The 2023 World Baseball Classic continues on Wednesday with some high-stakes competition. While a single-elimination quarterfinal match has already been played (see below), round-robin pool is still played in the US. However, the pool game ends on Wednesday night, and from that point on it’s winner-take-all.
Here is a summary of Wednesday’s action.
Wednesday’s WBC results
- Cuba 4, Australia 3 (Quarterfinals)
- Venezuela 5 Israel 1
- Canada vs. Mexico, 3 p.m., FS2
- Dominican Republic vs Puerto Rico, 7pm, FS1
- Colombia vs. United States, 10pm, FS1
Cuba reaches semifinals with narrow win over Aussies
Cuba is one of the last four teams to make their WBC debut since 2006. The one-time baseball power got off to a somewhat unfavorable start this edition of the Classic, but they rallied to get out of the pool game. Early on Wednesday they beat Australia 4-3 at the Tokyo Dome in Japan to advance to the Final Four. Yoan Moncada reached base four times for the Cubans and had a double and a run. Raidel Martinez, who got 1.60 meters closer, secured the save for the Cubans with a perfect ninth place.
The result ends Australia’s run and Cuba travels to Miami for the semi-finals. There, on Sunday, Cuba will meet the winner of the quarter-finals, which will see unbeaten Venezuela take on runners-up from Group C (either Mexico, the United States or Canada).
The quarter-final places are up in the air
Pool play concludes Wednesday with a trio of high-stakes matchups: Mexico vs. Canada in Pool C (3:00 p.m. ET), Puerto Rico vs. Dominican Republic in Pool D (7:00 p.m. ET), and USA vs. Colombia in Pool C (10:00 p.m. ET). Here’s how the rest of the eight-team quarterfinals is sorted out:
- Winner Puerto Rico-Dominican Republic advances, loser is eliminated.
- The winners, Mexico-Canada, advance to the quarter-finals.
- If Team USA beats Colombia, they move up. This eliminates the losers Mexico-Canada again.
- If Team USA loses, then a tie-break scenario will come into play to decide whether the Americans, Colombia or losers Mexico-Canada advance.
In other words, we’ll know the full field of Round 2 one way or another after Wednesday’s action.