The Philadelphia Phillies take on the Dominican Republic in what's supposed to be a scrimmage/Spring Training game. For the Dominican Republic, it will be an exhibition game as they get fine tune their strategies before entering the World Baseball Classic, which is just a couple of days away.
The Phillies will be facing an All-Star team of sorts, at least the Dominican's teams infield will feature a deadly squad that should dominate the game on defense and offensively. Robinson Cano, Jose Reyes, Edwin Encarnacion and Hanley Ramirez are on the roster. In the outfield, Alejandro de Aza and Nelson Cruz will be patrolling the outfields.
The Dominican Republic will be in Pool C along with the nations of Spain, Venezuela and Puerto Rico. They come into the 2013 World Baseball Classic ranked 13th in the world and are a favorite to win the tournament. However, as we know by now, Japan has controlled the first two WBC tournaments. The Dominican Republic is a small island in the Caribbean, but they are supplying talented baseball players to the majors. With those guys mentioned above, they should be able to have success in the tournament.
On the mound, the Dominican Republic will have some of the better relief pitchers in baseball as Fernando Rodney and Pedro Strop will be coming out of the bullpen. Wandy Rodriguez and Edison Volquez are two starters in the rotation.
For Philadelphia, they will send their ace Cole Hamels to the mound. The Phillies hope they can compete in 2013 in a tough N.L. East where the Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves are the front runners on paper.
Click here for the live stream of the Phillies vs. Dominican Republic.
