Team Japan honored Seiya Suzuki after winning the World Baseball Classic
Shortly after Shohei Ohtani struck out Mike Trout to put the finishing touches on an epic World Baseball Classic, Team Japan showed their support for an injured teammate.
Outfielder Seiya Suzuki was supposed to be a big part of Team Japan in the 2023 WBC but an oblique injury suffered before the Cubs’ first Cactus League game in late February forced Suzuki out of the tournament.
He had to watch his countrymen from afar though Team Japan always kept him with them:
Correction: That’s a Seiya Suzuki jersey. They also had a Ryoji Kuribayashi jersey. They were unable to be with the team due to injury.
— Yakyu Cosmopolitan (@yakyucosmo) March 22, 2023
Also, Ichiro always had “Ichiro” on the back of his jersey for the majority of his career, not “Suzuki.” https://t.co/mxQ2RGCMps
Earlier in the tournament, Suzuki’s jersey was captured on camera during the game hanging in the Japan dugout:
Samurai Japan hung Seiya Suzuki and Ryoji Kuribayashi jerseys in their dugout in honor of their injured teammates.
— Yakyu Cosmopolitan (@yakyucosmo) March 17, 2023
Coincidently, both Hiroshima Carp. pic.twitter.com/UtKt7R1brt
Suzuki also did what he could to help his team remotely, lightening the mood for Munetaka Murakami, who wound up overcoming a slump to play the role of hero Monday night with a 2-run walk-off double to send Japan to the championship against Team USA.
After pool play ended, Seiya Suzuki sent Munetaka Murakami a video jokingly mocking him for being in a slump and telling him to keep his head up.
— Yakyu Cosmopolitan (@yakyucosmo) March 22, 2023
After Japan won the WBC Final, Murakami received his medal while holding Suzuki’s jersey in his hand. pic.twitter.com/NqpJDZQcyr
Suzuki has been progressing well in his rehab lately, including playing long toss, running sprints and getting work in the batting cage on Tuesday.
Seiya Suzuki is long tossing today, doing some sprints and getting some work in the cage. #Cubs
— Andy Martínez (@amartinez_11) March 21, 2023
Suzuki has been out since Feb. 25 and will not be ready by Opening Day. The Cubs don’t have a timetable on how much regular season action the outfielder will miss but he will likely need at least several weeks to get up to game speed.