SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – With just one game remaining, Canada will either finish atop Group A or once again miss out on advancing to the World Baseball Classic.
The national team’s fate all hinges on their match against Cuba on Wednesday afternoon. Carl Quantrill got the start against NPB star left-hander Livan Moinello and set the stage for the group stage finals with a 3-2 win over Puerto Rico on Tuesday night.
The win between the hosts (3-1), who had already secured a spot in the quarterfinals, and their enthusiastic fans at Hiram Beaton Stadium was welcome, but not exactly what the Canadians (2-1) needed, who lost to Panama on Sunday and cannot advance without beating Cuba (2-1).
They bounced back from that sloppy setback by handing Panama three unearned points in a much crisper joint effort.
This time, strong defensive play by center fielder Denzel Clarke helped starter Jordan Balazovic get a vital out for a walk, Nolan Arenado opened the scoring with an RBI single, fielded the ball, and got a runner on third while Heliot Ramos went for runners on first and third.
Balajovic settled in from there and got out seven of the next eight batters, with Liam Hicks erasing Matthew Lugo, the only batter to break that streak, as he attempted to steal second base.
Clarke did it with the bat as well, breaking Jose De Leon’s eight-game out streak and opening the game with a single to right. Edouard Julien singled, Josh Naylor hit to right arm to load the bases and Tyler O’Neill and Tyler Black issued back-to-back walks against Rico Garcia to put Canada ahead.
An Owen Caissie double and Abraham Toro single opened the fourth with his third RBI of the tournament to make it a 3-1 game. But Logan Allen gave up a run grounder to pinch hitter Martin Maldonado in the bottom half to make it 3-2 before the left-hander got out of frame and went two more clean innings.
Caissie moved up to sixth in the lineup and produced a higher performance Wednesday, walking in the sixth and adding a leadoff double in the ninth. Canada had the bases loaded but came up empty.
Anyway, Brock Dykxhoorn wrapped up the win with a 9th and 9th place finish.
Their work gave the Canadians plenty of options in Cuban’s bullpen and distributed usage accordingly, while ensuring the right arm was available on Wednesday was part of a tightrope walk to walk.
“I think we’re confident in the pitchers we’re throwing tonight and we’re confident in the pitchers we’re saving for (Wednesday),” manager Ernie Whitt said before the game. “Then I’ll just leave it at that.”
Getting ahead in international competition depends not only on the number of games a team wins, but also on winning the right games to get to the right end in a tiebreaker.
For example, Canada dominated the United States in the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006, but lost to Mexico and missed the opportunity to advance. In 2013, they had the opportunity to advance once again but lost the final to the United States, and in 2023 they secured another win against Mexico.
A conflict with Cuba would either flip the script or lead to further disappointment.
