Aaron Judge hit a two-run homer and Brice Turang had three hits and four RBIs to lead the United States to a 15-5 win over Brazil in its World Baseball Classic opener Friday night.
There was one out and one on in the first when Judge, the first player to commit to the team last April, connected off Bo Takahashi at Houston’s Daikin Park.
Lucas Ramirez — with his father, 12-time All-Star Manny Ramirez, in attendance — homered twice for Brazil. He cut the lead to 2-1 with his leadoff homer, and his solo shot in the eighth got Brazil within 8-5.
At 20 years, 49 days, he became the youngest player in WBC history with a multi-homer game.
Byron Buxton was hit by a pitch in the fifth to push the Americans’ lead to 4-1. Turang cleared the bases with his double to left field two pitches later to make it 7-1.
Brazil is in the WBC for just the second time and first since 2013. The team fell to 0-4 all-time in the tournament after losing to Japan, Cuba and China in 2013.
Another highlight for Brazil came when 17-year-old high school senior Joseph Contreras got Judge to ground into a bases-loaded double play to end the second inning. Contreras, the youngest player in the WBC this year, is the son of pitcher José Contreras, who played 11 MLB seasons.
Lucas Rojo hit an RBI single for Brazil in the seventh before a two-run shot by Victor Mascai off Michael Wacha cut the lead to 7-4.
Bryce Harper’s RBI single got things going in the ninth as the U.S. tacked on seven more runs.
The Americans walked 17 times and forced Brazil to throw 221 pitches.
On Saturday, Brazil faces Italy on Saturday and the U.S. plays Britain.
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