With Samurai Japan’s 9-6 win over Venezuela on Friday night, the host team has clinched a berth in Sunday evening’s WBSC Premier12 championship game.
Who will they face? Well, that’ll be determined by the results of tomorrow’s games at the Tokyo Dome.
If the United States wins the early game and Chinese Taipei wins the late game, Chinese Taipei and Japan will meet in Sunday night’s championship game by virtue of their 2-1 records. The United States and Venezuela, at 1-2, will square off in the third place game at noon Sunday.
If Venezuela wins the early game and Chinese Taipei wins the late game, Venezuela and Japan will meet in Sunday night’s championship game by virtue of their 2-1 records. The United States and Chinese Taipei, at 1-2, will square off in the third place game at noon Sunday.
If Venezuela wins the early game and Japan wins the late game, Venezuela and Japan will meet in Sunday night’s championship game by virtue of their 2-1 records. The United States and Chinese Taipei, at 1-2, will square off in the third place game at noon Sunday.
If the United States wins the early game and Japan wins the late game, Japan will play in Sunday night’s championship. The United States, Chinese Taipei, and Venezuela would be tied at 1-2, forcing the use of the Total Quality Balance tiebreaker. For the tiebreaker, the teams would be ranked based on the following formula: (runs scored/innings at bat)-(runs allowed/innings in the field). The highest-ranked team would advance to Sunday night’s championship game, with the two lower-ranked teams facing off in the third-place game.
The tiebreaker is computed using games involving the teams that are tied, so each team’s games against Japan are tossed out. So far, this is how the numbers come out:
| Team | Runs Scored | Innings at bat | Runs Allowed | Innings in field | TQB Number |
| United States | 2 | 9 | 8 | 9 | -0.6666666667 |
| Chinese Taipei | 8 | 18 | 4 | 8 | -0.05555555556 |
| Venezuela | 2 | 8 | 0 | 9 | 0.25 |
This keeps a remote chance alive for the United States to earn a berth in the championship game. To do so, they’d need to beat Venezuela by at least six runs in a nine-inning game. If they were to beat Venezuela by five runs in a nine-inning game, they would have the same TQB number as Chinese Taipei. Because they lost to Chinese Taipei 2-0 on November 21, they cannot win a tiebreaker against them, and thus couldn’t advance to the championship game should that scenario come to pass.
The United States will play Venezuela on Saturday, November 23 at noon JST at the Tokyo Dome, which means that game begins at 10 p.m. EST on November 22. All of the remaining 2024 Premier12 tournament games are streamed on https://gametime.sport/ and DAZN with a paid subscription.
Photo: The Tokyo Dome is hosting the Super Round and final games of the 2024 WBSC Premier12. (Photo Courtesy WBSC)
