It was the Netherlands vs the Dominican Republic for a trip to Miami, as one team came equipt with the some serious major talent, while the other had a bunch of no names and hardly any major league experience. But this was the match up of the evening, a rematch, as revenge was certainly on the minds of the Dominicans who had already went down to these Netherlanders in the 1st game of the tournament.
Another lost would not be excepted in the Dominican Republic. They must win!
The pressure was on for the Dominicans who before the game rumblings were herd from team officials like Stan Javier who earlier had express his feeling about his decision to take on the task of putting it all together. He was beginning to find out that representing his country was not as pleasant as it sounded. Felipe Alou was also having a hard time dealing with the task at hand, who plays at short? Why did he have Fernando Tatis bat 3rd in the 9-0 victory vs Panama, the old man was also finding out he should had stayed retired.
Early on the Netherland's starter Tom Stuifbergen was looking pretty good with his stuff on the mound, physically he looked like Joba Chamberlain, and he was showing command and confidence. He was sharp. But in the 4th, Stuifbergen got himself in a 1st & 3rd no out situation when Ortiz doubled, and Tejada singled. Up came Jose Guillen who had already bounce into a double play in his 1st at-bat, Guillen would go on to lift a short fly for the 1st out, leaving the runners at 1st & 3rd, Robinson Cano would then strike out for the 2nd out, Leaving it up to Nelson Cruz who would then walk to load the bases. Up came game 2 hero Miguel Olivo who was looking for some more heroics, but it was Stuifbergen who will make his pitch and get Olivo to ground out and get out of the no out jam. No runs. It was the 1st sign of pressure for the Dominicans. Now it was up to Ubaldo Jimenez who also needed to pitch sharp, and sharp he was, as the 1st two hitters he faced in the 4th went down on strikes outs, giving him a total of 9 strike outs, breaking the WBC record of 8 strikeouts in a game. Jimenez would go on to strike out the side for his 10th strikeout of the game in 4 innings of work, as Jimenez was making it look like he was pitching against little leaguers.
In the bottom of the 5th Felipe Alou surprisingly takes out Jimenez and brings in Pedro Martinez, I began to wonder how many pitches did Jimenez throw? but here was Pedro. Trying to do the same as Jimenez, Pedro now had the pressure on him to try and keep the Netherlands from scoring. But when was the Dominican Republic going to score? The game enters the 6th inning, and for the Dominicans I had the feeling that the game was beginning to slip away. The game felt similar to last night's game between Puerto Rico and these same Netherlands who had a 1-0 lead going into the 8th but lost the game 3-2, the only difference, no one had scored yet.
The Netherlands were once again in it to win it, showing in all 3 games that they can hang, but could they do it again? In the Dominican 6th, Nelson Cruz walks again, setting up a 1st & 2nd 2 out situation for Miguel Olivo, but Olivo was not able to delivered once again. It will have to wait.
The game just kept moving along as Pedro Martinez was now working on his 3rd inning of work, still scoreless, sooner or later the Dominicans were going to score. Pedro would get all 3 in the 7th, as the Dominicans came to bat in the 8th.
A hero was now needed to step up for La Patria, but who was it going to be?
will anyone show up? the Dominican Republic is not suppose to lose to the Netherlands again.
The Netherlands made a pitching change in the 8th and in came Dennis Neuman who quickly struck out Miguel Tejada. Up next was Jose Guillen who flied out weakly to left. Neuman now faced Robinson Cano and quickly got ahead 1-2, but then Cano got into a Neuman pitch and drilled it to deep right, but it was just the 3rd out.
In the Netherlands 8th, Felipe Alou brings in Tony Pena. Pena would get all 3 hitters he faced moving the game into the 9th, as the Dominicans now had one last chance to avoid extra innings, and a possible walk off defeat.
Dennis Neuman was still on the mound, when Nelson Cruz hit one on the screws, one of the many balls hit hard for the Dominican Republic and again it was just an out.
No breaks here. It was Miguel Olivo turn to drive one deep, and again it would be shy of the warning track. 2 outs. Maybe the Dominicans were trying to hard to win it with one swing, it sure looked that way.
The new pitcher for the Netherlands was Diegomar Markwell who got the 1st 2 batters, then Jose Reyes singled. Felipe Alou then pinch hits for Willy Tavares and inserts his 42 year old son Moises Alou. Markwell quickly gets ahead 0-2 on Alou and who would ground out weakly for the 3rd out. The bottom of the 9th was now here.
On the mound for the DR was Rafael Perez, who got the 1st batter he faced, but then lead off hitter Gene Kingsdale chopped a chopper to Jose Reyes who miss played the bouncer into an error, the winning run was now on. But then Kingsdale would not last long on the bases as he was immediately forced out at 2nd for the 2nd out. Perez then gets the veteran Randall Simon for the 3rd out. Extra innings!!!
It was in the top of the 11th were the Dominicans finally caught a break when with 2 outs Jose Reyes walked bringing up Jose Bautista who hit a sinking liner to the right fielder Gene Kingsdale who played it into a triple, giving the Dominicans a 1-0 lead when Reyes came around to start the immature celebration for the Dominicans. Hanley Ramirez would then strike out to end the inning leaving Bautista at 3rd, but the Dominicans now had their break. In the bottom of the 11th, Felipe Alou gave the ball to his closer Carlos Marmol who was making his debut in the tournament, but the tension only got bigger when the lead off hitter Sidney de Jong ripped a double spliting Cruz & Bautista, it was the 1st real hard hit ball for the Netherlands, just in the knick of time. Here we go again. De Jong was now just 90feet away when he moved over to 3rd on a ground out. Up next was Gene Kingsdale who was looking to take back what he had just given the Dominicans just a half of inning ago. Marmol blows 2 fastballs right by Kingsdale to get ahead, as he looked over matched. But Kingsdale would indeed take it back from the Dominicans when put the bat on the ball blooping a single to tie the game at 1.
Marmol could not get the job done and now made it even worst when he tried to pick off Kingsdale at 1st, throwing the ball wildly into foul territory as Kingsdale was now standing at 3rd with the winning run, as now Marmol was now looking like the goat. He would then strike out Sharloon Schoop for the 2nd out, maybe they might get out of this mess. Marmol would then intentionally walk lefty Randall Simon to pitch to the righty Yurendell de Caster.
what would happen next was stunning to see as De Caster grounder would bounce off the glove of 1st basemen Willy Aybar for the error and the win for the Netherlands.
The celebration was now on for the Netherlands, and once again they and done it to the mighty Dominicans.
It reminded me of a few years ago when the Dominicans lost to Venezuela in the Carribean World Series, when the ball would bounce of the head Erick Aybar, Willy's brother, to lose the game in pretty much the same fashion, embarrassing.
The Dominicans lost 2 games to the Netherlands and must now wait 4 years to try and erase the pain of this hard to swallow defeat.
So who was the goat for the Dominicans? one would say Carlos Marmol & Willy Aybar for their performance in that final inning, but I would have to put that goat label on the Dominican offense who seemingly choked throughout in their 2 games against the Netherlands and could not even manufacture a single run. Simply the mighty Dominican bats were the reason why all this went down the way it did. The look on the Dominican bench after the defeat was of pure shock, like they rather be dead.
Reyes, Cano, Volquez & Cruz were all seen with faces that said what the hell!
The republic of baseball, the Domincan Republic, will now have a long time to think of what had just happened, and must find a way to get serious, because in the Dominican Republic people are serious about their baseball. Maybe the pressure to win was just to much for these high price big leaguers, it sure looked that way.
1 comment:
That picture says it all.
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