except for an inkling that Cuba would win.

Both Gerrit Cole and Yadier Gonzalez tossed great games.  And when Cole came out, I thought Gonzalez would as well, since it was obvious he was beginning to lose some of his stuff.  But Cuba kept him in there.  And in the end, it almost looked as if it might have sunk Cuba's ship, but Alfredo Despaigne came through in a big way with a 3-run bomb in the bottom of the 10th.

When that ball came off Despaigne's bat, the crowd at the stadium just went wild.

Now, if there's one person you have to feel sorry for in all of this, it's Nick Ramirez.  I'm not really sure how much experience he has as a pitcher, but when the US brought him in the 9th inning with the bases loaded and no out, I was a bit confused.  But he got out of the jam with a double play and a fly out to center and suddenly Bill Kinneberg is the man of the hour.

So, assuming Ramirez doesn't have much experience as a pitcher, you figure he's just about used up all his luck for the night.  And yet he's back out there in the bottom of the 10th.  Did he US not have any more pitchers available to go?  Or were they hoping that after seeing Cole and Noe Ramirez all night that Cuba would have a tough time adjusting to Ramirez's junk?

In either case, the poor guy was devastated after the homer.  He stood on the mound in disbelief (and I'm guessing disgust) for a good few seconds before finally walking towards the dugout.  And even after that, he just looked awful.

That all said, it was a great end to a tournament.

A couple of minor notes:

I think Cole broke 2-3 bats over his 7 inning outing.  He also hit 155km/h on the stadium radar a number of times and it seemed he was consistently around the 150km/h range with his fastball.

At one point, the Cuba fans and the US fans started a chant competition.

Nolan Fontana (at least I think it was him) tried to trick Cuba by hiding the ball in his glove after heading towards the mound for a brief meeting with the pitcher (can't remember which inning any more, but it was towards the end I think).  The second base ump caught on and quickly asked Fontana to return the ball to the pitcher.

A few of scouts were sitting in front of me.  One of them seemed to have their eye on George Springer.

I missed it, but Antonio Castro threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the Finals game; Sadaharu Oh stood in the batter's box.

Pictures from both games will come a little later.

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