Holy cow, the lineups for both the Dominican team and the USA team are incredibly stacked!
But the pitching is otherworldly also, so both lineups have been pretty well tamed through the first 7 innings. Right now, top of the 8th, 2-1 USA.
Not sure exactly how the team nationality thing works, but it’s pretty interesting to see that almost none of Team Italy was actually born in Italy. Nearly all of them born in the US, a couple in Venezuela, a Canadian, etc.
I'm pretty sure it has to be within a generation or two for WBC. Italy's also a bit strange on how they issue passports. My son't best friend has dual Italian / US citizenship, but he and his parents were born in the states (I think one of his grandparents is from the old country).
The called third strike to end the game was brutal. A good 6" below the bottom of the strike zone. Skenes pitched a gem against an incredible DR lineup!
Cory Blaser was calling low strikes all game long - on both sides . In this case ,on a 3-2 count and bottom of the ninth with tying run on third , even little leaguers are taught early that in that situation to protect that plate and swing if it’s close . And that pitch WAS close , it definitely was knee high as it entered the strike zone and dropped . Either way, I’m swinging at that pitch 😂. Foul it off, put in play ,whatever but do NOT get caught looking . Also DR left how many runners on base that last few innings? They had ample opportunity to not have to take a chance on a “one pitch,bad call” . US did a masterful job on the mound , even with Paul not having his best stuff . I’m 18 miles from PNC park and have had the pleasure of seeing him pitch several times the past 2 years, and have seen him have some remarkable outings ( also witnessed Shohei take him into the river once,lol) next at bat Skenes punched him out in 3 . Fantastic to watch what are the 2 best players of this generation in my opinion
It’d be interesting to see what the pitch path would look like in 3D. It had some pretty serious movement on it and being somewhat biased I could see it hitting the bottom of the strike zone at the front of the plate. If I were a big DR fan, I probably wouldn’t/couldn’t see it that way, though!!!
Is the pitch at the plate here? I certainly can't tell.
The Shop
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
Free shipping: VITALMX
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Anyone catch that busch league move on the dropped third?
That shit pissed me off … Harper too.
Yeah, the DR runner ( can’t remember who it was now) was running like a drunken sailor heading to first in a certain intentional method trying impede the catchers throw . Yes I thought Harper was going to throat punch him lol.
Well, it didn’t turn out how I’d hoped, but that was some dammed good baseball!!!!
Was very good ball. You can’t expect to win without some better offense.
Props to Venezuela.
Ouch, sub par performance on offense .
I think the biggest theme as it got closer to the championship was that there was some incredible pitching on the top teams. Each of the top teams had pitching staffs that were far deeper than the average major league team, and that depth showed that hitters weren’t able to chase a starter and feast on some mediocre middle relievers that really are on the roster to chew up innings.
I wish that the championship could be a 3 game series, but I understand how difficult that would be to keep these guys away from their teams paying them their wages for longer than they already are.
It's like Christmas morning here at work today.
I would hate to have to watch it all day.
Lots of crow to eat.
Fortunately, I made no predictions so it's just everyone being happy.
Can’t believe how flat the US bats were - especially Judge. He honestly looked overmatched . Venezuela deserves the win, much more focused
Post a reply to: World Baseball Classic