U.S. moves on to WBC final after dominant win over Cuba

MIAMI (AP) — Trea Turner homered twice to provide him a tournament-leading 4, and the defending champion United States romped over Cuba 14-2 on Sunday night time to succeed in its second straight World Baseball Classic closing.

Paul Goldschmidt and Cedric Mullins additionally homered for the Americans, who scored in seven of eight innings — placing up crooked numbers in 5 of them. Turner and Goldschmidt had 4 RBIs every.

The U.S. performs Japan or Mexico in Tuesday night time’s championship, making an attempt to hitch the Samurai Warriors as the one nations to win the title twice.

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Turner, hitting No. 9 within the batting order, has a tournament-leading 10 RBIs. He adopted his go-ahead, eighth-inning grand slam an evening earlier towards Venezuela with a solo homer within the second inning off Roenis Elias (0-1) and a three-run drive within the sixth towards Elian Leyva.

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Cuba went forward when its first 4 batters reached off Adam Wainwright (2-0) with out getting a ball out of the infield. The 41-year-old right-hander recovered to strand the bases loaded, and the American offense pummeled Cuban pitchers for 14 hits, together with eight for further bases. The U.S. was gifted seven walks.

Goldschmidt hit a go-ahead, two-run homer within the first on a 112 mph rocket excessive over the left-field wall. He added a two-run single within the fifth.

St. Louis third baseman Nolan Arenado left after he was hit on a hand by a pitch within the fifth inning, briefly elevating one other harm concern earlier than X-rays got here again as unfavourable. Mets nearer Edwin Díaz sustained a season-ending knee harm in the course of the celebration that adopted Puerto Rico’s win on Wednesday and Houston second baseman Jose Altuve broke a thumb when hit by a pitch whereas taking part in for Venezuela on Saturday. 

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Fans within the sellout crowd of 35,779 at LoanDepot Park sounded evenly cut up between the U.S. and Cuba. Several hundred folks gathered earlier than the sport exterior the ballpark in Miami’s Little Havana part to protest the presence of the Cuban group, whose island nation has been beneath communist rule since 1959. 

Play was briefly interrupted within the sixth, seventh and eighth innings when followers ran onto the sector. The first held a banner that learn “Libertad Para Los Presos Cubanos del 11 de Julio (Freedom for the Cuban Prisoners of July 11)” referring to the date of 2021 demonstrations.

Cuban followers roared within the early going when their group’s first 4 batters strung collectively three infield hits and a bases-loaded stroll off Wainwright, who contributed to his early troubles when he did not area a pair of grounders. Wainwright allowed one run and 5 hits in 4 innings. Cardinals teammate Miles Mikolas pitched the ultimate 5 innings.

An Olympic gold medalist in 1992, 1996 and 2004, Cuba’s nationwide group has struggled in recent times as many high gamers left for MLB. Cuba did not qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Cuba for the primary time this yr is utilizing some gamers beneath contract the MLB golf equipment, together with Chicago White Gold Glove centerfielder Luis Robert and third baseman Yoán Moncada. Former All-Star outfielder Yoenis Céspedes is also on the roster.

“It’s a dream for us to mix these players,” supervisor Armando Johnson mentioned. “We want these players to join us in any championship.”

Cuba and the U.S. met for the primary time within the WBC. In the 2008 Olympics, which didn’t embrace energetic large leaguers, Cuba beat supervisor Davey Johnson’s Americans 5-4 in 11 innings en path to a silver medal. The U.S. took bronze.

SECOND GUESSED

U.S. supervisor Mark DeRosa on what he did after Saturday night time’s come-from-behind quarterfinal win over Venezuela.

“I used to be studying how horrible a supervisor I used to be on social media first,” he mentioned.

OTHER SIDE OF THE BRACKET

In the opposite semifinal, Japan begins 21-year-old sensation Roki Sasaki towards Mexico and the Los Angeles Angels’ Patrick Sandoval on Monday night time.

UP NEXT

Merrill Kelly, Brady Singer and Kyle Freeland gave the impression to be the almost certainly American candidates to begin the ultimate

More from Sportsnet

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Astros’ Altuve leaves WBC sport after being hit available by a pitch

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