SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – One game to go and Canada will either finish atop Pool A or once again fail to advance at the World Baseball Classic.
The national team’s fate all depends on Wednesday afternoon’s clash against Cuba, when Cal Quantrill starts against NPB star lefty Livan Moinelo, after a 3-2 win over Puerto Rico on Tuesday night set the stage for the high-stakes group finale.
Victory between the hosts (3-1), who’d already clinched a quarter-final spot, and their amped-up fans at Hiram Bithorn Stadium was a nice to have, but not essential for the Canadians (2-1), who can’t advance without defeating Cuba (2-1) due to their Sunday loss to Panama.
They bounced back from that sloppy setback — handing Panama three unearned runs — with a much crisper collective effort.
This time, a strong defensive play by centre-fielder Denzel Clarke helped starter Jordan Balazovic shake off a walk, walk, Nolan Arenado RBI single opening, fielding the ball and relaying to third for a vital out as Heliot Ramos tried to go first-to-third.
Balazovic settled from there, retiring seven of the next eight batters, with Liam Hicks erasing Matthew Lugo, the only hitter to interrupt that streak, when he tried to steal second.
Clarke then did it with the bat, too, breaking Jose De Leon’s run of eight straight outs to open the game by lashing a single to right. Edouard Julien followed with a single before Josh Naylor got hit on the right arm to load the bases, with Tyler O’Neill and Tyler Black working consecutive walks off Rico Garcia to put Canada ahead.
An Owen Caissie double and Abraham Toro single, for his third RBI of the tournament, to open the fourth made it a 3-1 game. But Logan Allen surrendered a run-scoring groundout in the bottom half to pinch-hitter Martin Maldonado that made it 3-2 before the lefty locked in to escape the frame and deliver two more clean innings.
Caissie, moved up to sixth in the lineup and making a case for higher Wednesday, walked in the sixth and added a leadoff double in the ninth, when Canada loaded the bases but came up empty.
No matter, Brock Dykxhoorn went nine-up and nine-down to close out the win.
Their work left the Canadians with lots of options in the bullpen for Cuba and portioning out usage accordingly, while ensuring the right arms are available for Wednesday was part of the tightrope that needed walking.
“We’re confident in the pitchers that we’re throwing tonight and I think we’re confident in the pitchers that we’re saving for (Wednesday),” manager Ernie Whitt said before the game. “So I’ll just leave it at that.”
Advancing in international play isn’t solely dependent on the number of games a team wins, but also winning the right ones to end up on the right end of tiebreakers.
For instance, Canada stunned the powerhouse United States at the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006, but missed out on advancing because they lost the game they needed to win versus Mexico. In 2013, they again had a chance to move on but lost their finale to the Americans, while in 2023, they lost another win-and-in to Mexico.
The clash with Cuba will either flip the script or bring more disappointment.