Mar 20, 2013
Congrats to the Dominican Republic on winning the 2013 World Baseball Classic!
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Congrats to the Dominican Republic on winning the 2013 World Baseball Classic!
SAN FRANCISCO -- The World Baseball Classic reign for the Land of the Rising Sun is at an end.
The sun set for Japan in a tournament full of upsets and surprises on Sunday as Puerto Rico won, 3-1, at AT&T Park on the strength of a two-run homer by Alex Ríos, sending the Puerto Ricans on to the championship game on Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
They will play the winner of Monday night's semifinal between the undefeated Dominican Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT. Both games can be seen in the U.S. on MLB Network and ESPN Deportes.
Japan won the first two Classics, defeating Cuba, 10-6, at San Diego in 2006 and Korea, 5-3, in 10 innings at Dodger Stadium in '09. Japan was the only returnee this year from the '09 final four. The Japanese sorely missed right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka, the MVP of the first two Classics, who is trying to make the Indians roster this spring and declined to play.
Puerto Rico and the Dutch are in the championship round for the first time. P.R has already lost to the D.R. twice this year, once in each of the first two rounds. Italy and Chinese Taipei also made it to the second round with Korea, Mexico, Canada and Venezuela going home early.
On Sunday, P.R. won its third elimination game in the last five days, the win over Japan coming after knocking out Italy and the U.S. from the tournament.
"We know that there's a lot of people down in Puerto Rico watching and this win is huge," Puerto Rico manager Edwin Rodríguez said. "The way that these guys have been playing and performing is a huge performance and a huge accomplishment for the people in Puerto Rico -- not only for the players and youngsters, but also for the whole country."
Right-hander Mario Santiago shut down the Japanese on two hits and left for precautionary reasons because of forearm stiffness with one out and a runner on second in the fifth inning after tossing 61 pitches. A starter can go as far as 95 pitches in the championship round.
"Their pitcher really had powerful pitching, so it was really hard to seize the moment," Japan manager Koji Yamamoto said. "... But players, all of them worked really hard, and on such a big stage of international games, this is going to be the benefit for their career as a baseball player in the future. "
P.R. took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a Mike Avilés single off Japanese starter Kenta Maeda, who pitched five innings of four-hit ball and was replaced after throwing 80 pitches.
Ríos homered deep to left after Avilés singled to open the seventh off reliever Atsushi Nohmi. The White Sox right fielder had a lackluster Classic going into that at-bat. It was his first homer, extra-base hit and RBIs of the tournament.
"Actually the pitch that I hit, I saw it earlier in that at-bat," Ríos said. "He threw that changeup and then he repeated that changeup in the third pitch, and that's the one that I saw. And I guess I put a good turn on it and the ball went out.
"It was a very, very emotional at-bat."
For the first time, the Japanese played in the tournament with no current Major Leaguers, while Puerto Rico had a lineup full of them, including Ríos, Avilés, Ángel Pagán, Carlos Beltrán, and Yadier Molina.
h/t: MLB.com