title: 2017 World Baseball Classic Pool B
text: # 2017 World Baseball Classic Pool B
  
  Pool B of the First Round of the 2017 World Baseball Classic was held at Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan from March 7 to 10, 2017, between Australia, China, Cuba and Japan. Pool B was a round-robin tournament. Each team played the other three teams once, with the top two teams advancing to Pool E.
  
  Two-time champions Japan concluded Pool B with a 3–0 record, whereas China lost all three games after their poor performances and must now qualify for the 2021 World Baseball Classic. Cuba defeated Australia to advance to the second round.
  
  ## Standings
  
  | Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | RF | RA | RD | PCT | GB | Qualification |
  | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
  | 1 | Japan (H) | 3 | 3 | 0 | 22 | 8 | +14 | 1.000 | — | Advance to second round |
  | 2 | Cuba | 3 | 2 | 1 | 16 | 14 | +2 | .667 | 1 | Advance to second round |
  | 3 | Australia | 3 | 1 | 2 | 15 | 8 | +7 | .333 | 2 | |
  | 4 | China | 3 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 24 | −23 | .000 | 3 | |
  
  Pool B MVP: Yoshitomo Tsutsugoh
  
  ## Results
  
  * All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+09:00).
  
  ### Japan 11, Cuba 6
  
  March 7, 19:00 at Tokyo Dome :
  
  | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
  | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
  | Cuba | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 11 | 3 |
  | Japan | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 2 | X | 11 | 14 | 1 |
  | WP: Ayumu Ishikawa (1−0) LP: Yoanni Yera (0−1) Home runs: CUB: Alfredo Despaigne (1) JPN: Nobuhiro Matsuda (1), Yoshitomo Tsutsugoh (1) Attendance: 44,908 (106.9%) Umpires: HP − Todd Tichenor, 1B − Fabrizio Fabrizzi, 2B − Su-won Choi, 3B − Cory Blaser Boxscore |||||||||||||
  
  ### Cuba 6, China 0
  
  March 8, 12:00 at Tokyo Dome :
  
  | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
  | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
  | China | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
  | Cuba | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | X | 6 | 14 | 1 |
  | WP: Bladimir Baños (1−0) LP: Xia Luo (0−1) Attendance: 39,102 (93.1%) Umpires: HP − Su-won Choi, 1B − Larry Vanover, 2B − Todd Tichenor, 3B − Fabrizio Fabrizzi Boxscore |||||||||||||
  
  ### Japan 4, Australia 1
  
  March 8, 19:00 at Tokyo Dome :
  
  | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
  | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
  | Japan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 1 |
  | Australia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
  | WP: Kodai Senga (1−0) LP: Matthew Williams (0−1) Sv: Kazuhisa Makita (1) Home runs: JPN: Sho Nakata (1), Yoshitomo Tsutsugoh (2) AUS: Allan de San Miguel (1) Attendance: 41,408 (98.6%) Umpires: HP − Cory Blaser, 1B − Todd Tichenor, 2B − Chien-wen Su, 3B − Fabrizio Fabrizzi Boxscore |||||||||||||
  
  ### Australia 11, China 0
  
  March 9, 19:00 at Tokyo Dome (F/8) :
  
  | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
  | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
  | Australia | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | X | 11 | 9 | 0 |
  | China | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 0 | 5 | 0 |
  | WP: Travis Blackley (1−0) LP: Kwon Ju (0−1) Home runs: AUS: Luke Hughes (1), James Beresford (1) CHN: None Attendance: 3,013 (7.2%) Umpires: HP − Larry Vanover, 1B − Su-won Choi, 2B − Cory Blaser, 3B − Chien-wen Su Notes: Completed early due to 10–run mercy rule after 8 innings. Boxscore |||||||||||||
  
  ### Cuba 4, Australia 3
  
  March 10, 12:00 at Tokyo Dome :
  
  | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
  | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
  | Australia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 13 | 1 |
  | Cuba | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 4 | 10 | 0 |
  | WP: Vladimir García (1−0) LP: Lachlan Wells (0−1) Sv: Miguel Lahera (1) Home runs: AUS: Trent Oeltjen (1) CUB: Alfredo Despaigne (2) Attendance: 38,050 (90.6%) Umpires: HP − Todd Tichenor, 1B − Fabrizio Fabrizzi, 2B − Larry Vanover, 3B − Su-won Choi Boxscore |||||||||||||
  
  ### Japan 7, China 1
  
  March 10, 19:00 at Tokyo Dome :
  
  | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
  | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
  | China | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 3 |
  | Japan | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | X | 7 | 8 | 0 |
  | WP: Shota Takeda (1−0) LP: Quan Gan (0−1) Home runs: CHN: None JPN: Seiji Kobayashi (1), Sho Nakata (2) Attendance: 40,053 (95.4%) Umpires: HP − Cory Blaser, 1B − Larry Vanover, 2B − Chien-wen Su, 3B − Su-won Choi Boxscore |||||||||||||
  