WBC Daily: Mexico, Dominican Republic Put Big Numbers In Statement Wins

Sunday’s slate of World Baseball Classic action saw two teams eyeing deep runs at the World Baseball Classic put up some big offensive numbers while the reigning champions had themselves a close call. The Dominican Republic reiterated their status as one of the tournament favorites with a 12-run outing against the Netherlands, including four homers. Not to be outdone, Mexico were equally impressive as they put up 16 runs against Brazil ahead of a titanic clash against Team USA in Pool B action on Monday. Earlier in the day, Japan had to grind out a win over Korea as Shohei Ohtani had a rare outing of being held without a hit in a game. Recapping the WBC action on Sunday, March 8: JUMP TO: Chinese Taipei vs. Korea | Australia vs. Japan | Dominican Republic vs. Netherlands | Colombia vs. Cuba | Great Britain vs. Italy | Israel vs. Nicaragua | Mexico vs. Brazil | Panama vs. Canada Stuart Fairchild Becomes a WBC Star Fairchild homered again before Chinese Taipei pulled off a win in extra innings against Korea. Chinese Taipei was down 3-2 entering the eighth, when Fairchild hit a two-run home run to take the lead. Do Yeong Kim answered for the Koreans in the bottom half of the frame with an RBI double, though, and the game went to extras. Kun-Yu Chiang delivered a sacrifice bunt that scored the decisive run. Fairchild, whose mother is from Taiwan, hit a grand slam in Chinese Taipei’s 14-0 win over Czechia on Saturday morning. Through four games, he’s 5-for-16 with two home runs and six RBIs with a 1.188 OPS. Australia Can’t Take Down Japan After two wins to start Pool C play, Australia had a real opportunity to shake up the WBC. The Aussies even had a lead after opening the scoring in the sixth inning. Japan scored twice in the seventh and eighth innings, though, with Red Sox outfielder Masataka Yoshida getting his team on the board with a two-run home run. The big story was 30-year-old right-hander Connor MacDonald, who threw three scoreless innings with his brother in the crowd. It was an emotional outing on the biggest stage of MacDonald’s career. He has never played professionally outside of Australia. Dominicans Dominate Netherlands It only took the Dominican Republic seven innings for that squad of stars to beat the Netherlands, and the game ended with a two-run home run by Juan Soto. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Junior Caminero each had three RBIs, while every starting Dominican hitter scored at least one run. Luis Severino did the work on the mound with four innings of one-run ball. The Dominican Republic improved to 2-0 in pool and will face Israel on Monday and then Venezuela in what will be one of the most anticipated matchups of the tournament. Cuba Stays Unbeaten Colombia’s WBC hopes are over after it dropped to 0-3 after a 7-4 loss to Cuba, which is 2-0. Right-hander Luis Patiño only lasted one-third of an inning, allowed four runs on two hits, both of which were home runs. Ariel Martinez and Erisbel Arruebarrena hit the long balls for Cuba. Next up for Cuba is a huge matchup of 2-0 teams against Puerto Rico on Monday night in San Juan. Expresso Shots! Italy Improves To 2-0 Team USA has a huge matchup against Mexico on Monday night, but Italy is not going to go down without a fight. The Italians are 2-0 after a 7-4 win over Great Britain on Sunday afternoon in Houston. Great Britain opened the scoring with a two-run top of the first inning, but Italy answered with seven runs between the third, fourth and fifth innings. Andrew Fischer, the Brewers’ 2025 first-round pick, and J.J. D’Orazio hit back-to-back jacks in the third to spark the Italian offense – and get its espresso machine going. Italy is off on Monday before it faces the United States on Tuesday and then Mexico on Wednesday. Israel Gets Win Over Nicaragua Israel had its first shutout in its WBC history to improve to 1-1 at the tournament with a 5-0 win over Nicaragua. After scoring one run in the second inning, Israel extended its lead with four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. Noah Medlinger went 3-for-3 on the night, which included an RBI single in the second inning. In the fourth, Harrison Bader singled in one run that brought home Medlinger. Zach Levenson then singled to score Spencer Horwitz and Bader. Cole Craigg then singled to score RJ Schreck. Mexico Scores 16, Gets Run-Rule Win Over Brazil Behind four home runs and a raucous crowd in Houston, Mexico pounced on Brazil for a 16-0 win ahead of big-time clash on Monday against the United States. Mexico jumped to a six-run lead in the first inning and didn’t let up, which included a Jarren Duran home run. Alejandro Kirk delivered a three-run homer that pushed Mexico’s lead to 10 in the fourth inning. Alek Thomas also knocked one out in the stands at Daikin Park. Julian Ornelas delivered the deciding home run in the bottom of the sixth, a two-run shot to right field that ended the game by WBC rules because Mexico was winning by 15 runs after at least five innings. Panama Stays Alive, Beats Canada Panama rallied against Canada with a three-run sixth inning to keep their hopes of advancing to the WBC quarterfinals alive. Down 2-1 to the Canadians, Miguel Tejada proved the deciding factor for Panama, looping a go-ahead two-run single. Enrique Bradfield Jr. followed with an RBI single, giving Panama an insurance run.