The final plate appearance of the World Baseball Classic would've lit up the night even if it didn’t have the names. How many crucial or championship-deciding games are actually decided in the fourth inning? How many sputter to an end on an excuse-me check swing? Or a pop-up in foul territory?
This was not that. This was a rope stretched to maximum tension, then tugged definitively to one side in a scintillating final showdown. The names, though, drew even more eyes to the moment when Shohei Ohtani and Team Japan closed out Mike Trout and Team USA to win the 2023 WBC.