Americans rally past Colombia in 10 innings in WBC, 3-2

Canada, meantime, is now out of the tournament.

Danny Duffy became the third consecutive USA starter to turn in a scoreless performance. The future of Canadian baseball is bright, and yet, Team Canada’s manager, Ernie Whitt, decided relying heavily on retired MLB veteran Ryan Dempster was the way to go against a stacked Team USA lineup in a win-or-go-home affair. Nolan Arenado smacked a three-run against Andrew Albers, which removed any doubt surrounding the outcome.

The only thing the Rays are guilty of is looking out for the best interest of one of their key players.

They couldn’t do that with Miller because he had to accelerate his conditioning to get ready for the WBC and just the kind of situation he faced Sunday in front of a sellout crowd of 37,446.

Welington Castillo delivered the key hit with a tiebreaking, two-run single for the defending champion, one night after its 7-5 victory over the United States.

The U.S. fell to 1-1 and is in jeopardy of being eliminated in the first round. But when you look at it, we won two good games and we lost one tough game where we had a good lead.

Other contests Sunday to complete the Mexico bracket of the 16-team event featuring Major League Baseball talent pit unbeaten Puerto Rico against Italy and winless Mexico against Venezuela. The Israeli baseball team is for real and very well could be in Los Angeles to play in the Championship Round at Dodger Stadium. The three American starters – Chris Archer, Marcus Stroman and Duffy – combined for 12.2 scoreless innings in Pool C.

A US victory, combined with a Dominican victory over surprisingly impressive Colombia, would send both Team USA and the Dominican Republic to San Diego.

Manager Jim Leyland who happens to have a belt of accomplishments already, is leading team USA.

Mexico scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to turn this into a 5-4 game, but Puerto Rico scored four two-out runs after Mexico catcher Xorge Carrillo dropped a foul pop for an error.

“We’re taking it real serious”, Arenado said.

And it wanted to put the memory of their disappointing loss to the Dominican Republic in the rear-view mirror. Roark failed this first exam but has plenty of time to get his head back on straight before the third game of the regular season.

As for Canada, their elimination comes amid an identity crisis.

Canada’s been a part of all four WBCs to date, and they still haven’t made it to the second round.

“It’s a shame that the players have to be anxious about the safety of our family when you were supposed to have security for them”.

Hanging on to Bautista’s throw through hard contact with the sliding Mercado saved the Dominican’s hopes of winning all three of their games in Pool C and clinching a spot in the tournament’s second round next week in San Diego.