Sports writers are speculating that it was the late scratch of the team’s best hitter David Wright by the Mets that caused the team USA loss yesterday to undefeated Dominican Republic. At the same time, ESPN called the game: “Dominican Republic’s emotional win over Team USA definitely baseball at its best.”
Team USA only managed to place one run, in the first inning at the slow start of opening pitcher Samuel Deduno. Deduno went on to pull himself together and managed seven strikeouts in the four innings under his control.
The Dominican offensive was working, with Hanley Ramirez responding right batting a solo homer in the second inning. Nerves were on the edge as baseball fans in both nations watched the score steady at 1-1, a relief pitchers’ duel, until the top of the ninth. Luke Gregerson, Tim Collins, and Steve Cishek delivered three scoreless innings for the USA, while Kelvin Herrera, Octavio Dotel and Pedro Strop took charge for the DR. In the ninth, US manager Joe Torre called in Craig Kimbrel, one of the best closers in Major League baseball.
Nelson Cruz hit Kimbrel’s very first pitch into the right-field gap for a leadoff double and moved to third on Carlos Santana’s subsequent groundout. Dominican manager Tony Pena then sent Erick Aybar to try to pull in the tie-breaking run. As reported by MLB: “Aybar fouled off strike one, took, ball two, then was victimized by a brutal strike call by home plate umpire Angel Hernandez on a slider that was more than a foot outside and a bit low. That put Kimbrel up in the count 1-2, but rather than try to get Aybar to fish after another outside pitch, he came back with an inside fastball. Aybar was ready for it and singled into right to plate Cruz, then stole second, allowing him to score on Jose Reyes’s two-out single off Kimbrel.”
Tony Pena then called in Fernando Rodney to close the game for the DR. He preserved the 3-1 win.
The victory puts the DR in the semifinals. It still could be a USA-DR semi-final because team USA gets a second chance when they play today against Puerto Rico. The USA earlier defeated Puerto Rico 7-1. A MLB website article notes that five of those runs were driven in by David Wright.
For 21 of the 28 players on the Dominican roster, this is their first WBC. The team DR has won its five games against Venezuela, Spain, Puerto Rico, Italy and the United States.
http://espn.go.com/mlb/worldclassic2013/story/_/id/9054781/wbc-dominican-republic-win-united-states-baseball-best