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Printable Page
03/11 17:21 CDT Canada advances past World Baseball Classic first round for
first time, beats Cuba 7-2
Canada advances past World Baseball Classic first round for first time, beats
Cuba 7-2
By The Associated Press
Canada advanced past the first round of the World Baseball Classic for the
first time, beating Cuba 7-2 Wednesday in a winner-take-all game at San Juan,
Puerto Rico, behind Abraham Toro's homer and Otto Lopez's two-run single.
Brothers Bo Naylor and Josh Naylor drove in runs, Owen Caissie had two RBIs and
reliever James Paxton struck out six over 2 2/3 scoreless innings for Canada
(3-1), 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.
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.
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 Rodrguez, a 420-foot drive to right.
Cuba scored in the bottom half on Yoelkis 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 James
Paxton struck out Moncada in the seventh to leave runners at the corners.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
