SAN DIEGO — Baseball fans around the globe knew about pitchers Daisuke Matsuzaka and Yu Darvish before the start of the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
What they got Wednesday night was a crash course in Hisashi Iwakuma.
Deemed not fit enough to make Japan's Olympic roster in 2008, Iwakuma had the last laugh by leading Samurai Japan past a powerful Cuban team in the second round of the WBC at PETCO Park.