Home International baseball WBC: Semi-final review – Final preview.

WBC: Semi-final review – Final preview.

by Matt Smith

The favourites and the unbeaten team were sent packing in the semi-finals of the WBC on Saturday. Cuba and Japan will fight it out tonight to become the first ever winners of the tournament.


Cuba 3 – Dominican Republic 1

The Cuba versus Dominican Republic game was a typical semi-final. The tension was palpable even watching via MLB.TV and this produced a somewhat edgy contest. Both teams were desperate to reach the final and both had a nations hopes resting on their shoulders. Ultimately it was Cuba who emerged victorious by the score of 3-1. On Saturday, I mentioned that Cuba’s best chance was to keep the Dominican Republic’s bats quiet and to attack the bullpen once Colon left the game. That is more or less the way it transpired, although a few fielding errors were thrown into the equation as well. Cuba’s two pitchers, Marti and Lazo, were able to hold the Dominican’s powerhouse of Tejada, Pujols, Ortis, Beltre and Alou to just four base hits. Colon pitched six strong innings, but Cuba jumped on Perez and Torres in the seventh to score three runs and that proved enough.

The Dominican Republic will be bitterly disappointed. It’s easy to point the finger at their hitters yet this would be doing a disservice to Marti and Lazo. After pitching so well in tandem against Venezuela in the previous round, they repeated the trick under enormous pressure. Through nine innings they limited their opponents to eight hits (none for extra bases) and gave up just two walks. The only run conceded was a result of two errors on the same play by Cuban second baseman Gourriel.

As for Cuba, they will leave the tournament with a huge amount of credit whatever happens in the final. Many questions were asked before the tournament began about the standard of Cuban baseball. It’s one thing to continuously beat up international teams of amateurs, but competing against Major League professionals is another thing altogether. They have undoubtedly been helped by their experience of playing together in such tournaments, and of course the fact that they are coming to the end of their domestic season rather than being in “Spring Training” mode. All the same, they have shown a great deal of heart and determination, and most importantly, talent.

Japan 6 – Korea 0

The Japan-Korea match-up didn’t start until 3:00 in the morning, so I was unable to watch the game. When I turned on my computer yesterday morning and waited for the MLB.com page to load, I was expecting to see tales of a closely fought game with Japan just coming out on top. The six to nothing scoreline initially suggested that it was a comfortable victory, yet the game only exploded in the seventh when Japan notched five runs to break the run of six scoreless innings (poor old Byung-Hyun Kim yet again!). Not for the first time, quality pitching won out in the end. Uehara gave Japan another impressive start allowing just three hits in seven innings, striking out eight whilst not giving up a single walk.

The Final

Sorry for sitting on the fence, but tonight’s final is just too close to call. The final is going to be another very tight affair and the game will probably be decided by which team’s starter has the better day. I cannot claim to be an expert on either squad, so it will depend on who has the greatest depth in pitching, which I would guess would be Japan. In a seven game series I would have Japan as quite comfortable favourites. However, all will be decided by this one-off game and the Cuban team will have experience on their side in this respect.

Sadly for us Brits, first pitch is scheduled for 02:00 in the early morning on Tuesday. By the time I wake up it will all be over, and no doubt the parties in either Japan or Cuba will just be warming up!

Whoever wins, let’s hope it’s a classic, as the tournament deserves a great ending.

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