Reigning World Baseball Classic champs the Dominican Republic made an emphatic debut on Thursday by easily beating team Canada, 9-2.
The Dominicans jumped to an early 4-0 lead in the second inning and never looked back. Their firepower was in full display as they amassed 16 hits in the contest, with a couple of homers courtesy of MLB standouts Jose Bautista and Wellington Castillo.
The Dominican Republic’s pitching unit was also astounding, limiting the Canadians to just a couple of runs and racking up 11 strikeouts. Kansas City Royals righty Edinson Volquez (10-11, 5.37 ERA in 2016) will get the starting nod on Sunday, as he’ll look to extend his team’s win streak at the WBC to 14 games.
Even if the upcoming Americans appear to have a solid roster built in this year’s edition of the WBC, Thursday’s blowout of Canada was actual proof of just how deep and talented the Dominicans are. Do note that they swept the entire 2013 edition of the tournament en route to their first WBC title.
Betting on USA
It may have come down to the wire, but team USA still secured its first victory of the tournament with a 3-2, extra-innings win over Colombia on Friday.
Adam Jones was the hero of the night, as he hit the walk-off single in the 10th inning for his team to escape with the win. Strangely enough, it was his first walk-off hit since the 2012 MLB season, and it could not have come at a better time than a critical match representing the Red, White and Blue.
However, the Americans dug themselves an early two-run hole on Friday, and it wasn’t until Jones himself also connected on an RBI double in the sixth before a wild pitch sent Ian Kinsler home to tie the contest.
Team USA’s probable starter on Sunday is Marcus Stroman (9-10, 4.37 ERA). While Stroman appears to have a narrow edge over the Dominican Republic’s Volquez, we’re not certain that the team can stay toe-to-toe with the Dominicans in terms of sheer run production. Friday’s contest exhibited how tough the Americans found it to score runs in this tournament with slightly different rules from the majors, and that was even against a Colombian team that had a lot of unproven pitchers beyond the Friday’s starter, Jose Quintana.
