Jones, Hosmer homer to lift United States to 4-2 win vs Venezuela

Last night, Nelson Cruz reminded us to not forget about him. Their collective paycheck in 2017 will total a little more than $20 million, roughly two-thirds the salary of the kind of pitcher more casual fans might expect to find on the mound in the later rounds of the World Baseball Classic. Everyone else has either qualified for the semi-finals or been eliminated.

As Jon Morosi reported afterward, Venezuela manager Omar Vizquel lifted Cabrera for “precautionary reasons” and diagnosed his injury as back tightness.

In the first game of this round, the United States came from behind to beat Venezuela.

You also have, in all likelihood, a competition problem given that the Americans’ other competitors in the Petco Park grouping, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, are loaded. Brandon Crawford tripled home two runs to make it 6-5, but Josh Harrison then struck out to end the game.

Angel Pagan hit a chopper to third base that took a amusing hop on Nolan Arenado, whose throw to first bounced under the glove of Eric Hosmer to score two unearned runs and extend Puerto Rico’s lead to 6-3. Perhaps Manny Machado will have something to say about the outcome.

Rougned Odor homered with two outs in the seventh for a 2-0 lead for Venezuela, which beat Italy 4-3 in a tiebreaker game in Guadalajara, Mexico, on Monday night to advance out of Pool D.

There are All-Star lineups on both sides tonight in Petco Park.

Baseball is the best.

Puerto Rico turned up the volume even in batting practice, placing a boom box with a rousing soundtrack just outside the cage.

“Everybody’s done a good job – 1 through 14”, Team USA manager Jim Leyland said before Friday’s game. Our very own Felix Hernandez will be the ace for his home country. The Dominican roster would be a stellar team in Major League Baseball, so they should be enjoyable to watch.

“The WBC here in the United States, I don’t know what it is (but) people don’t really know what’s going on unless you watch MLB Network”, said Baltimore outfielder (and San Diego native) Jones before Wednesday’s game. That team will play Japan on Tuesday night. Any game between the US and the Dominican Republic is the WBC’s marquee matchup, featuring the two most major-league heavy rosters in the tournament.

Puerto Rico advanced to the championship round for the second straight WBC. Mariners closer Edwin Diaz and pitching prospect Emilio Pagan hope to help the rest of the staff advance the team to Round 2.

Marcus Stroman gave up six consecutive singles to start the game, putting the U.S.in a 4-0 hole.

The Indians allowed Francisco Lindor to participate in the tournament for Puerto Rico, but he can only play shortstop or serve as the designated hitter. “That’s why the off-day workouts are so important, because all of the guys can get their work in so they can be ready for the season”.