Every time a batsman from the Italian team blew the bat and scored a run, you could read on their lips how they said: “Let’s go, baby!”. No “Force”; when Italy went through the register and sank the hopes of Cuba in the V World Baseball Classic, all in the dugout of the azure they shouted “Let’s go!”, as if they were Americans.
It is not the work of chance. At least 27 players included in the roster oficial de Italia were born in the United States, and their entire squad has experience in the different levels of northern baseball. To top it off, his manager, Mike Piazza, shone in the Major Leagues and in 2016 he was inducted into the Cooperstown Hall of Fame.
By joining the dots, you find a team worked in the purest style of modern guidelines. All the players are trained to hit the ball straight up; everyone knows how to shorten the swing against very fast deliveries, they move like lynxes on the bases, they make special defensive formations against each batter, the pitchers have their roles well defined and a very precise plan of attack for each rival.
On the other side was Cuba, which for a long time has not known what it is playing inside the diamond, which is why in the end it opted for an out-of-date baseball, dependent on the bunt as the only salvation table. “It’s not like they were Japanese in the 80s,” a friend told me when he saw Armando Johnson indicate up to four sacrifices, which is synonymous with giving away four of the 27 outs of a party
ITALY ?? pic.twitter.com/cCJoVqQoRo
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) March 9, 2023
“Catenaccio baseball player,” another fan pointed out to me about the conservatism of the Cuban high command, from which the Classic slips away at the speed of light. As is logical, Johnson, Germán Mesa and company have entered the phase of total obfuscation early, which normally happens in international events when a duel is lost and the pressure completely overcomes you.
The best
The cold blood of the Italians to handle pressure shifts, Mike Piazza’s masterful pitching management and the tremendous work of scouting of the European high command to position their players to the defense steal the headlines among the best of the Cuba-Italy match on the second day of the World Classic in Taichung.
However, we are going to focus our gaze on the positive flashes left by the West Indian squad, whose highest point was once again the pitching of starter Roennis Elías. The lefty was a throwing machine strikes (47-of-67 shooting), combining the four-seamer, changeup, sinker and the sliderwith which he generated 8 failed swines, the most of all the pitchers who worked in the duel.
The Guantanamo walked 5 scoreless innings, at a rate of 3 strikeouts, 1 walk and only 2 hits on his account, making him the fourth Cuban starter to walk 5 innings without allowing runs in the history of the World Classics.
The first Cuban who achieved a similar performance was Norge Luis Vera from Santiago in 2009 (6.0 innings no annotations vs. South Africa), followed by Danny Betancourt (6.0 IP vs. Chinese Taipei in 2013) and Vladimir Baños (5.0 IP vs. China in 2017).
But the good performance of Elías remained as an anecdote, because the Cuban relay collapsed. 6 scores and 9 unstoppables were allowed by the island’s fire extinguishers, mishandled by management.
The other positive point for Cuba was the production combined with the wood of Erisbel Arruebarrena and Alfredo Despaigne, who lifted the team by forcing the tie in the eighth round. “El Grillo” fired a couple of rockets, scored and drove in, while Despaigne (2 hits, double, scored), back in the lineup after missing the first game due to a soreness, showed why he has been one of the best hitters in the league. Classic history.
Worst
Despite transmitting slight signs of recovery, the Cuban offensive has not come out of the black hole. In two games, they’ve only connected 3 hits in 18 at-bats with men in scoring position, while the core of Yoan Moncada, Luis Robert Jr. and Yoenis Céspedes have been missing.
The Chicago White Sox boys struck out four overall this Thursday and are going for 7 in 17 trips to the plate in the first two games of the Classic. The worst thing is that they look out of tune (something normal for this stage of the year) and a little under pressure, knowing that the responsibility of producing races for the team falls on their shoulders.
If that were not enough, Lorenzo Quintana, Yadir Drake and Yoelkis Guibert did not produce against the Italian pitchers either, while the bench (Yurisbel Gracial and Luis Vicente Mateo consumed turns) could not contribute much, except for a hit by Dayán García.
So far, Ariel Martínez, one of the best seen in the preparation caps, has not received any opportunity with the wood, and Andrys Pérez, third catcher and weakest hitter on the squad, is not expected to see action.
The other negative point was the work of Lorenzo Quintana behind the plate. A base was stolen from Pinar del Río in the tenth with a childish play, he committed a passed ball and could not stop a ball that did not seem so complicated and in the end it became wild pitch by Livan Moinelo. These passages conditioned the Cuban pitchers, who did not work with total confidence.
Looking at the global panorama, Cuba needs a total punishment if it wants to leave the Classic with at least one victory in the remaining duels against Panama and Chinese Taipei.
The key
“Actually, we don’t have much information about the Italy team, nor do we have much information about the pitcher.” Those were the words of the Cuban mentor, Armando Johnson, when the journalist Francys Romero asked him before the game about the study of the Italian team and its starter, the right-hander Matt Harvey.
It is incredible that, in the middle of the 21st century, the mentor of a baseball team included in the World Classic says that he has no information about a rival full of players inserted in professional circuits in the United States, where there is precisely a brutal flow of data about the players, endless reports of scouts and a huge video library to analyze the characteristics of any player.
In conclusion, Cuba intended to defeat Italy blindly, betting on a stroke of luck. This is the only way to understand the excessive touches of the ball or the handling of relief pitching, from betting on two of the most inexperienced pitchers on the team at the moment of greatest tension, to substituting the leader of the team. bullpen at the decisive moment of the match.
The shipwreck of the Cuban high command was absolute, and denoted a great lack of preparation and professionalism. On the rival bench, on the other hand, Mike Piazza dominated the situation with extreme calm. He knew in advance what to do in each situation and which player to bet on because he had in his hands an in-depth study of the Cuban team.
The abysmal difference in the preparation of the game was key. As much as we say that the players are responsible for what happens on the field, in this case the direction of the Cuban team takes a high percentage of responsibility for the defeat, which leaves us at the gates of elimination in the Classic in the first round, something that never happened.
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