Baseball at the 2020 Summer Olympics

Baseball
at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Baseball; at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Venue	Yokohama Stadium, Yokohama; Fukushima Azuma Stadium, Fukushima City
Dates	28 July – 7 August 2021
No. of events	1
Competitors	144 from 6 nations
Teams	6
Medalists
	← 2008 2028 →

Baseball was featured at the 2020 Summer Olympics, in Tokyo, for the first time since the 2008 Summer Olympics.^[1] Six national teams competed in the tournament: Israel, Japan (host), Mexico, South Korea, the United States, and the Dominican Republic.

Baseball/softball was one of five sports that were added to the programme of the 2020 Summer Olympics only. It will not return in 2024.^[2] The tournament was originally scheduled to be held in 2020, but on 24 March 2020, the Olympics were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[3] As a result, the games were played behind closed doors.^[4]

Medalists

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's tournament	Japan Kōyō Aoyagi Suguru Iwazaki Masato Morishita Hiromi Itoh Yoshinobu Yamamoto Masahiro Tanaka Yasuaki Yamasaki Ryoji Kuribayashi Yūdai Ōno Kodai Senga Kaima Taira Ryutaro Umeno Takuya Kai Tetsuto Yamada Sōsuke Genda Hideto Asamura Ryosuke Kikuchi Hayato Sakamoto Munetaka Murakami Kensuke Kondo Yuki Yanagita Ryoya Kurihara Masataka Yoshida Seiya Suzuki	United States Shane Baz Anthony Carter Brandon Dickson Anthony Gose Edwin Jackson Scott Kazmir Nick Martinez Scott McGough David Robertson Joe Ryan Ryder Ryan Simeon Woods Richardson Tim Federowicz Mark Kolozsvary Nick Allen Eddy Alvarez Triston Casas Todd Frazier Jamie Westbrook Tyler Austin Eric Filia Patrick Kivlehan Jack López Bubba Starling	Dominican Republic Darío Álvarez Gabriel Arias Jairo Asencio Luis Felipe Castillo Jumbo Díaz Junior García Jhan Mariñez Cristopher Mercedes Denyi Reyes Ramón Rosso Ángel Sánchez Raúl Valdés Roldani Baldwin Charlie Valerio José Bautista Juan Francisco Jeison Guzmán Erick Mejia Gustavo Núñez Emilio Bonifácio Melky Cabrera Johan Mieses Yefri Pérez Julio Rodríguez

Qualification

Six national teams qualified for the Olympic baseball tournament. Japan automatically qualified, as the host nation. Israel qualified by winning the September 2019 Europe/Africa continental tournament.

Two teams qualified through the 2019 WBSC Premier12 tournament in November 2019. South Korea qualified as the best-placed team from the Asia/Oceania region (other than Japan, which already qualified as host), while Mexico qualified as the best-placed team from the Americas.

The United States qualified by winning the Americas Qualifying Event that was originally scheduled to take place in March 2020, but was postponed to May/June 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The final spot was awarded to the Dominican Republic which won a world Final Qualifying Tournament in late June 2021.^[5]

Event	Dates	Location(s)	Berth(s)	Qualified
Host nation	—	—	1	Japan
Africa/Europe Qualifying Event	18–22 September 2019	Bologna / Parma	1	Israel
2019 WBSC Premier12	2–17 November 2019	Tokyo¹	2	Mexico South Korea
Americas Qualifying Event	31 May–5 June 2021^[6]^[7]	Port St. Lucie / West Palm Beach	1	United States
Final Qualifying Tournament	22–26 June 2021^[8]	Puebla	1	Dominican Republic
Total			6

¹ The WBSC Premier12 was played in Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and Taiwan, with the final in Tokyo.

Competition schedule

^[9]

GS	Group stage	KO	Knock-out	B	Bronze medal game	F	Gold medal game

Wed 28	Thu 29	Fri 30	Sat 31	Sun 1	Mon 2	Tue 3	Wed 4	Thu 5	Fri 6	Sat 7
GS				KO						B	F

Team squads

Competition format

The small number of teams in the tournament resulted in an unusual competition format being adopted that featured 16 games. There was an opening group round-robin round, and a modified double-elimination bracket.^[10]

For the group round, there were two pools of three teams each. Each team played the other two teams in its pool once. A total of six games were played in the group round.

In the knockout round, the first three games featured teams that each finished in the same position in their respective pools (A1 vs B1, A2 vs B2, A3 vs B3). The loser of the A3 vs. B3 game was eliminated (with only one loss in the elimination round, plus one or two in the group stage). After this, play continued in double-elimination format until there is one team left in each of the winners and losers brackets. Those two teams played in the gold medal game (a single game; the losers bracket representative does not need to beat the winners bracket representative twice). The last two teams eliminated from the losers bracket played in the bronze medal game. In total, 10 games are played in the knockout round:

A3 vs B3 (loser eliminated)
A2 vs B2
Winner of #1 vs Winner of #2
A1 vs B1
Loser of #2 vs Loser of #3 (loser eliminated)
Loser of #4 vs Winner of #5 (loser to bronze medal game)
Winner of #3 vs Winner of #4 (winner to gold medal game)
Loser of #7 vs Winner of #6 (winner to gold medal game, loser to bronze medal game)
Bronze medal game: Loser of #6 vs Loser of #8
Gold medal game: Winner of #7 vs. Winner of #8

Thus, the best two teams from group play face each other in the quarterfinals, with a possible rematch later in the tournament (including the gold medal game, if the winner also wins its next game and the loser wins its next two).

Group stage

The schedule was announced on 28 June 2021.^[11] Note that "Qualification" column represents positional seeding in the knockout stage, effective at the conclusion of the group stage.

All times are local (UTC+9).

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	RF	RA	RD	PCT	GB	Qualification
1	Japan (H)	2	2	0	11	7	+4	1.000	—	Round 2
2	Dominican Republic	2	1	1	4	4	0	.500	1	Round 1 game #2
3	Mexico	2	0	2	4	8	−4	.000	2	Round 1 game #1

Source: TOCOG and WBSC
(H) Hosts

28 July 12:00 (JST)
Fukushima Azuma Baseball Stadium
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Dominican Republic	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	1	3	8	0
Japan	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	3	4	9	0
WP: Ryoji Kuribayashi (1–0) LP: Jairo Asencio (0–1) Boxscore

30 July 12:00
Yokohama Stadium
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Mexico	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
Dominican Republic	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	X	1	6	0
WP: Ángel Sánchez (1–0) LP: Teddy Stankiewicz (0–1) Sv: Luis Felipe Castillo (1) Boxscore

31 July 12:00
Yokohama Stadium
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Japan	0	1	1	3	0	0	1	1	0	7	10	0
Mexico	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	2	0	4	7	2
WP: Masato Morishita (1–0) LP: Juan Pablo Oramas (0–1) Sv: Ryoji Kuribayashi (1) Home runs: JPN: Tetsuto Yamada (1), Hayato Sakamoto (1) MEX: Joey Meneses (1) Boxscore

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	RF	RA	RD	PCT	GB	Qualification
1	United States	2	2	0	12	3	+9	1.000	—	Round 2
2	South Korea	2	1	1	8	9	−1	.500	1	Round 1 game #2
3	Israel	2	0	2	6	14	−8	.000	2	Round 1 game #1

Source: TOCOG and WBSC

29 July 19:00
Yokohama Stadium
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	R	H	E
Israel	0	0	2	0	0	2	0	0	1	0	5	7	0
South Korea	0	0	0	2	0	0	3	0	0	1	6	11	0
WP: Oh Seung-hwan (1–0) LP: Jeremy Bleich (0–1) Home runs: ISR: Ian Kinsler (1), Ryan Lavarnway 2 (2) KOR: Oh Ji-hwan (1), Lee Jung-hoo (1), Hyun-soo Kim (1) Boxscore

30 July 19:00
Yokohama Stadium
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
United States	0	0	3	0	0	1	2	1	1	8	11	0
Israel	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	7	2
WP: Joe Ryan (1–0) LP: Joey Wagman (0–1) Home runs: USA: Tyler Austin (1) ISR: Danny Valencia (1) Boxscore

31 July 19:00
Yokohama Stadium
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
South Korea	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	5	0
United States	0	0	0	2	2	0	0	0	X	4	6	0
WP: Nick Martinez (1–0) LP: Ko Young-pyo (0–1) Sv: David Robertson (1) Home runs: KOR: None USA: Triston Casas (1), Nick Allen (1) Boxscore

Knockout stage

Bracket

#1 (Loser Eliminated)

Israel

12

#3

Mexico

5

Israel

1

#2

South Korea (7)

11

#7

Dominican Republic

3

South Korea

2

South Korea

4

#4

Japan

5

United States

6

#10

Japan (10)

7

Japan

2

United States

0

Round 1 repechage

Round 2 repechage

#5

Israel

6

#6

Bronze medal game

Dominican Republic

7

Dominican Republic

1

#8

#9

United States

3

United States

7

Dominican Republic

10

South Korea

2

South Korea

6

Round 1

1 August 12:00
Yokohama Stadium
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Israel	1	0	5	0	0	0	6	0	0	12	12	0
Mexico	0	0	4	0	0	1	0	0	0	5	8	1
WP: Zack Weiss (1–0) LP: Manny Barreda (0–1) Home runs: ISR: Danny Valencia (2) MEX: None Boxscore

1 August 19:00
Yokohama Stadium
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Dominican Republic	1	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	3	6	0
South Korea	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	4	12	1
WP: Oh Seung-hwan (2–0) LP: Luis Felipe Castillo (0–1) Home runs: DOM: Juan Francisco (1) KOR: None Boxscore

Round 2

2 August 12:00
Yokohama Stadium
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Israel	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	X	X	1	3	2
South Korea (7)	1	2	0	0	7	0	1	X	X	11	18	0
WP: Cho Sang-woo (1–0) LP: Joey Wagman (0–2) Home runs: ISR: None KOR: Oh Ji-hwan (2), Hyun-soo Kim (2) Boxscore

2 August 19:00
Yokohama Stadium
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	R	H	E
United States	0	0	0	3	3	0	0	0	0	0	6	12	2
Japan (10)	0	0	2	1	2	0	0	0	1	1	7	12	0
WP: Ryoji Kuribayashi (2–0) LP: Edwin Jackson (0–1) Home runs: USA: Triston Casas (2) JPN: Seiya Suzuki (1) Boxscore

Round 1 repechage

3 August 19:00
Yokohama Stadium
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Israel	0	0	0	0	4	0	0	2	0	6	9	2
Dominican Republic	1	0	1	0	0	2	1	0	2	7	9	1
WP: Luis Felipe Castillo (1–1) LP: Zack Weiss (1–1) Home runs: ISR: Danny Valencia (3) DOM: Jeison Guzman (1), Johan Mieses (1) Boxscore

Round 2 repechage

4 August 12:00
Yokohama Stadium
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Dominican Republic	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	5	0
United States	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	X	3	3	3
WP: Scott Kazmir (1–0) LP: Denyi Reyes (0–1) Sv: David Robertson (2) Home runs: DOM: Charlie Valerio (1) USA: Triston Casas (3), Tyler Austin (2) Boxscore

Semifinals

4 August 19:00
Yokohama Stadium
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
South Korea	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	2	7	1
Japan	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	3	X	5	9	1
WP: Hiromi Itoh (1–0) LP: Go Woo-suk (0–1) Sv: Ryoji Kuribayashi (2) Boxscore

5 August 19:00
Yokohama Stadium
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
South Korea	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	2	7	0
United States	0	1	0	1	0	5	0	0	X	7	9	1
WP: Ryder Ryan (1–0) LP: Lee Eui-lee (0–1) Home runs: KOR: None USA: Jamie Westbrook (1) Boxscore

Bronze medal game

7 August 12:00
Yokohama Stadium
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Dominican Republic	4	0	0	0	1	0	0	5	0	10	14	0
South Korea	0	1	0	1	4	0	0	0	0	6	13	0
WP: Cristopher Mercedes (1–0) LP: Oh Seung-hwan (2–1) Sv: Jumbo Díaz (1) Home runs: DOM: Juan Francisco (2), Julio Rodríguez (1), Johan Mieses (2) KOR: Hyun-soo Kim (3) Boxscore

Gold medal game

7 August 19:00
Yokohama Stadium
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
United States	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	1
Japan	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	X	2	8	0
WP: Masato Morishita (2–0) LP: Nick Martinez (1–1) Sv: Ryoji Kuribayashi (3) Home runs: USA: None JPN: Munetaka Murakami (1) Boxscore

Final standings

Place	Team	Record
	Japan	5–0
	United States	4–2
	Dominican Republic	3–3
4	South Korea	3–4
5	Israel	1–4
6	Mexico	0–3

2020 Olympic champions
Japan First title

All-Olympic team

Note: Update to 2024 season

Awards		Awarded player	Affiliation team
MVP Award		Tetsuto Yamada	Japan / Tokyo Yakult Swallows
Best Defensive Player Honours		Nick Allen	United States / Oakland Athletics
Tokyo 2020 All-Olympic Baseball Team	Pitcher (Right)	Yoshinobu Yamamoto	Japan / Los Angeles Dodgers
	Pitcher (Left)	Anthony Gose	United States / Cleveland Guardians
	Catcher	Takuya Kai	Japan / Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
	First baseman	Triston Casas	United States / Boston Red Sox
	Second baseman	Eddy Alvarez	United States / Boston Red Sox
	Third baseman	Erick Mejia	Dominican Republic / (Washington Nationals organization)
	Shortstop	Hayato Sakamoto	Japan / Yomiuri Giants
	Left fielder	Hyun-soo Kim	South Korea / LG Twins
	Center fielder	Park Hae-min	South Korea / LG Twins
	Right fielder	Mitch Glasser	Israel / Sioux Falls Canaries
	Designated hitter	Tyler Austin	United States / Yokohama DeNA BayStars

Selected by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC).^[12]

References

^ "Baseball/Softball". Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
^ "Gender equality and youth at the heart of the Paris 2024 Olympic Sports Programme". International Olympic Committee. 7 December 2020. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
^ "Joint Statement from the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee". International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
^ "Tokyo Olympics to be held without fans after new COVID-19 state of emergency declared". usatoday.com. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
^ "WBSC announces hosts, dates of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Baseball/Softball Qualifiers". wbsc.org. World Baseball Softball Confederation. 20 January 2019. Archived from the original on 7 October 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
^ "WBSC Olympic baseball qualifiers to be staged in June in Florida and Taichung/TPE". World Baseball Softball Confederation. 16 March 2021. Archived from the original on 16 March 2021. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
^ "Tokyo 2020 Olympics: WBSC Baseball Americas Qualifier to be staged from 31 May to 5 June in The Palm Beaches & St. Lucie County, Florida". World Baseball Softball Confederation. Archived from the original on 13 April 2021. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
^ "WBSC Baseball Final Qualifier for Tokyo 2020 moved from Taiwan to Mexico". World Baseball Softball Confederation. 20 May 2021. Archived from the original on 20 May 2021. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
^ "Baseball/Softball Competition Schedule". Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
^ "Competition format" (PDF). Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
^ "WBSC, Tokyo 2020 reveal Olympic Baseball groups and schedule". wbsc.org. World Baseball Softball Confederation. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
^ "WBSC names MVP and Tokyo 2020 All-Olympic Baseball Team". NPB.jp. 7 August 2021. Retrieved 8 August 2021.

External links

Results book Archived 10 August 2021 at the Wayback Machine

[Tokyo_2020_Baseball-1] "Baseball/Softball". Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Retrieved 12 July 2018.

[IOCConfirm-2] "Gender equality and youth at the heart of the Paris 2024 Olympic Sports Programme". International Olympic Committee. 7 December 2020. Retrieved 3 May 2021.

[3] "Joint Statement from the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee". International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 24 March 2020.

[4] "Tokyo Olympics to be held without fans after new COVID-19 state of emergency declared". usatoday.com. Retrieved 8 July 2021.

[5] "WBSC announces hosts, dates of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Baseball/Softball Qualifiers". wbsc.org. World Baseball Softball Confederation. 20 January 2019. Archived from the original on 7 October 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.

[finalqualification-6] "WBSC Olympic baseball qualifiers to be staged in June in Florida and Taichung/TPE". World Baseball Softball Confederation. 16 March 2021. Archived from the original on 16 March 2021. Retrieved 16 March 2021.

[americasqual-7] "Tokyo 2020 Olympics: WBSC Baseball Americas Qualifier to be staged from 31 May to 5 June in The Palm Beaches & St. Lucie County, Florida". World Baseball Softball Confederation. Archived from the original on 13 April 2021. Retrieved 17 April 2021.

[finalqualvenuechange-8] "WBSC Baseball Final Qualifier for Tokyo 2020 moved from Taiwan to Mexico". World Baseball Softball Confederation. 20 May 2021. Archived from the original on 20 May 2021. Retrieved 20 May 2021.

[9] "Baseball/Softball Competition Schedule". Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Retrieved 8 March 2020.

[10] "Competition format" (PDF). Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

[11] "WBSC, Tokyo 2020 reveal Olympic Baseball groups and schedule". wbsc.org. World Baseball Softball Confederation. Retrieved 28 June 2021.

[12] "WBSC names MVP and Tokyo 2020 All-Olympic Baseball Team". NPB.jp. 7 August 2021. Retrieved 8 August 2021.

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v t e Baseball at the Summer Olympics
Tournaments	1896–1908 1912 1920–1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968–1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012–2016 2020 2024 2028
Qualifications	1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2020
Squads	1984 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2020
Italicised years indicate baseball was featured as a demonstration sport.
List of medalists List of venues

Medalists

Qualification

Competition schedule

Team squads

Competition format

Group stage

Group A

Group B

Knockout stage

Bracket

Round 1

Round 2

Round 1 repechage

Round 2 repechage

Semifinals

Bronze medal game

Gold medal game

Final standings

All-Olympic team

See also

References

External links