Daniel Cabrera threw four hitless innings and the Dominican Republic one-hit Venezuela to advance to the semifinals of the World Baseball Classic with a 2-1 victory on Tuesday.
"From the first moment I heard that there would be a Classic I started preparing for this," said Cabrera, who was 10-13 with a 4.52 ERA for the Baltimore Orioles last year. "I've never been a part of such an important game like this."
Cabrera struck out seven with one walk as the elimination game in Group 2 turned into a classic pitchers duel, with the go-ahead run scoring on a passed ball by Venezuela catcher Ramon Hernandez in the sixth.
"Daniel deserves all the credit," said Dominican manager Manny Acta. "We had several scoring opportunities to break the game open. We didn't do it but our pitching staff came through."
Francisco Liriano, Miguel Batista and Salomon Torres followed Cabrera, and Duaner Sanchez pitched 2 1-3 hitless innings to earn a save.
Venezuela loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the ninth on two walks and an error by Miguel Tejada, but Edgardo Alfonzo flied out to right for the final out.
Singles by Alberto Castillo and Placido Polanco, and a walk by Tejada loaded the bases in the sixth for the Dominican Republic. With two outs, Albert Pujols took a 2-0 pitch from Kelvim Escobar that brushed off Hernandez's mitt and allowed Castillo to score from third.
Acta said the only change in the roster for the semifinal game in San Diego will be the substitution of pitcher Damaso Marte, who is injured.
"We will using the line up that you saw out there today. It's not time to make big changes. That line up won the last to games for us," Acta added.
The Dominicans took a 1-0 lead in the first against starter Freddy Garcia. Polanco singled, moved to third on a double by Tejada and scored on Moises Alou's infield single. But it could have been much worse for Garcia.
After the first two hitters reached, Pujols made the first out with a grounder to third and Garcia intentionally walked David Ortiz to load the bases. Adrian Beltre lined to right for the second out, but Alou drove in Polanco with a soft grounder to third. Juan Encarnacion grounded out to Garcia to close the inning.
Omar Vizquel doubled off Liriano for Venezuela's first hit with one out in the sixth to put runner's at second and third.
Bobby Abreu tied the game at 1 with an RBI groundout to second and Miguel Cabrera made the third out on a grounder to third.
"These guys are proven hitters in the major leagues," manager Luis Sojo said. "There really wasn't much to do. They're our best hitters and I wasn't going to sit them on the bench or put them at the bottom of the order.
"I wish good luck to Many Acta and his team and I hope they win this trophy for the Caribbean because we've shown the whole world the talent that we have," Sojo added.
Garcia allowed one run on four hits and a walk. He struck out four in four innings. Escobar pitched three innings, giving up an unearned run on two hits and one walk.
The Dominican Republic will play the winner of Wednesday's Puerto Rico-Cuba game in the semifinals.
Japan 6, Mexico 1
Daisuke Matsuzaka allowed one hit in five shutout innings and Japan beat Mexico 6-1, putting the US in danger of being eliminated before it plays again.
South Korea (2-0) can earn a berth in the semis by beating Japan (1-1). If that happens, the US (1-1) would also make it by beating Mexico (0-2) today.
But if Japan beats South Korea, the Americans could be eliminated from contention even before playing Mexico. That would happen if Japan wins in a nine-inning game and scores seven runs or less because of the complicated tiebreaker system being employed.
That kind of outcome is a distinct possibility, since Japan has allowed only 13 runs in five WBC games while South Korea has given up just seven.
"That's the way it is -- we created it ourselves," US manager Buck Martinez said about his team's sticky situation. "That's the unique aspect of this. Now, it's up to Korea and Japan."
The semifinals will be played on Saturday and the finals on Monday in San Diego.
Japan manager Sadaharu Oh said he wouldn't gain any special satisfaction in eliminating the Americans in the wake of the US' controversial 4-3 victory over his team on Sunday.
"If we can win, there won't be any problem, we'll be happy with that," Oh said through a translator. "What happened happened. It's already in the past. It's done. So it's over. So what we're looking at is in the future."
Matsuzaka walked two, struck out two, and threw 73 pitches in his second exceptional performance of the Classic. He allowed three hits and one run in four innings in a 13-3 first-round victory over Taiwan.
"His pitching was his best performance I've seen in the Classic," said Japan catcher Tomoya Satozaki, who had three hits including a two-run homer. "He pitched very effortless. His fastball was very powerful. I told him to throw fastballs. I wasn't worried whether the Mexican team could hit them. I didn't think they could."
Matsuzaka said that he began preseason preparations early because of the Classic.
"This time of the year, usually we're not perfect yet," he said. "I tried to push it early a little bit, I tried to adjust. It's not really a psychological issue. I was expecting this. Tomorrow, we will try our best to succeed. We cannot lose anymore."
Satozaki homered off Esteban Loaiza to cap a four-run rally in the fourth that provided Japan with all the offense it would need. Nobuhiko Matsunaka singled, Akinori Iwamura walked and Hitoshi Tamura sacrificed before Michihiro Ogasawara hit a two-run single. Satozaki followed by hitting a 3-1 pitch into the right-center field seats.
Tamura hit an RBI single off Dennys Reyes in the fifth to make it 5-0.
Miguel Ojeda led off the eighth by hitting a solo homer off Yasuhiko Yabuta for Mexico's only run.
Ichiro Suzuki added an RBI single -- his second hit of the game -- in the ninth off Luis Ayala.
Because of the tiebreaker system, it would take a low-scoring extra-inning win against the US for Mexico to possibly reach the semi-finals. And that could only happen if South Korea beats Japan, leaving the possibility of three teams finishing Round 2 with 1-2 records.
"We still have one game to go and we're going to try very hard," Mexico manager Paquin Estrada said. "We're going to try and finish it like we should."
Loaiza, who signed as a free agent with the Oakland Athletics during the offseason, allowed seven hits and four runs in four innings. He threw 75 pitches.
The game was played before an announced crowd of 16,591 at Angel Stadium.
The first two Japanese batters reached base in the second and third innings, but Loaiza pitched out of trouble each time with help from his defense. First baseman Adrian Gonzalez made a diving stop of Ogasawara's grounder and threw him out from a sitting position to end the second.
Mexico got a runner to third with one out in the bottom of the second on a throwing error by second baseman Tsuyoshi Nishioka before Matsuzaka struck out Ojeda and retired Mario Valenzuela on a liner to center.
Jorge Cantu's first-inning single was the only hit off Matsuzaka. Juan Castro greeted Tsuyoshi Wada with a single to open the sixth, but Wada retired the next six batters.
Akinori Otsuka worked a scoreless ninth for Japan, with Luis Alfonso Garcia grounding into a game-ending double play. Mexico never sent more than four batters to the plate in an inning, and stranded only four baserunners.
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