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Canada has advanced to the World Baseball Classic’s playoff round for the first time in the international tournament’s 20-year history.
Bo Naylor had an RBI double and Otto Lopez followed that with a two-run single as Canada scored three in the sixth inning to beat Cuba 7-2 on Wednesday in San Juan, Puerto Rico to reach the quarterfinals.
Although Canada has participated in all five WBCs (2006, 2009, 2013, 2017, 2023), it has never reached the knockout stage.
James Paxton struck out six over 2 2/3 scoreless innings for Canada which eliminated the Cubans (2-2) and won Group A over Puerto Rico (3-1). Cuba was knocked out in the first round for the first time.
Owen Caissie had a sacrifice fly in the third and Abraham Toro added a solo home run for Canada (3-1) in the fifth. Josh Naylor’s RBI single in the eighth and Caissie’s run-scoring single in the ninth added insurance for the Canadians.
Yoelkis Guibert’s fielder’s choice in the fifth scored a run for Cuba (2-2) to cut Canada’s lead to 2-1. Ariel Martinez’s run-scoring single made it 5-2 in the sixth.
Canada and Puerto Rico will play quarterfinals in Houston this weekend.
Cuba finished with three errors, and left fielder Ariel Martinez allowed Toro’s catchable fly starting the seventh to fall for a double.
The Canadians broke open the game with a three-run sixth inning that included a dropped popup, a foul pop that fell, a wild pickoff throw and a catcher’s interference call on Andrys Perez, whose passed ball led to Canada’s first run.
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Later Wednesday, Mexico and Italy were to play at Houston in a Group B game that will determine whether the U.S. advances.
Cuba escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first when Matt Davidson hit an inning-ending popout off loser Livan Moinelo, but Canada went ahead in the third on Caissie’s sacrifice fly. Toro homered in the fifth on a splitter from Yariel Rodriguez, a 420-foot drive to right.
Cuba scored in the bottom half on Guibert’s run-scoring groundout off winner Cal Quantrill, who allowed an unearned run and two hits over five innings.
Canada opened a 3-1 lead in the sixth on Bo Naylor’s RBI double.
Martinez drove in a run in the bottom half with his third hit and Josh Naylor had an RBI single in the seventh on a soft fly to left that popped up of the glove of Martinez, who tried for a sliding catch.
Cuba went 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position. Adam Macko escaped a bases-loaded jam in the sixth when Yiddi Cappe swung over a curveball and Paxton struck out Moncada in the seventh to leave runners at the corners.