Walk-off Baseball Classic
This year's main tournament featured five walk-off victories, three of them oddly connected to each other. Jurickson Profar of the Netherlands drew the first-ever "shrimp" (game-ending bases-loaded walk) in WBC history on March 8 against Chinese Taipei; the only other walk-off "free pass" was issued in a qualifier in September 2012 when Germany's Jendrick Speer was hit by a pitch (we affectionately refer to this as a "plunk-off").
Two days later, Puerto Rico won its opener when T.J. Rivera hit a two-run homer, scoring Eddie Rosario, to invoke the mercy rule against Venezuela. It was just the second such homer in WBC history; Frederich Cepeda hit one for Cuba (scoring Yoenis Cespedes, and also via mercy rule) to defeat Mexico on March 12, 2009. In that same March 10 contest, Rosario became the fifth player in WBC history to go triple-double-single in one game; Cuba's Roel Santos did it earlier in the week. The others were Canada's Tyson Gillies (2012, still the only walk-off triple in WBC history) along with Brian Roberts and Gregor Blanco (both in 2009).
Rosario would have his own walk-off in Puerto Rico's semifinal victory over the Dutch on March 20. His sacrifice fly, set up by the international extra-inning rules, was also a "second" in WBC play; the Netherlands hit one on March 11, 2013. The outfielder to whom Rosario's ball on Monday was hit? Jurickson Profar.
Profar's "walk-off" in that first-round game was set up by Didi Gregorius's game-tying double in the bottom of the 9th. Gregorius was the fifth player in WBC history to have three doubles in a single game, and the first since Ruben Tejada did it for Panama in a qualifer in November 2012.
Speaking of walk-offs, you probably remember the controversy that developed when Mexico allowed five runs in the 9th to Italy and was shut out of the tiebreaker game as a result. Had Roberto Osuna recorded just one out, Mexico's run rate would have been better than Venezuela's and they would have advanced. The fact that he didn't lands him in this post. He's just the third pitcher in WBC history with a line of 0 IP and 5+ runs allowed. Dennys Reyes, also pitching for Mexico, allowed three hits, a walk, and a hit batter against Cuba in 2009; while Jan Novak of the Czech Republic pulled it off in a qualifier for the 2013 edition against Germany.
Going Dutch
The Netherlands would advance to the semifinals at Petco Park on March 15 with a 14-1 mercy-rule victory over Cuba. In that game, Wladimir Balentien homered twice and drove in five runs, the sixth player in WBC history to do that. The others include Adrian Gonzalez, Miguel Olivo, and Ken Griffey Jr. In his 170-game major-league career, Balentien never had either a multi-homer game or a five-RBI game, although he did do both at triple-A Louisville in July 2010.
Compatriot Yurendell Decaster also chipped in a homer and four RBIs, the fourth set of teammates ever to do it in the same WBC game. The third set happened just six days earlier when Australians (and former New Britain Rock Cats, shameless plug) James Beresford and Luke Hughes did it in their 11-0 shutout of China.
Xander Bogaerts of the Red Sox picked up a triple on March 7, matching his MLB total from 2016 (and that was on the final weekend of the season). And yes, that would be Rick van den Hurk getting the win for the Netherlands; his last major-league victory was back on October 2, 2009. While he pitched only four innings (the "five-inning rule" gets thrown out in most exhibition games), van den Hurk got his WBC win without a single strikeout, a quirk he never accomplished in the majors. In the WBC's four-tournament history, only five starters have recorded a win with zero strikeouts, and three have been Dutchmen. Diegomar Markwell surrendered nine hits, but just one run, to Cuba in pool play in 2013; while Shairon Martis twirled a seven-inning mercy-rule no-hitter against Panama in the 2006 edition.
While Martis's effort remains the only WBC no-hitter ever (sorry, Marcus Stroman), China on March 8 became the sixth team in tournament history to get one-hit. Shunyi Yang's single with one out in the 5th against Cuba marked just the second of those six games where a team's only hit came in the 5th or later. Against the Dominican Republic in 2006, Venezuela was also held to just one base knock, a 6th-inning double by Omar Vizquel.
Mideast Piece
Israel, meanwhile, made a remarkable sweep of its pool, including a 15-7 drubbing of Chinese Taipei in which they pounded out 20 hits. That was the third-highest total in WBC history; Australia collected 22 in a 17-7 win over Mexico in 2009, while Canada ran up 21 in a 16-7 qualifying win over Germany in September 2012. Those games also account for three of the four highest combined scores in WBC history; the only other game with 22 or more runs was New Zealand's 17-7 win over the Philippines in last February's qualifiers.
Nate Freiman had three of those 20 hits, including a three-run homer, and also scored three times. It was just the second time in his professional career (majors or minors) that he's scored three runs and driven in four. The other was July 21, 2011, for the high-A Lake Elsinore (Calif.) Storm.
Freiman held another unique piece of WBC history until recently. In Israel's September 2012 qualifier for the 2013 tournament, he had a pair of two-run homers in a 4-2 victory over Spain. That feat-- 4+ RBI accounting for all of a team's runs-- was finally duplicated on March 10 when Alfredo Despaigne of Cuba hit a grand slam to singlehandedly beat Australia 4-3. Two days later, Despaigne would have a solo home run in Cuba's 4-1 loss to Israel, one of four players this month to drive in a team's only run with a solo homer. The others were Australian (and also former New Britain Rock Cat) Allan de San Miguel, Nelson Cruz of the Dominican, and Ryosuke Kikuchi in Japan's 2-1 semifinal loss to the U.S.
Island-Hopping
Mike Aviles and Enrique Hernandez hit back-to-back triples for Puerto Rico on March 12. Aviles has had only two major-league triples in the past five seasons (1,812 PA), and Hernandez didn't have any last year. The only other occurrences of back-to-back triples in the WBC were on March 15, 2009 (Jimmy Rollins and Brian Roberts for the U.S.), and March 8, 2006 (Canada's Aaron Guiel and Adam Stern). Only one team in the majors last season had its 8- and 9-hitters collect back-to-back triples; that was the White Sox (Dioner Navarro and Austin Jackson) on April 27.
Aviles added four hits and three RBIs in the second round on March 18, a line he's had only twice in his major-league career (last on June 15, 2010).
The star-studded Dominican team opened the tournament with a 9-2 win over Canada on March 9. They collected five extra-base hits, and you've probably heard of all five guys who had them: Jose Bautista, Welington Castillo, Carlos Santana, Nelson Cruz, and Jose Reyes. Including the postseason, those five sluggers have combined for 2,298 extra-base hits in their major-league careers. But how many times have they each had an XBH on the same day (much less for the same team)? That would be none.
Bottom of the Bag
No comments:
Post a Comment