Puerto Rico Knocks Off The Netherlands In 11 Innings To Advance To Second Straight WBC Final
No Cinderella stories here. Just two heavyweights of the tournament going at it for 11 innings to determine who will play the winner of USA and Japan tonight for the WBC title.
It wasn’t looking good for Puerto Rico early on when Wladimir Balentien, who came out of NO WHERE to lead the tournament in homers, hit another one in the first inning of the semi-finals.
Dude has been a MONSTER in the WBC, even though he hasn’t played in the majors since 2009 and only has 15 major league home runs combined over three seasons. You may or may not have heard about his legend in Japan, though, where he broke the Nippon Professional Baseball single-season home run record by hitting 60 home runs in 2013. The previous record was 55.
It’s actually pretty weird. He hit 60 home runs in 2013, just one home run in 2015 (limited to 15 games), and exactly 31 home runs in the four other seasons he’s been over there, including last year. Japan’s cool and all, but here’s a guy who’s been doing damage against major league competition over the last two years tying this game up with a bomb:
Any time you see a walk-off, there’s obviously going to be excitement there. A walk-off sacrifice fly, meh. Yeah, still a fun game, still exciting to see a team celebrate and go nuts like that. But I think, for me, I was almost too distracted by the rule that places a runner at first and second base to start the 11th inning and beyond. I hope that Rob Manfred realizes now that this rule would never be something that fans would want to see in a major league game.
Like I’ve said before, it works fine for international play and minor league games, because we need to get the show on the road. But every team is just going to bunt the runners over to second and third, intentional walk to load the bases and set up the double play, etc. You might as well just start the 11th inning with one out and runners on second and third.
Of course, you can’t assume that every batter who starts off the 11th inning is capable of getting a bunt down, but rest assured we’re going to see them try. And when I think of extra innings drama, I don’t think of bunts and intentional walks. Hopefully MLB takes note of this and makes the right decision to keep this rule far, far away from major league competition.
Anyway, Puerto Rico, who has easily been one of the most entertaining teams to watch all tournament, moves on to the WBC championship game for the second straight year. They await the winner of USA and Japan tonight to see who will stand in their way for the WBC title.
PS — If you sleep on Yadi, you’re GONNA have a bad time.