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The 2023 World Baseball Classic is officially underway. The tournament began Wednesday with the first two games of Pool A play in Taichung, Taiwan. Come Saturday, there will be eight games on the schedule, with start times ranging from 5 a.m. ET to 11 p.m. ET. All day baseball. There is nothing better.

The first round features four five-team pools and each team plays every other team in its pool once. The teams with the two best records in each pool advance to what is essentially a single-elimination eight-team tournament. Here is the full WBC schedule and here is everything you need to know about this year's event. 

Here is a recap of the late night Tuesday and early morning Wednesday action.

Wednesday's World Baseball Classic scores

  • Netherlands 4, Cuba 2 (box score)
  • Panama 12, Chinese Taipei 5 (box score)
  • Korea vs. Australia, 10 p.m., FS1
  • Netherlands vs. Panama, 11 p.m., FS2

Netherlands beats Cuba in opener

The WBC opener with a thriller. The score was tied 1-1 into the sixth inning after Cuba squandered a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the top of the first inning. Righty Yariel Hernandez, one of the best non-MLB pitchers in the WBC, stymied a Netherlands lineup loaded with current and former MLB players through four innings. He struck out six.

In the sixth inning the Netherlands took the lead on a single by current Pirates minor leaguer Josh Palacios. Journeyman catcher Chadwick Tromp, now with the Braves, plated two insurance runs with a two-out, two-strike, bloop single.

Six Netherlands pitchers held Cuba to three hits. Starter Tom de Blok, formerly a Tigers minor leaguer, bent but did not break in three innings. Astros righty Derek West got five big outs in the middle innings, then setup man Franklin Van Gurp (Giants) and closer Wendell Floranus (Mexican League) slammed the door in the eighth and ninth innings.

White Sox center fielder Luis Robert had a tough game for Cuba, going 1 for 4 with three strikeouts and getting picked off second. Yoenis Cespedes, who has not played in the big leagues since 2020, went 0 for 2 with two walks. Jurickson Profar, Xander Bogaerts, Didi Gregorius, and Jonathan Schoop went a combined 2 for 14 for the Netherlands.

Castillo's unreal catch highlights Panama's win

The first game was a thriller and the second was a stunner. Panama opened up a 12-2 lead against an upstart Chinese Taipei team that was considered a WBC sleeper thanks to a sneaky-deep pitching staff. Nien-Ting Wu hit a two-run home run with one out in the sixth inning to cut the deficit to 12-4 and keep Chinese Taipei alive. They were two outs away from being mercy ruled.

Panama's offense, which is headlined by former big leaguer Ruben Tejada and current big leaguer Christian Bethancourt (Rays), exploded for 14 hits and eight walks. They used a five-run fourth inning and a six-run sixth inning to put the game to bed. Former MLB pitchers Humberto Mejia and Randall Delgado led the way on the mound.

Despite all the offense, the highlight of the game is Luis Castillo's incredible catch at the wall in the right-center field gap. That's Luis Castillo the former Tigers minor leaguer, not one of the many other Luis Castillos to play in the big leagues.

Tsung-Che Cheng, Chinese Taipei's leadoff hitter, raced all around the bases thinking the catch was not made. The umpires got together to talk it out and confirm it was indeed a catch. On Day 1, we already have a Catch of the WBC candidate.

The WBC uses a mercy rule (15-run lead after five innings and 10-run lead after seven innings) and runs scored are part of the tiebreaker, so even though Chinese Taipei got blown out, scratching across a few late runs to avoid getting mercy ruled could help them down the line.