Pool play was supposed to wrap up for the first round on Sunday, but we actually have a tiebreaker being played Monday with a hint of controversy while second round action continued and USA advanced. It’s time for a quick roundup of World Baseball Classic action. For the full schedule and tournament pool standings, click here.
Dominican Republic 10, Colombia 3
This actually went to extra innings thanks to a game-tying, ninth-inning home run by Colombia’s Jorge Alfaro off of Fernando Rodney, but then the Dominicans exploded for seven runs in the 11th inning. Colombia damn near won the game in walk-off fashion in the ninth, though, which would’ve tied them with a 2-1 record in pool play with both the Dominican Republic and USA, but Jose Bautista made this throw:
Credit Welington Castillo for the catch-and-tag as well. He would also be the man who put his country on top for good:
Puerto Rico 9, Italy 3
Italy grabbed a 2-0 lead in the top of the first and led 3-1 through the top of the second, but Puerto Rico’s offense was relentless again, posting nine runs in the first five innings. Carlos Correa had a three-run home run to break the game open in the fourth:
Enrique Hernandez had three hits while Francisco Lindor, Javier Baez and Mike Aviles posted two-hit games for Puerto Rico, who ends the first round a perfect 3-0.
USA 8, Canada 0
This was ugly pretty much from the start as USA took care of business against an inferior opponent. USA moves on to round two after going 2-1 in pool play in the first round. Full coverage of the USA game here.
Mexico 11, Venezuela 9
Mexico jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the second on this Esteban Quiroz three-run shot:
The lead would grow to 8-1 on a three-run Brandon Laird home run in the top of the fifth. Venezuela’s loaded lineup would push Mexico, but the closest it would get was the final score, 11-9.
Of course, that was too many runs allowed by Mexico. By way of this result, Italy, Mexico and Venezuela all went 1-2 in the pool while Puerto Rico was 3-0. The three-way tiebreaker calls for the two teams with the lower runs allowed per defensive inning play a head-to-head tiebreaker game while the other is eliminated.
Venezuela allowed 1.11 runs per defensive inning while Mexico allowed 1.12 (Italy was much better). So Mexico is out while Venezuela will play Italy in a tiebreaker Monday night. Mexico allowed five runs in the ninth inning to Italy in a walk-off loss, but hadn’t recorded an out in the inning, so the runs counted but the inning did not, which Mexico argued skewed the calculation and protested. WBC officials ruled that the rule was the rule and Mexico is out of the tournament.
In short, the WBC tiebreaker rules are in need of some serious tweaking.
Netherlands 12, Israel 2
Uh oh, did the Cinderella story lose its slipper? This was the first loss for Israel and it wasn’t pretty. Netherlands had a 10-1 lead through four innings and never looked back. Didi Gregorius starred, going 2-3 with a double, home run and five RBI.
Both teams are 1-1 in Pool E (second round) while Japan is 1-0 and Cuba is 0-1.
The only game Monday night is the tiebreaker between Italy and Venezuela (9 p.m. ET), but Pool E has a game that takes place Tuesday morning at 6 a.m. ET, Cuba vs. Japan.
