World Baseball Classic: USA Bounces Back From Upset Loss by Demolishing Canada, Puerto Rico Makes WBC History
Defending World Baseball Classic champions Team USA finally bounced back from their loss against Mexico with a one-sided demolition of Canada. The team's star-studded line-up of MLB all-stars finally showed what they could do in Phoenix, Arizona.
Saying that the game is one-sided was a bit of an understatement as Team USA opened up the 1st Inning with nine runs capped off by a 3-run homer from team captain Mike Trout, with the Los Angeles Angels star finally hitting one after a disappointing first two games in the tournament.
The WBC has a mercy rule, which meant that the game was over after the top of the 6th Inning as Team USA was handed the dominating 12-1 victory against its neighbor to the north, which was certainly no slouch as it also fielded several MLB stars like Los Angeles Dodgers' Freddie Freeman, according to MLB.com.
Following Team USA's dominating victory, Mike Trout spoke to reporters, saying, "Obviously a tough loss last night. We came in today with a little more swagger. I think it woke us up a little bit. The message for us was go out there and bang, be ourselves." He then added, "Today we came in with the mindset of, 'We're going to dominate.'"
USA Just One Win Away From the Quarterfinals but Faces a Tough Team in Colombia
Team USA's next opponent is Colombia, which is certainly no slouch as this team defeated Mexico in their opening game, and the Mexicans did upset the Americans. They also have MLB players on their roster, like Jorge Alfaro of the San Diego Padres, Meibrys Viloria of the Texas Rangers, and Adrian Sanchez of the Washington Nationals.
However, despite this star power, the Colombians were still upset by Great Britain and were also defeated by Canada despite losing their all-star, Freddie Freeman, to a hamstring injury in the middle of the match.
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Colombia still has a chance to move on to the quarterfinals should they defeat Team USA, which may top the group should they defeat Colombia. This means that both teams are in a must-win situation when they face off on Wednesday, according to CBS Sports.
Puerto Rico Makes World Baseball Classic History
Puerto Rico has become the perpetual bridesmaid in the World Baseball Classic, making it to the finals twice but never winning as they lost to eventual champions, the Dominican Republic, in 2013 and then against Team USA in 2017.
However, NBC Sports reported that in their match against Israel on Monday, the team reported their first perfect game as they had a walk-off hit and a mercy rule win, as well as keeping their Israeli opponents scoreless in a perfect 10-0 mercy rule win.
The Puerto Ricans were up 9-0 on top of the Eight Inning when Enrique Hernandez of the Boston Red Sox hit a massive single-run walk-off home run to make it 10-0 and trigger the mercy rule.
This was further made sweeter when the team's four MLB pitchers, Jose De Leon (Minnesota Twins), Edwin Diaz (New York Mets), Duane Underwood Jr. (Pittsburgh Pirates), and Yacksel Rios (Atlanta Braves), pitched the perfect game, which was the first time that this had happened in WBC history. De Leon pitched 5.2 innings and recorded 10 strikeouts in the match.
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Written by: Rick Martin
WATCH: Canada vs. United States Game Highlights | 2023 World Baseball Classic - MLB