World Baseball Classic recap: Puerto Rico destroys Venezuela with mercy-rule win
Another interesting day in the World Baseball Classic featured Puerto Rico getting a mercy victory against Venezuela, a Team USA walkoff in Miami, and Japan finishing Pool B with a perfect record. Here is The Stew’s recap of Friday’s action, plus a look ahead at what’s coming over the next 24 hours.
Puerto Rico 11, Venezuela 0
Friday night featured two walkoffs, though the one in Jalisco, Mexico was unlike any we’re used to seeing. Puerto Rico capped off a dominant mercy-rule win against Venezuela on T.J. Rivera’s two-run home run in the seventh inning. The mercy rule is enforced once a team holds a lead of 10 or more runs after five innings. That wasn’t expected in this game, but Puerto Rico was relentless.
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Rivera’s home run capped a six-run rally in the decisive inning. Puerto Rico also got home runs from Carlos Correa and Yadier Molina, which helped expand a 2-0 sixth-inning lead very quickly. Eddie Rosario added three hits, including a triple and two-run double that set up Rivera’s home run. On the hill, Seth Lugo allowed one hit over 5 1/3 innings. That helped save Puerto Rico’s bullpen, as does the game ending two innings early. That’s something that could come into play over the weekend.
Venezuela starter Felix Hernandez allowed two runs (one earned) on two hits over 2 1/3 innings. Jhoulys Chacin was torched for five runs over 3 2/3 innings, while Deolis Guerrera allowed four runs without recording an out.
USA 3, Colombia 2 (10 innings)
It wasn’t easy, nor was it pretty, but Team USA found a way to win its opener in Pool C. Adam Jones played the hero, delivering a walk-off double in the 10th inning to score Christian Yelich. In the sixth inning, Jones opened the scoring for Team USA with an RBI double. Team USA also scored on a wild-pitch strikeout, with Nolan Arenado’s head-first slide at first base beating the throw and allowing a critical run to score.
Starting pitchers Chris Archer from Team USA and Jose Quintana from Colombia set the tone for this unexpectedly thrilling game with brilliant outings. Archer was removed after throwing four perfect innings. Quintana carried a no-hitter into the sixth, losing it on Brandon Crawford’s two-out single in the sixth. Team USA had more depth in its bullpen, which proved to be the difference.
Japan 7, China 1
With its ticket already punched to the second round, Japan kept on rolling to an undefeated finish in Pool B. Seiji Kobayashi pretty much removed any thoughts of a potential upset in the second inning when he launched a two-run home run. In the third, Japan’s Sho Nakata added his own two-run homer to break the game open. Shota Takeda got the win on the hill, allowing one run over three innings.
China entered needing a win to qualify for the 2021 WBC. With that out of reach early, the team’s only real highlight of the entire tournament came on Ray Chang’s RBI single in the third inning. That would be China’s only run during the event.
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Carlos Correa went deep, and we mean deep, for his home run on Friday night. Check it out.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Saturday will feature another full slate with pivotal matchups coming in Pools C and D. Here’s a quick rundown of the games, times and how you can watch.
• Colombia vs. Canada (Pool C Game 3, Miami) Saturday, 12 p.m. ET, MLB Network and MLB.TV
• Venezuela vs. Italy (Pool D Game 3, Jalisco) Saturday, 3 p.m. ET, MLB Network and MLB.TV
• United States vs. Dominican Republic (Pool C Game 4, Miami) Saturday, 6:30 p.m. ET, MLB Network and MLB.TV
• Puerto Rico vs. Mexico (Pool D Game 4, Jalisco) Saturday, 9:30p.m. ET, MLB Network and MLB.TV
• Cuba vs. Israel (Pool E Game 1, Tokyo) Saturday, 10 p.m. ET, MLB.TV (The game will shown on tape delay on MLB Network at 12:30pm ET)
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
