World Baseball Classic 2017: USA vs. Dominican Republic start time, TV channel, live stream info, prediction
USA vs. Dominican Republic: Winner moves on and loser goes home
By
Mike Axisa
•
2 min read
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Are you ready for some drama? March baseball doesn’t get any better than this, folks.
Saturday night USA and the Dominican Republic will play what is essentially a Game 7. The winner will advance to the World Baseball Classic semi-finals while the loser goes home. Japan, Puerto Rico, and the Netherlands have all already clinched spots in the semi-finals. The winner of Saturday night’s game will join them at Dodger Stadium.
How to watch
Teams: USA vs. Dominican Republic
Date: Saturday, March 18, 2017
Time: 10 p.m. ET
Television: MLB Network
Streaming: MLB.tv
Live Updates
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Preview
As I’m sure you remember, USA and the Dominican Republic played a thrilling game during Pool A play in Miami last week. The Dominican Republic erased a 5-0 deficit thanks in part to Nelson Cruz’s three-run home run off Andrew Miller.
Saturday’s game will feature a different pitching matchup. Last week we saw Marcus Stroman vs. Edinson Volquez. On Saturday, it’ll be Danny Duffy vs. Ervin Santana. Duffy was dominant against Canada last week, striking out seven and allowing two hits in four scoreless innings. Santana, meanwhile, was just activated off the “designated pitcher pool” and will be making his first WBC start.
Offense has been fairly hard to come by for both USA and the Dominican Republic in Pool F. You can blame pitcher friendly Petco Park, I suppose. The All-Star laden USA lineup has scored nine runs total in their two Pool F games while the Dominican Republic has managed only four runs in two games, and one of those runs came on a solo home run in which it appeared a fan reached over the fence to catch the ball. Both teams are so talented that they could break out at any moment, however.
Prediction
As I said earlier, this is effectively a Game 7 situation. The winner advances to the semi-finals and the loser goes home. And despite last week’s crushing loss to the Dominican Republic, I’m going to go with USA in Saturday’s game. I have more faith in Duffy holding down the Dominican Republic than I do Santana holding down USA, and, call it a hunch, but I think Nolan Arenado will break out with a huge game following his brutal error Friday night. I’m going with USA winning 6-2. Sound good?
Here is the full 2017 WBC schedule as well as the full rosters. The Championship Game will be played March 22 at Dodger Stadium.
