World Baseball Classic's Schedules And Results - Round 2

rellosk

Silver
Mar 18, 2002
4,169
58
48
Final score:

Cuba 7
Venezuela 2

End of the first:
Japan 1
USA 0

Click here for standings

Judging by the other thread, no one (except Cleef) had better say anything positive about any Yankee player or anything negative about any Red Sox player, least this thread will get closed.
 

rellosk

Silver
Mar 18, 2002
4,169
58
48
Final Score:

Japan 3
USA 4

A-Rod comes thru in the clutch with a game winning base hit in the bottom of the ninth.

End of the 5th:

Puerto Rico 1
Dominican Republic 1
 

Potato_Salad

On Vacation!
Oct 13, 2005
1,314
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0
Korea is leading Mexico 2-0 in the bottom of the first inning!!! :bunny: :chinese:

Lopez, the starting pitcher for Mexico, has thrown around 30 pitches already.
 

toneloc24

Bronze
Mar 8, 2004
628
0
16
Yeah, I know people don't like him on DR1, but....

ARod won the game for team USA, singling up the middle, in the bottom of the 9th with the bases loaded. USA wins over Japan 4-3.

Re: the flyout controversy. The umpires got it right. The runner left before the ball was caught. As with the Miguel Cabrera double in the VZ/DR game, they huddled up and made the right call. Replays confirm this.

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/...t_id=1346635&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

A-Rod lifts USA past Japan
Clutch hit in bottom of ninth delivers dramatic victory
By Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com

ANAHEIM -- It was a game in March that had it all. Big leads. Blown leads. A disputed call. And an Alex Rodriguez base hit up the middle with the bases loaded in the bottom of ninth that saved Team USA from panic in the second round of the World Baseball Classic.

The net result was a 4-3 victory over the Japanese that left them shaking their collective heads as they walked off the field late Sunday afternoon at Angel Stadium.

Chipper Jones and Derrek Lee hit the homers that erased an early 3-0 deficit. Home plate umpire Bob Davidson reversed the second base umpire's call on an eighth-inning fly ball tag-up play from third base that would've again given Japan the lead. And after Ken Griffey Jr. whiffed on a full-count pitch, Rodriguez hit one of those twisters off the end of his bat that bounced off the glove of the second baseman, Tsuyoshi Nishioka, the guy who was called out on the tag-up.

"It was a big win for us," Rodriguez said. "We learned in the first round losing to Canada that every game is extremely important. You have to take it like an NCAA bracket where every game is a must-win or go home."

The U.S. has little time to relax. The Americans continue the second round with a 10 p.m. ET start against Korea on Monday night. They then take two days off before playing Mexico at 7:30 p.m. ET on Thursday.

The prize is a trip to the semifinals along with another team in the pool at San Diego's PETCO Park next Saturday.

And just think, some of these players could've been riding the bus on Sunday from Jupiter to Kissimmee or Peoria to Tucson.

"That was a great, great ballgame," said Team USA manager Buck Martinez, who came out of the dugout immediately after left fielder Randy Winn's throw was too late to nab Nishioka at the plate and was able to get Davidson to review the call. "It was such a close game you have to check everything out."

The game turned on that contested call in the Japanese half of the eighth inning.

With the bases loaded, two out and Joe Nathan pitching, Akinori Iwamura skied a fly to Winn in medium left. The throw was to the third-base side way off the plate as Nishioka scored. Catcher Brian Schneider tossed the ball down to Derek Jeter covering third, and second base umpire Brian Knight, who had rotated over on the play, pointed to his chest that it was his call and signaled safe.

Martinez immediately hopped out of the dugout to appeal the play.

"I asked Bob, 'Why did he make that call? You were going to call him out. Let's get this right,'" Martinez explained. "'He said, 'Well, just give us a chance.' It was obvious to me. And everybody on our dugout yelled, 'Hey, he left early.'"

Davidson, who was one of 14 umpires who resigned in a union dispute nearly five years ago and is back on a list to call Major League games again full-time, conferred with Knight and then reversed the call.

"It's a tag-up situation," Davidson said in statement. "In a bases-loaded situation our mechanics is that the plate man lines up the tag. Brian Knight hustled over to third where he's supposed to be, but he doesn't have the tag-up call. It's the plate umpire's call. I had it lined up. The wrong umpire made the initial call. It's the plate umpire, which is me, and I had him leaving early and called him out."

It wasn't all the impetus the U.S. needed, but it was enough.

"Buck is the player of the game today," Rodriguez said. "I was very surprised the call got overruled because you don't see that often. So when Davidson called him out I said, 'OK, this is our game to win right here.'"

And that's just what happened.

Japan jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but Jones and Lee came to the rescue. Jones opened the second inning with his second homer of the tournament, a high drive into the right-field seats off Japanese starter Koji Uehara.

Lee hit his third homer of the tournament with one out in the sixth inning after a walk to Jones. It came off reliever Naoyuki Shimizu, who replaced Uehara at the top of the inning.

"The attitude on the bench was just to keep battling," Martinez said, after Ichiro Suzuki opened the game with a leadoff homer against Jake Peavy. "Then Chipper got it going and Derrek was up there swinging at a 3-and-0 pitch. He cut right through that one and then hit one at 3-and-1."

U.S. relievers held off the Japanese from there as the Americans survived that bases-loaded situation in the eighth and another in the ninth when Brad Lidge walked them loaded and then struck out Hitoshi Tamura for the final out.

With the bases again jammed in the bottom of the inning, reliever Kyuji Fujikawa whiffed Griffey to turn the pressure up another notch. And Rodriguez grounded the ball up the middle. Nishioka tried to knock it down, but the ball skidded away from him into short center field, allowing the winning run to score.

It was redemption for A-Rod, who has had his troubles contributing during the postseason in his first two years with the New York Yankees.

"Last time I was here, things went really badly, not only for me, but for my team," said Rodriguez, whose Yankees lost to the Angels in five games last October in an American League Division Series while he hit .133 with no homers and no runs batted in. "And I look at it as an opportunity to start a new year, a new chapter. Ironically enough, I come up with a game-winning hit in this situation. Last year, I was the biggest goat, and today I get to be a hero. There's also a lesson to be learned, I guess."
 

toneloc24

Bronze
Mar 8, 2004
628
0
16
Puerto Rico pulls away from D.R. (7-1)

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/...t_id=1347056&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

03/12/2006 11:00 PM ET
Puerto Rico pulls away from D.R.
Cruz's three RBIs lead the way against powerhouse opponent
By Adam McCalvy / MLB.com

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- It was a good day for underdogs on the Isle of Enchantment.

Hours after Cuba scored a win over the favored Venezuelans, Jose Cruz Jr. drove in three runs and Carlos Beltran scored three more, as Puerto Rico beat the Dominican Republic, 7-1, in front of 19,692 raucous fans at sold-out Hiram Bithorn Stadium.

Cuba and Puerto Rico followed a similar formula: Keep it close against a former American League Cy Young Award winner, and then pull away from the relief corps for a stunningly easy win in the second round of the World Baseball Classic.

Puerto Rico fell behind, 1-0, against reigning AL Cy Young winner Bartolo Colon and the Dominicans, but scored a run in the fourth off Colon to tie the game, and then erupted for six runs -- only two of them earned -- in the sixth and seventh. Cruz figured big in both rallies, hitting a two-run double off Damaso Marte in the sixth and an RBI single off Julian Tavarez in the seventh.

Javy Lopez had three hits, including a double that plated Puerto Rico's first run, and he doubled and scored in the sixth on a two-run single by Cruz. An error by center fielder Willy Taveras allowed Cruz to advance to second on the play, and he later scored an unearned run on Alex Cintron's bunt single for a 4-1 lead.

All three of Puerto Rico's runs in the seventh were set up by a one-out error by Dominican Republic second baseman Alfonso Soriano. Jose Valentin followed Cruz's RBI single with a two-run hit that opened a 7-1 lead.

Chicago White Sox right-hander Javier Vazquez started for Puerto Rico and limited the Dominican Republic's All-Star lineup to three hits, including a second-inning solo home run by third baseman Adrian Beltre, his fourth of the tournament.

In five innings of inspired work, Vazquez allowed a lone run on three hits. He did not walk a batter and struck out five, to the delight of local fans who started filing into the stadium two hours before the 9 p.m. local time start and endured a pregame rainstorm.

Puerto Rico improved to 4-0 overall in the Classic, and will face Venezuela on Monday night.
 

Potato_Salad

On Vacation!
Oct 13, 2005
1,314
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A pitching change for Korea. Top of the 8th inning. Bong will be the new pitcher.

2-1 Korea. 2 outs in the 8th. :chinese:

Woo Hoo~~~ 3 more outs to go!!! :classic:
 

Potato_Salad

On Vacation!
Oct 13, 2005
1,314
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Top of the 9th inning. Korea up 2-1.

Chan Ho Park, Korea's very first MLB player, will try and close it out. :chinese: :bunny:
 

Potato_Salad

On Vacation!
Oct 13, 2005
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KOREA BEATS MEXICO 2-1!!! :bunny: :D :cool: :classic: :chinese:

Korea's ERA during the WBC ---> 1.00 :bunny:
 
May 12, 2005
8,564
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Big win by Korea. I didn't realize they had such a good team. One thing though, they have to get rid of those uniforms. Worst ones I've seen since the Astros of the 80's or the White Sox trying out shorts in the late 70's. Potato Salad, can you do something about this?
 

Dolores1

DR1
May 3, 2000
8,215
37
48
www.
Puerto Rico definitely humbled the DR last night. Was there. Let us hope the DR can do a comeback, like Cuba coming back to defeat the tough team of Venezuela.

Puerto Rico continues to be on a roll. The Puerto Rican fans are great. They had a great time. There must have been about a third of Dominican fans in that stadium last night. We had a bad night... errors, players trying to steal bases and getting caught... the rallies weren't made. Bartolo Colon was marginal, but the next two pitchers gave in to the Puerto Rican bats. For Dominicans, that night we just didn't have it together.

The semifinals are just beginning.
 

trina

Silver
Jan 3, 2002
2,550
11
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Glad to hear you had a great time, Dolores.

We just couldn't get on the bats at all last night. PR came in full force, and the more you think about it, the better the odds should've favoured this team from the beginning. PR played tremendously, and has a tremendous team. They totally overtook us. As I said in another thread, why the h*ll is Soriano still batting first in the lineup? 0-15 in the series so far has earned him this position in the batting order? I don't get it. Poor managing. Starting out, he should've been in about seventh place, now I say eighth. As well, there were instances where Acta could've sent in a bunt to advance the runner on first, and failed to do so. PR out-played the DR on every count, and had better management to boot. Hopefully we get a chance to redeem ourselves against them in the next round. It may take some luck, though, as Cuba showed their true form against Venezuela. And we have to beat Venezuela again, too. It's not looking great - but maybe the game just got me down. Before this, they were unbeatable - but this was the game they really needed to win.
 
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trina

Silver
Jan 3, 2002
2,550
11
0
rellosk said:
Let's hope that all changes tonight.:)

That's incredible, Potato. I think no one really thought of them as a serious contender, but they are sure showing us who they are, aren't they? You must be very proud and happy right about now! Only because of you, I'm hoping they do well, as well. See what effect your vitality and optimism has on people?
 

rellosk

Silver
Mar 18, 2002
4,169
58
48
Bottom of the 7th, bases loaded, 2 out

Dominican Republic 7
Cuba 1

It looks like the DR took advantage of some sloppy plays by Cuba and scored 3 unearned runs.

Let's hope the DR can hold on to win.

BTW, it's looks like the DR manager listened to Trina and took out Soriano.
 

Potato_Salad

On Vacation!
Oct 13, 2005
1,314
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Frank the Tank said:
Big win by Korea. I didn't realize they had such a good team. One thing though, they have to get rid of those uniforms. Worst ones I've seen since the Astros of the 80's or the White Sox trying out shorts in the late 70's. Potato Salad, can you do something about this?


I guess the only way is for me to borrow your Tank, and run over the jerseys. LOL :D

The baseball and World Cup Soccer jerseys have been criticized for being "dull-looking" by the Korean media and the public. I do not know who designed them.
 

Potato_Salad

On Vacation!
Oct 13, 2005
1,314
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trina said:
That's incredible, Potato. I think no one really thought of them as a serious contender, but they are sure showing us who they are, aren't they? You must be very proud and happy right about now! Only because of you, I'm hoping they do well, as well. See what effect your vitality and optimism has on people?


Thank you trina for your kind words!!! :classic:

I am also amazed and impressed. I hope the success continues.

Have a good day!!! :D
 

miguel

I didn't last long...
Jul 2, 2003
5,261
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Man, oh man!

I guess that, as I said after Canada beat the USA, the USA was not the team to beat.

I am not one bit surprise that we (yes, we) are losing to the Koreanitos.

The "fat lady" have not stopped singing but the way that the USA are playing, they deserve to lose.