World Baseball Classic: Israel improves to 2-0

Ryan Lavarnway hit a two-run homer in the third inning and Nate Freiman added a three-run shot in the ninth to help Israel beat Taiwan 15-7 Tuesday in Seoul to improve to 2-0 in the World Baseball Classic.

Israel's batters chased Taiwan starter Chun-Lin Kuo from the game before he could secure his third out, opening the top of the first with four straight hits and tagging Kuo for four runs in the frame.

Corey Baker went 4 2/3 scoreless innings, scattering three hits and striking out three. The 27-year-old right-hander is in the St. Louis Cardinals' organization and reached triple-A last season.

Israel can clinch a spot in the second round with a win over the Netherlands on Wednesday.

Israel entered the tournament ranked No. 41 by the World Baseball Softball Confederation and has already beaten third-ranked South Korea in addition to fourth-ranked Taiwan.

Netherlands blanks South Korea

Jurickson Profar and Randolph Obuder both hit two-run homers to give the Netherlands a 5-0 win over South Korea.

Former Major League starter Rick van den Hurk, who spent the past two seasons pitching in Japan, allowed three hits and walked two over four shutout innings for the win.

Japan opens with big win

Nobuhiro Matsuda hit a three-run homer as Japan scored five runs in the fifth inning on its way to an 11-6 win over Cuba.

With two-time champion Japan leading 3-1 in the fifth inning, Matsuda made it 6-1 with a homer into the left-field stands at Tokyo Dome. Yoshitomo Tsutsugo added a two-run shot two innings later to widen the lead.

Cuba scored three runs in the seventh inning, including a solo shot by Alfredo Despaigne, and added two more runs in the eighth.

Ayumu Ishikawa gave up one run on two hits in 58 pitches over four innings for the win.

MLB commisioner confident in WBC

The commissioner of Major League Baseball on Tuesday denied reports that 2017 would be the last edition of the World Baseball Classic, saying the tournament is as popular as ever.

Media reports in the U.S. suggested the 2017 tournament would be the last because of a lack of revenue. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said nothing could be further from the truth.

"The WBC will be broadcast in 182 countries," Rob Manfred said in Tokyo. "This will be a $100 million [US] event over this brief less than two-week period. From Day 1, while it was a profitable event from the beginning, it has really grown in terms of its revenue significance and it's popularity around the world."

The fourth edition of the tournament run by MLB and the players' association began in Seoul on Monday. Japan will kick off its campaign on Tuesday against Cuba at Tokyo Dome.

Japan won the tournament in 2006 and 2009 with a full complement of major league players, including Ichiro Suzuki, Yu Darvish and Daisuke Matsuzaka. But those big names sat out the 2013 version won by the Dominican Republic and Japan will field a team this year with just one major leaguer — Norichika Aoki of the Houston Astros.

Without its best players, the United States has failed to finish better than fourth.

The WBC comes at a time when MLB players are reporting for spring training. Many players are hesitant to risk injury in the WBC.

Buster Posey, Giancarlo Stanton and Andrew McCutchen are some of the more prominent MLB players on this year's U.S. team, which will be coached by Jim Leyland.

MLB has not committed to taking part in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and Manfred said he doesn't anticipate any change to that stance.