Netherlands Pulls Off Massive WBC Upset
The Netherlands beat the Dominican Republic 3-2 on Saturday, pulling off a massive upset in the World Baseball Classic that puts the Dominicans on the brink of elimination.
I’m not talking upset as in -300 favorite, like the Japanese were to beat Korea earlier in the day. I’m talking -7 1/2 runs. They were favored to win by seven-and-one-half runs. That is like Team USA softball in the Olympics kind of favorites. Teams like that are not supposed to lose. Ever.
But the Dominicans just couldn’t score and the Netherlands capitalized on every mistake the Dominicans made. Hell, the Netherlands only had three hits, and none of them left the infield. But, they parlayed those three hits into three runs (with the help of three errors) while the DR could only muster two runs on eight hits, leaving 11 men on base.
Even with Alex Rodriguez out of the lineup, the Dominicans still sport a who’s who of Major League Baseball, and their inability to get to Sidney Ponson and four guys worse than Sidney Ponson is unacceptable. A lineup with Hanley Ramirez, Robinson Cano, David Ortiz, Miguel Tejada and a bunch of other big leaguers should never lose to a team that is anchored by…nevermind, I don’t recognize any of them.
Pedro Martinez threw three shutout innings in relief with four strikeouts, but the offense just couldn’t get things going to pull this one out. Even without native Dominicans like Adrian Beltre, Albert Pujols, Aramis Ramirez, Manny Ramirez, and Alfonso Soriano, the Dominicans were still the favorites to win the 2009 World Baseball Classic. Now they are one loss away from being eliminated.
In other WBC news, Japan flexed their muscle in overnight action, beating Korea 14-2 in seven innings, and Team USA got off to a good start by beating Canada 6-5.
As I always do, I salute any sport that plays in the middle of the night where I live, where I can watch live sports until I fall asleep. The crowd for the Japan-Korea game was outstanding, making the WBC feel like an important sporting event.
I know it’s tough to get used to, but this is definitely better than watching typical spring training games.
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