Samurai Japan wrapped up its series of exhibition games on Sunday at Tokyo Dome, finishing with a 3-1 record against Mexico (1-1) and the Netherlands. But Japan's top team couldn't care less about the result from each game. The team understands there are still issues that have to be resolved and improvements that need to be made in order to reclaim the World Baseball Classic title next spring.
After Japan's 12-10 extra-inning win over the Dutch on Sunday, pitching coach Hiroshi Gondo was very upset that his hurlers had failed to perform well and had allowed too many runs.
"The fans may have enjoyed it (to see so many runs), but to me, it was the worst game," he said of Sunday's contest. "(Our pitchers) threw too many hittable pitches where they shouldn't have. And because (other countries') have a lot of power, that could cost you games (at the WBC). I'm absolutely not happy at all that we won the game the way we played it."
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