Luis Urias on Friday hit the go-ahead single in a three-run seventh inning that fueled Mexico’s 5-4 comeback victory over Puerto Rico to advance to their first-ever World Baseball Classic (WBC) semi-final.
Mexico face Shohei Ohtani and Japan on Tuesday morning Taiwan time.
Puerto Rico failed to make it past the second round for the first time.
Photo: AFP
“What a game. I don’t have a cap with me, but if I did, I’d tip it to Puerto Rico,” Mexico manager Benji Gil said. “We fought until the end. Thank God we managed to come out with a victory against a great team.”
Isaac Paredes, who homered earlier, tied it at 4-4 with a single off losing pitcher Alexis Diaz that drove in Austin Barnes and Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Randy Arozarena.
Puerto Rico tried to rally in the ninth with singles from Christian Vazquez and Francisco Lindor, but reliever Giovanny Gallegos got out of the jam for the save.
Arozarena saved the potential tying run in the eighth when he made a leaping catch at the wall in left center.
“We know what kind of player Randy is. He’s a great player. He killed us,” Puerto Rico manager Yadier Molina said. “We couldn’t score, but they played very well. We started very strong, but then the Mexican pitching made some adjustments and kept us in zeros.”
Puerto Rico were coming off an emotional quarter-final-clinching victory over the Dominican Republic on Wednesday, when New York Mets star closer Edwin Diaz tore the patellar tendon in his right knee while celebrating the win.
The sellout crowd of 35,817 at loanDepot park in Miami on Friday cheered when Diaz’s jersey appeared on the Jumbotron.
Javier Baez and Eddie Rosario homered off Mexico starter Julio Urias in a four-run first inning.
Rosario hit his second home run of the tournament. Baez, in one of his best games of the event, had three hits, giving him seven for the tournament.
“We had a very difficult start to the game, but we know the kind of team we have and how united we are,” Paredes said. “There were many innings remaining and we responded at the zero hour.”
Urias allowed five hits and four runs and struck out four before he was lifted after the fourth inning at 60 pitches, which is 20 fewer than the WBC quarter-finals pitch limit.
JoJo Romero got the win.
Paredes made it 4-1 in the second when he homered against Marcus Stroman, which was one of Mexico’s five hits off Puerto Rico’s starter.
Stroman allowed three singles in the fifth, one of which drove in a run for Mexico to make it 4-2. He had two strikeouts in 4-1-3 innings.
Puerto Rico finished second in the past two WBCs. Earlier in this tournament, their pitchers turned in an all-time performance against Israel in pool play with an eight-innings perfect game.
Mexico won group C with a 3-1 record in pool play.
The US face Venezuela this morning Taiwan time in the other quarter-final.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Taiwan’s double world champion Lin Yu-ting lost her bronze medal at the International Boxing Association (IBA) Women’s World Boxing Championships after she failed to meet eligibility criteria, the governing body of amateur boxing said yesterday. The IBA did not elaborate on Lin’s disqualification. Bulgarian Svetlana Kamenova Staneva, who lost to Lin in the under-57kg quarter-finals, was awarded the bronze medal. Algeria’s Imane Khelif was also disqualified hours before her gold medal bout. The 23-year-old was scheduled to meet Yang Liu in the 66kg division final, but Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng, who lost to Khelif in the semi-finals, would fight the Chinese instead. “A boxer from Algeria
Retired Formula One champion Nelson Piquet has been ordered by a Brazilian court to pay more than US$950,000 in “moral damages” for making racist and homophobic comments about Lewis Hamilton. The 70-year-old Brazilian had referred to seven-time champion Hamilton as “neguinho,” a racially offensive term that means “little black guy,” in 2021. In another interview, Piquet used racist and homophobic language. The court in Brasilia on Friday ordered Piquet to pay 5 million (US$952,998) reals “in collective moral damages, to be allocated to funds for the promotion of racial equality and against discrimination of the LGBTQIA+ community.” The charges were filed by several
Japanese two-way star Shohei Ohtani is to make a one-season MLB record US$65 million this year in salary and endorsements, Forbes magazine reported on Tuesday. Ohtani, set to be the starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels in their MLB season opener today against Oakland, helped spark Japan to the World Baseball Classic title a week ago with a victory over the US in the final. The 28-year-old who serves as an outfielder and designated hitter when not on the mound, signed a one-year contract extension worth US$30 million last year and will make US$35 million in endorsements this year, Forbes reported. That
ISRAEL PROTESTS: Disappointed soccer fans said that the loss of the under-20 event would affect young players and lamented the blind mixing of political issues Indonesian fans reacted with anger and dismay yesterday after the nation on Wednesday was stripped of hosting rights for the FIFA Under-20 World Cup only eight weeks before the start of the tournament amid political turmoil regarding Israel’s participation. FIFA said that Indonesia was removed from staging the 24-team tournament scheduled to start on May 20 “due to the current circumstances,” without specifying details. The decision followed a meeting in Doha between Indonesian soccer federation president Erick Thohir and FIFA president Gianni Infantino. Israel qualified in June last year for their first Under-20 World Cup, but the country’s participation in the official draw