Favorites the US and the Dominican Republic upheld their status in contrasting fashion with wins on Tuesday that opened the double-elimination, second round of the World Baseball Classic in Miami, Florida.
The Dominican Republic overcame an early four-run deficit to beat Italy 5-4 on Tuesday, while the US took a quick lead and rode the strong pitching of starter Gio Gonzalez and hot hitting of David Wright to beat Puerto Rico 7-1 at Marlins Park.
Two teams from Pool 2 will advance to the semi-finals, joining twice defending champions Japan and the Netherlands in the championship round starting on Sunday in San Francisco, California.
Italy were to play Puerto Rico yesterday, with the loser eliminated from the tournament, while the US and Dominican Republic clash today.
Gonzalez, pitching in front of his hometown crowd, threw five shutout innings, giving up just three hits while striking out five without a walk.
Wright, who belted a grand slam home run in a key US victory over Italy in the first round, feasted with the bases loaded again. The New York Mets third baseman drove in five runs with the bases jammed, including a three-run double that turned it into a rout in the eighth.
“I’m hitting with bases loaded every other at-bat,” said Wright, who is leading the tournament with 10 runs batted in. “I got Joe Mauer in front of me, Ryan Braun in front of me … it seems like every at-bat I’m hitting with runners in scoring position.”
In the earlier game, Nelson Cruz’s two-out, broken-bat single in the seventh inning scored Robinson Cano with the game-winning run for the Dominican Republic after a shallow sacrifice fly by Hanley Ramirez tied the game against Italy.
Italy had built a 4-0 lead in the first inning, helped by the early wildness of Dominican starter Edinson Volquez who walked the first three batters he faced and gave up just one hit in the first — a three-run homer by Chris Colabello.
Italy’s starting pitcher, Tiago Da Silva, mostly silenced the hard-hitting Dominicans, but yielded solo home runs to Cano and Jose Reyes to close their lead to 4-2.
In the seventh, Reyes started the rally with a single off Pat Venditte and Erick Aybar followed with another base hit. Cano was credited with a single on a fly ball to short left-field that glanced off the glove of shortstop Anthony Granato to load the bases.
Reliever Luca Panerati walked Edwin Encarnacion on four pitches, forcing in a run. In came Brian Sweeney, Italy’s third pitcher of the inning, who yielded the game-tying sacrifice fly to Ramirez and opposite-field single by Cruz that prompted the Dominicans to leave the bench to celebrate.
Five Dominican relievers combined to throw four and two-thirds scoreless innings, with Pedro Strop taking the win and Fernando Rodney the save.
In Tokyo, Shinnosuke Abe blasted a pair of home runs to fuel an eight-run Japanese outburst in the second inning, and the two-time reigning Classic champs held off a late Dutch rally to win 10-6 and emerge as top seed from Pool 1.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was