The 2023 World Baseball Classic Pool B was the second of four pools of the 2023 World Baseball Classic that took place from March 9–13 at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. The top two teams automatically qualified for the top eight knockout stage, beginning with the quarterfinal in Tokyo and the remaining of the bracket in Miami.
The teams in Pool B consisted of Australia, China, newcomer Czech Republic, hosts Japan, and South Korea. Japan won the pool and advanced to the quarterfinals, along with Australia as runners-up. China was relegated to the 2026 World Baseball Classic qualification round through their win percentage.
Shohei Ohtani of Japan was named the most valuable player of Pool B.
Teams Drawposition Team Pot Confederation Method ofqualification Date ofqualification Finalsappearance Lastappearance Previous bestperformance WBSCRankings B1 1 WBSC Asia Hosts + 2017 participants 5th 2017 (2006, 2009) 1 B2 2 WBSC Asia 2017 participants 5th 2017 (2009) 4 B3 3 WBSC Oceania 2017 participants 5th 2017 (2006, 2009, 2013, 2017) 10 B4 4 WBSC Asia 2017 participants 5th 2017 (2006, 2009, 2013, 2017) 30 B5 5 WBSC Europe Qualifiers Pool A runners-up 1st — 15
Standings
Summary
Games
Australia vs South Korea
China vs Japan
Czech Republic vs China
South Korea vs Japan
China vs Australia
Czech Republic vs Japan
Czech Republic vs South Korea
Japan vs Australia
Australia vs Czech Republic
South Korea vs China This was China's worst defeat in the World Baseball Classic, with South Korea having scored 22 runs, the highest number of runs in any of the World Baseball Classic competition. China were also the first team to lose all four games.
Statistics
Source:
Leading hitters
Power
Team .542 6 0 7 131 .515 11 1 4 132 .480 6 1 6 127 .293 5 0 2 133 .236 4 0 1 106
Efficiency
Team .486 43 41 4 132 4 .425 44 18 3 131 1 .376 35 17 4 127 1 .287 28 11 4 133 2 .258 18 12 1 106 1
Leading pitchers
Team 0.61 4 18 36 54 1.42 11 33 31 41 1.44 19 30 34 34 1.74 23 36 34 22 3.32 42 51 28 21
References