U.S. nets spot in WBC final
MIAMI — Trea Turner, Paul Goldschmidt and an unrelenting U.S. lineup kept putting crooked numbers on the scoreboard, a dynamic display of the huge gap between an American team of major leaguers and Cubans struggling on the world stage as top players have left the island nation.
Turner homered twice to give him a tournament-leading four, driving in four runs to lead the U.S. to a 14-2 rout Sunday night and advance the defending champion Americans to the World Baseball Classic final.
Goldschmidt also homered and had four RBIS and Cedric Mullins went deep in a game interrupted three times by fans running on the field to display protest signs.
“The team kind of represents the government over there, and people aren’t too happy about it,” U.S. manager Mark Derosa said.
The U.S. plays Japan or Mexico in Tuesday night’s championship,
trying to join Japan as the only nations to win the title twice.
“I think it took us a little bit of time, but now we kind of found our stride a little bit,” Turner said.
Turner has a tournament-leading 10 RBIS. He followed his go-ahead, eighth-inning grand slam a night earlier against Venezuela with a solo homer in the second inning off Roenis Elias (0-1) and a three-run drive in the sixth against Elian Leyva.
“I kept saying every time he went deep, who is the idiot that’s hitting him ninth?” Derosa said.
Cuba went ahead when its first four batters reached off Adam Wainwright (2-0) without getting a ball out of the infield. After forcing in a run with a walk to Alfredo Despaigne, the 41-year-old righthander recovered to strand the bases loaded.
American batters had 14 hits, including eight for extra bases, and seven walks as they scored in seven of eight innings — five with multiple runs. Goldschmidt hit a
go-ahead, two-run homer in the first on a 112 mph rocket high over the leftfield wall. He added a two-run single in the fifth.
“For me that was one of my favorite home runs I’ve ever hit in my entire life,” Goldschmidt said.
degrom solid in 1st Rangers start
The pertinent stats from Jacob degrom’s first exhibition start as a Ranger on Sunday: 34 pitches, 28 strikes; eight swings and misses on the way to four strikeouts in three scoreless innings against Seattle; a fastball that ranged from 97 to 100 mph.
“And I think he would tell you,” said catcher Mitch Garver, who caught all nine innings of a 2-1 win, “it was not his best outing.”
Could have fooled us. Rangers starting pitchers haven’t allowed a run since Monday, going 162⁄3 scoreless.
A lot of the crowd was Seattle fans. But there was a big crowd hanging over the bullpen to watch degrom warm up. It was
crowded in the bullpen, too. Everybody wanted a look. Cole Ragans, the most studious of the Rangers’ young pitchers, wanted to spend as much time as possible observing degrom’s mechanics “because they are as good as you can get.”
Don’t just take the Rangers’ word for it. Consider the plight of poor Cooper Hummel, Seattle’s first baseman Sunday. He got a taste of the big leagues last year but had never faced degrom. In the first inning, with a runner on third and two outs, he couldn’t catch up to a 99 mph fastball, then twisted himself into fusilli on 91 mph slider and then was late again on 99 at the top of the zone. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good night.
When he came back up the second time around, just after degrom left the game, he stepped into the box, looked at Garver and said: “That was a nightmare.”
You get the feeling it won’t be the last time Garver has such an exchange this season.