The Dominincan Republic look geared and ready for the World Baseball Classic after crushing the Philadelphia Phillies 15-2 Tuesday afternoon. It was pretty much a hitting part for the Dominicans led by Hanley Ramirez and Miguel Tejada who had four hits each.
Before continuing, yes, Tejada is still active representing for his motherland. The 38-year-old infielder, who's starting at third base, went 4-6 totaling five bases, scoring two runs and driving in two. Ramirez, also finished this game 4-6, but he scored three runs, drove in three and also hit a home run.
Talking about the Dominican Republic's pitching performance would be great, but when a team scores 15 runs and gets 28 hits, the last thing in mind is pitching. Other players in the Dominican team had numbers like these:
Jose Reyes: 2-3, HR, 2 RBI, SB
Robinson Cano: 3-4, HR, 3 RBI
Edwin Encarnacion: 3-5, run, RBI, three 1B
On the mound for the Phillies was Cole Hamels and he had no solution for this onslaught. He went 2.2 innings giving up eight earned runs on 12 hits. He struck out one and surrendered a home run to Reyes.
Just for informative measures, Samuel Deduno, a 30-year-old right hander from the Minnesota Twins' organization, got the win after pitching two innings striking out three batters and made one mistake to Laynce Nix in the second inning. The Dominican bullpen was magnificent with appearances by Kelvin Herrera (1 IP, 1 H, 1 K), Octavio Dotel (1 IP, 1K) and Santiago Casilla (1 IP, 1K).
The only time the Dominican bullpen ran into trouble was when Edgar Garcia took the mound in the ninth. He gave up a run on three hits and struck out one.
The Dominican squad made no errors and apparently, everything is ready as they get set to travel to Puerto Rico where they will begin playing at the World Baseball Classic against Venezuela on Thursday.
