Due to their results in the previous editions of the World Baseball Classic, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico seemed the favorites to come out on top in bracket D, based in Miami. However, while the quisqueyanos and boricuas will define their fate this Wednesday in an all or nothing game, Venezuela is already on the path to the top 8.
The dark-haired have been the real executioners of the group of death. In their first two outings they unceremoniously dispatched the Dominican Republic (5-1) and Puerto Rico (9-6), then they sealed their classification with another smile (4-1) against Nicaragua, and finished the job against Israel (5-1 ) to advance undefeated to the second round.
Jesús Luzardo gave a good opening of 4 innings without runs, in which he retired 5 via strikes and only conceded 4 hits. The left-hander, together with reliever Enmanuel de Jesús, extended the long Israeli streak without stepping on the rubber, which finally ended in 23 chapters: seven against Puerto Rico (perfect game) and the Dominican Republic, and six in this Wednesday’s clash.
Precisely, de Jesús accepted Israel’s only score for a single run by Jakob Goldfarb, who broke the curse of the zeroes, but was one of the four men who had more than one strikeout in the challenge.
For Venezuela, Eduardo Escobar and Eugenio Suárez hit home runs, the latter with particular prominence, since he hit three hits and drove in the same number of runs. Ronald Acuña Jr., who hadn’t stood out too much with the bat, also drove in, hit two rockets and scored a stolen base.
The dark-haired arrived in the fourth game of the key without urgency, since on Tuesday they had beaten Nicaragua with a timely offense and effective pitching in pressure situations. Andrés Giménez, Eugenio Suárez and Anthony Santander towed all the scores for the South American team with two outs, which speaks of the cold-bloodedness of the team led by Omar López.
As if that were not enough, the relievers have responded in conditions. Against the Nicaraguans, José Ruiz, César Hernández, José Quijada, Silvino Bracho and José Alvarado combined to retire seven scoreless innings, with nine strikeouts and only four hits allowed, after starter Eduardo Rodríguez accepted seven rockets in just two innings.
The performance of Venezuela has been the highlight of the group in Miami, where the Dominican Republic, one of the great favorites of the specialists, is forced to defeat Puerto Rico on Wednesday to stay alive.
The Dominicans did their homework on Tuesday night and knocked out Israel with a knockout score. Roamsy Contreras, Génesis Cabrera, Luis Ortiz and Héctor Neris were in charge of clearing seven innings with a single allowed hit and ten batters retired via strikes. With the wood, the boys from “Plátano Power” billed early with an RBI single by Eloy Jiménez, and in the third they returned to the charge with a home run by Manny Machado and a double by Ketel Marte that boosted Rafael Devers.
However, the quisqueyana batch did not explode until the second half of the duel. Seven scores marked between the sixth and seventh, with Julio Rodríguez, once again Machado, Robinson Canó and Jean Segura. Among them, they declared the knockout and sealed the victory of the 2013 champions, who need to stay in the same dynamic if they want to reach the second round in their duel against Puerto Rico, a true Caribbean classic.
Arizona is on fire
If the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico will define the second place in the quarterfinals in group D, Canada and Mexico will do the same in group C in Arizona, after their victories on Tuesday against Colombia and Great Britain in duels with notable dominance of the pitchers.
The Aztecs sweated the hell out to unseat the British, but two trailers from the catcher and ninth hitter, Alexis Wilson, defined the actions at Chase Field with a 2-1 slate. The mask dressed in full length and got the ninth led by Benjamín Gil out of the quagmire, somewhat off in offensive matters.
Seven runners on base left the Mexicans, who survived largely due to the masterful work of their pitchers. Taijuan Walker had a stupendous start with four scoreless innings and eight strikeouts. From behind, five relievers were in charge of finishing the task, although Manny Barreda charged with a score on his account.
For his part, the Canadian pitcher caught a breather after allowing 20 runs in his first two appearances against Great Britain and the United States. The northerners prescribed nine zeros to Colombia with a combined task of four pitchers, among which the starter Noah Skirrow stood out, impassable in five episodes.
The right handed five strikeouts, only conceded two hits and left the table served to the relievers, who were in charge of liquidating the second half of the game without major setbacks. With the wood, shortstop Otto López tripled, homered and drove in three runs for Canada, while Bo Naylor and Owen Caissie added two more RBIs.
After these results, Canadians and Mexicans left the scene ready for a life and death duel this Wednesday. The northerners are only worth victory. The Aztecs, for their part, need to win so they don’t depend on an unlikely victory for Colombia over the United States on the night to qualify.
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