Puerto Rico advanced to the World Baseball Classic championship after defeating Japan 3-1 in the semifinals Sunday night in San Francisco. Thanks to great pitching and timely hitting, Puerto Rico was able to upset the two-time defending WBC champions.
Alex Rios struck with a two-run home run in the seventh after having sent a couple of line drives foul to left field. He got a hold of a high change-up from Atsushi Nomi.
Pitcher Mario Santiago was perfect through 3.1 innings after only getting this far in his last start against the USA on Tuesday. Santiago was absolutely clutch in this game as the Puerto Ricans only gave him one run to work with through most of the game.
Maeda struggled early in the first inning as he walked Irving Falu and Carlos Beltran. Struck out Yadier Molina. Mike Aviles drove in a run on a jammed shot to center field driving in Falu.
The Japanese got their first base hit and first base runner in the fourth inning. With Japanese Shinnosuke Abe at bat and a runner on second, Santiago and catcher Molina seemed to have agreed not giving the slugger anything good to hit. They got hit to ground out to slowly to the pitcher to end a threat.
Falu, who came around to score the game's first run made a great play in the fifth as he dove and got the runner out at first base in what was a close play. The Japanese crowd wasn't too excited about the call, but the umpires got it right.
In this same inning, Santiago was removed from the game following an apparent injury. Falu and Molina motioned to the dugout for the trainer. There was no visible injury, but Jose de la Torre came into pitch and close out the game. Santiago was very unhappy about being removed.
De la Torre came on to strikeout Atsunori Inaba and then struck out Nobuhiro Matsuda after walking the first batter he faced placing runners on first and second. In the sixth inning, De la Torre left with a runner on third after Angel Pagan poorly read a falling line drive off the bat of Seiichi Ochikawa. Xavier Cedeno came in and struck out Abe to get out of the inning unharmed.
Overall, it seemed like Japan's hiatus from baseball action wasn't helpful. Former MLB player and manager Ozzie Guillen compared them to the 2012 World Series favorite Detroit Tigers after they had an extended layoff and were swept by the San Francisco Giants.
It wasn't until the bottom of the eighth when the Japanese bats woke up driving in a run and threatening the Puerto Rican lead. The Japanese killed their own rally and Molina wisely ran right at the runners from home plate. He caught the trail runner Uchikawa and tagged him out. Abe then grounded out slowly to Falu at second base as J.C. Romero closed out the frame.
Fernando Cabrera came in the bottom of the ninth and closed out the game.
Puerto Rico will now await for a winner between Dominican Republic and Kingdom of the Netherlands.
