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The story
On November 13, Samurai Japan faced off against South Korea in the second qualifying game of the ‘Laqtus Asia Professional Baseball Championship 2026’ at Tokyo Dome, winning 9-5. The win put Japan 2-0 to open the tournament and one step from the final. Soujima hit two home runs and drove in five runs, including a decisive three-run homer in the 8th inning. Masaki also homered for the second straight game, and the pitching staff got through the game with a six-man bullpen relay. On 5ch, while many praised Japan’s hot-hitting lineup, others pointed out that Korea’s roster has weakened compared to the past, lamented that the tension of facing Korea no longer matches the 2006 and 2009 WBCs, and even drifted into comparing the popularity of baseball versus soccer — topics far removed from the game itself.
Fri, Nov 13, 10:27 PM — Baseball Channel
Japan’s national baseball team, ‘Samurai Japan,’ faced South Korea on the 13th in the second qualifying game of the ‘Laqtus Asia Professional Baseball Championship 2026’ at Tokyo Dome. Samurai Japan won 9-5, putting them one win away from the final.
(Omitted — see the source for the full article)
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
No way a Central League manager could pull that off
Nothing's ever felt as satisfying as Ichiro's 2-RBI go-ahead hit lol
Murakami's walk-off 2-RBI single and the Ohtani-vs-Trout final
Those were moving and exciting too, but nothing quite hit like Ichiro's did
Korea's really weakened a lot
Nothing but singles hitters and slow-ball pitchers now
Soujima would be an even bigger star if he weren't with Rakuten, he's good-looking too
Anyway Rakuten needs to build a new stadium already instead of that run-down, freezing one
Soujima broke out this year but missed a lot of games with injuries
Well, congratulations then, good for you lol
Japan's the only one actually going all out
That challenge might've actually led to them giving up a three-run homer
They're hitting balls further than I've ever seen
Square one up and it probably goes 20 extra meters
It's the other way around
SSK's ball is the international standard (the official ball used in this tournament)
NPB's ball has like 80% the bounce/trajectory characteristics of MLB's
Masaki and Soujima — how many RBIs are these two gonna rack up for Japan lol
Soujima's on the 'Morishita curve' (slang for a rapid-improvement trajectory) so maybe the majors are in his future too
Invite some European teams or something, add more countries so it doesn't get stale
That kind of thing costs money, man
I think Japan in baseball is way stronger relative to the field than France or Spain are in soccer
That's what you call being a total minor sport lol
A match against Spain would actually get me interested though
Japan could beat Spain these days
I get why baseball pulls better ratings
That's exactly why baseball ranks above soccer as a sport
The thing with soccer is you have to stay glued to the broadcast the whole time
With baseball you can watch like that too, but you can also just let it run in the background once it gets exciting
Also it's way easier to post comments while watching
With soccer all you have time to type is
aaaaaaahhh yeahhh ohhhh
There's tons — Ikeyama, Mayumi, Ishige, lol
Masaru Uno is the only shortstop in history to win a home run title
The next year he hit even more homers than that but lost out to Randy Bass I think
His defense was good enough that even Ochiai — who built the famous 'Arai-Iba' double-play combo — recognized him as a true standout
Kiyomiya from the Fighters hits home runs at shortstop too, errors and all
Wasn't Nakata Sho a shortstop as well?
It's basically like Keio and Meiji won this
Oda should go to college too
Going straight to the majors out of high school is completely nuts
College tends to overwork players though
For pitchers, if you're a top prospect, going pro is better
The only thing even remotely off about him is his big forehead
Being on Rakuten is a massive handicap lol
If he were on the Giants he'd be a nationwide superstar
Normally Soujima's known for his defense
He doesn't usually pop home runs like this
He's giving off serious 'might go bald someday' vibes lol
Background and talking points
The ‘Asia Professional Baseball Championship,’ in which this game took place, runs as a qualifying league, and Samurai Japan moved closer to the final by beating Korea in consecutive games to open the tournament. Opinions on the thread split over whether the old tension of Japan-Korea matchups still exists — many posts referenced the 2006 and 2009 WBCs — while plenty of others argued that Korea’s current roster has fallen off in both pitching and power compared to its peak. Praise for Soujima and Masaki’s performances dominated the thread, but the conversation gradually drifted into topics unrelated to the game itself, like team management, the talent gap between leagues, and which sport — baseball or soccer — is more entertaining to watch. This kind of tangent is common in 5ch’s baseball threads and should be read separately from the article’s main subject, the game result itself. An image purporting to show TV ratings was also posted, but without a clear source or methodology, so readers should judge the reliability of those numbers themselves.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geisoku+) thread ‘[Breaking] Samurai Japan wins hard-fought battle against Korea, one win from the final! Soujima: 2 HRs, 5 RBIs & decisive 3-run HR in the 8th; Masaki homers for 2nd straight game; 6-pitcher relay secures 2-0 start.’
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