The 2023 World Baseball Classic resumed on Wednesday with some high-stakes competition. While a single-elimination quarterfinal game was played (see below), round-robin pool was still played in the USA. 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
- Mexico 10, Canada 3
- Puerto Rico 5, Dominican Republic 2
- 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. 5-foot-9 closer Raidel Martinez 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).
Mexico advances
Mexico were the first team from Pool C to advance to the next round on Thursday by beating Canada 10-3 in blowout fashion. Ray’s outfielder Randy Arozarena was the driving force as he had two hits and five RBI.
Mexico was caught flat-footed in the tournament, losing their opener to Colombia by an extra innings. They recovered well from that slip, beating both the United States and Canada in dominant fashion. They also weathered a storm from the UK on Tuesday. That put them at 3-1 in the pool game.
Puerto Rico is advancing
Puerto Rico joined Venezuela as a team from Pool D and advanced to the quarterfinals on Wednesday night, beating the Dominican Republic 5-2.
The Puerto Rican team got on the board first in the third inning when Twins catcher Christian Vazquez landed a solo home run. They would subsequently build a 4-0 lead before the end of the frame, with Francisco Lindor, Enrique Hernandez and MJ Melendez all contributing.
The Dominican Republic would fight back, with Juan Soto hitting a solo home run late in the third. Both teams would each score another, but no more runs would be scored after the end of the fifth.
Puerto Rico has finished second in each of the last two WBC. For now, her hopes of making it three in a row — or maybe even winning the whole thing — remain very much alive. However, the win was muted because closer and Mets star Edwin Díaz suffered an on-field injury after taping the finals.
The place in the quarter-finals is in the balance
The pool game concludes Wednesday night with the United States taking on Colombia in Pool C (10:00 p.m. ET). Here’s what’s at stake:
- If Team USA beats Colombia, they move up. This in turn means that Colombia and Canada are eliminated.
- If Team USA loses, it comes down to a tiebreak scenario over whether the Americans, Colombia or the Canadians advance.
In other words, we’ll know the full field of Round 2 one way or another after Wednesday’s action.