Shohei Ohtani wasted no time reminding the world why he’s baseball’s greatest player.
In Japan’s 2026 World Baseball Classic opener at a sold-out Tokyo Dome on Friday night, Ohtani put on a historic performance — hitting a grand slam and finishing with five RBIs as defending champion Japan demolished Chinese Taipei 13-0 in a game called after seven innings via the mercy rule.
Ohtani swung at the first pitch of the game and laced it down the right-field line for a double with a 117.1 mph exit velocity. MLB He didn’t score that inning — but he made sure the next one counted. With the bases loaded in the second, Ohtani launched a grand slam to right field off Chinese Taipei starter Hao-Chun Cheng, igniting a WBC-record 10-run second inning. He followed it up with an RBI single in the same frame, setting another WBC record with five RBIs in a single inning.
Ohtani was denied a cycle when first baseman Nien-Ting Wu made a leaping catch in the fourth, robbing him of the triple he needed to complete it. He finished just a triple shy in one of the most dominant individual WBC performances ever recorded.
On the mound, Yoshinobu Yamamoto was sharp in his 2026 debut, working 2⅔ hitless innings while striking out two Olympics before relievers finished off Chinese Taipei. Yu Chang’s bloop single in the sixth was the only hit Taiwan managed all night.
Japan is 1-0 in Pool C and next faces South Korea on Saturday at 5 a.m. ET on FS1. Chinese Taipei takes on Czechia at 10 p.m. ET on FS2.
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