Dominicans dump hits on Dempster
Everything about this fourth edition of the World Baseball Classic painted Canada as a huge Pool C underdog, led by the fact that manager Ernie Whitt admitted prior to his team’s 9-2 opening game loss to the Dominican Republic, that he had yet to see his starter Ryan Dempster throw a pitch. The first was a leadoff strike against shortstop Jose Reyes.
You go on his word, what he’s doing, people that have seen him throw,” Whitt shrugged. “He’s a veteran guy, he’s pitched in a lot of big ballgames. He knows how to change speeds. Hopefully he’ll miss a lot of barrels.”
But Dempster, Whitt and the Canadians were greeted with a hard dose of reality once the game started. Dempster bobbed and weaved his way through a shutout first inning, surviving a leadoff double by Jose Reyes and a semi-intentional walk to Robinson Cano, but in the second inning the powerful Dominican lineup scored four runs on six hits.
The 41-year-old right-hander, who last pitched in the majors in 2013, threw 49 pitches in two innings and sacrificed himself for the team, leaving with a 4-1 deficit. Canada has always believed it needs two wins to advance and that maybe the Dominicans were the loss that you were going to have to take.
“It was very special for me to put Canada across my chest for the first time in 23 years and represent the country,” Dempster said. “I know I didn’t go out there and get us a win, but I like to think that I represented us in a very classy, hardworking way as Canadians do and I think that’s a great thing.
“I was excited when Greg and Ernie said to me they thought that it could bode well with the experience that I had. Then I saw the lineup and said, well maybe not them. But seriously, it was a tremendous honour to do that, to go out there and start Game 1.”
Canada always tries to gain that slight edge on other WBC teams using the “us against them” mentality of being a permanent underdog.
As Whitt put it in his initial press conference, “If I asked Justin Morneau to bunt, he would bunt.” Morneau was asked to react to that statement and put Canada’s esprit de corps in perspective.
“At this point everyone that’s here is willing to do anything they can,” Morneau agreed. “I’ve been on the previous three teams and we haven’t made it out of the first round yet. I think anyone that’s here is really willing to do, if it calls for a bunt, bunt, hit-and-run, whatever it is, I think that guys will do that.
“It’s fun in these short tournaments because you get guys in roles maybe that they’re not used to or in different situations, so if it’s some- thing that’s asked, everyone’s willing to do whatever they need to do to win that game.
“It’s really like playoff baseball. We saw it last year with closers being used in the fifth inning and all that stuff.
“That’s the similar type of situation you can look at in these games.”
The problem for Canada was that the Dominican team walked though the 2013 WBC using basically the same mantra of “team before individual” and when two opponents are playing with the same passion, talent usually prevails. Jose Bautista hit cleanup and played left field for his team and spoke of teamwork.
“I think it can make a huge difference,” Bautista said as he dutifully worked his way through a series of Spanish language interviews at the end of batting practice. “As long as you put the name on the front before the name on the back, it can take you a long way. But playing for your country means a lot.”
Bautista made a huge impression in his first WBC action since 2009. He was 3-for-4 with a three-run homer and four RBIs.
“When you don’t get to be the favourite — unfortunately, Canada in baseball — and when you have expectations to the level you do when you’re the Dominican Republic, I think you have enough motivation to get the people in the clubhouse riled up.
“I don’t want people to misunderstand. Just because Canada is not picked to be a favourite, I don’t mean that they’re not a great team, because they are.”
There’s playing for your team as opposed to playing for yourself, but in the case of first baseman Freddie Freeman, there is a third part to the equation of who are you playing for. It’s his late mother, Rosemary, his dad Fred and his family. He has dedicated his participation in this tournament to his Toronto-born mom who passed away of melanoma when he was 10 years old.
“Seeing my name hanging (in my locker) with the Canada on it was pretty special,” Freeman said, with his father present, in the corner of the interview room.
“I actually took a picture of it and sent it to the Freeman family right away and it was pretty special just to see it. I never thought that would happen. I want to do anything I could to honour my mother and I think that this is the greatest way to do it.”
At 6:34 p.m. at Marlins Park, Freeman stepped up to the plate wearing Canada across his chest in a real game for the first time and went from honorary Canadian to Canadian star. Manny Machado robbed Freeman of a hit with a spectacular diving catch into the hole between third and short.