Canada on Wednesday advanced past the first round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) for the first time, beating Cuba 7-2 in a winner-take-all game in San Juan, Puerto Rico, behind Abraham Toro’s homer and Otto Lopez’s two-run single.
Brothers Bo Naylor and Josh Naylor drove in runs, Owen Caissie had two RBIs and reliever James Paxton struck out six over 2-2/3 scoreless innings for Canada (3-1), who eliminated Cuba (2-2) and won Group A over Puerto Rico (3-1). Cuba were knocked out in the first round for the first time.
Cuba finished with three errors and left fielder Ariel Martinez allowed Toro’s catchable fly starting the seventh to fall for a double.
Photo: AP
Canada broke open the game with a three-run sixth inning that included a dropped popup, a foul pop that fell, a wild pickoff throw and a catcher’s interference call on Andrys Perez, whose passed ball led to Canada’s first run.
Later on Wednesday, Italy beat Mexico 9-1 to top Pool B and, with the result also putting the US through, a day later than manager Mark DeRosa originally proclaimed.
After Vinnie Pasquantino had the WBC’s first three-homer game to lead Italy to victory, the Kansas City Royals player had a message for the US.
Photo: AFP
“You’re welcome, USA,” he said. “We were thinking of you guys over at your hotel. We were thinking of you guys. So I’m glad you could join us in the party.”
Italy beat the US 8-6 a night earlier, turning their opponents into spectators as they hoped to avoid elimination.
Mexico (2-2) were eliminated from the WBC and from qualifying for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The US stay in Houston, Texas, to meet Canada today, while Italy face Puerto Rico in the other quarter-final at the city’s Daikin Park tomorrow.
After the loss to Italy, DeRosa fielded questions about whether he thought his team had already secured a spot in the quarter-finals with Monday night’s win over Mexico because of his comments on a television appearance the next morning.
In that interview, he said: “Ton of respect for Italy — it’s weird — we want to win this game even though our ticket’s punched to the quarter-finals because Mexico plays Italy actually tomorrow. So, the way the schedule lines up this is an important game for us.”
DeRosa said he “misspoke” in that interview and did not believe the team had already clinched a spot.
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