U.S.A. Defeats The D.R. To Advance To The WBC Title Game
The United States took down the Dominican Republic in a low-scoring 2-1 affair to advance to the championship game of the World Baseball Classic Sunday night. Propelled by a couple of home runs and stout pitching, the United States will now await the winner of Italy versus Venezuela.
Two solo home runs in the fourth inning by Gunnar Henderson and Roman Anthony were enough. The lone Dominican Republic run came via a second-inning solo shot by Junior Caminero.
Paul Skenes started the game for the United States and went 4 1/3 innings allowing just the one run. Former Met, Tyler Rogers, got current Met, Juan Soto, to ground into a huge inning-ending double play in the fifth inning to preserve the slim lead.
Behind Rogers, Griffin Jax, David Bednar, Garrett Whitlock, and Mason Miller all turned in scoreless outings of their own.
Bednar got out of big trouble in the seventh as he struck out Fernando Tatis Jr. and Ketal Marte back-to-back to strand the tying and go-ahead runs on base. Meanwhile, Miller ended the game with a controversial called strike three against Geraldo Perdomo. Perdomo was the winning run as the tying run was only 90 feet away at third base.
Two more former Mets factored in greatly on the pitching side of things for the Dominican Republic. Luis Severino started the contest and gave up the solo shot to Henderson. Shortly after, in relief, Gregory Soto gave up the other homer to Anthony.
As for current Mets, Juan Soto ended the game 0-for-4 with the aforementioned costly double play and a strikeout on a pitch well below the zone. Unfortunately, the final strike call was not the only that home plate umpire Cory Blaser got wrong. On a positive note, right-handed relief pitcher Huascar Brazobán overpowered the United Staes striking out three over his 1 1/3 innings of work.
The other semifinal game is slated for a 8:00 pm ET first pitch on Monday. As mentioned, the United States awaits the winner of that match between Venezuela and Italy. The championship game will be Tuesday, March 17.
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