MIAMI – There was no sample-size randomness to help Canada pull off an epic upset of the ridiculously stacked Dominican Republic, the type of any-given-day stuff that sometimes allows a 39-year-old retired for three years and barely touching 90 mph to shut down a collection of all-stars.
Sure, Ryan Dempster managed to emerge from a hard contact-filled first unscathed. But four batters into the second it was 3-0 for the defending World Baseball Classic champions and he was fortunate to only surrender one more over the next five batters before the inning was over.
An early deficit on top of an already stiff mismatch was too much for the overmatched Canadians to overcome Thursday, a 9-2 thumping from the dancing and dominating Dominicans leaving them with no margin for error from here on out.
Following an off-day Friday, Canada will send Philadelphia Phillies prospect Nick Pivetta to the mound Saturday against Julio Teheran and the Colombians in a must-win, with another back-against-the-wall contest to follow Sunday versus the similarly stacked United States.
The pressure to perform on a given day, one so counter-intuitive to baseball’s inherent everyday grind, can make it difficult to play as the favourite in tournaments like the Classic, but the Dominicans were on point from the get-go.
St. Louis Cardinals ace Carlos Martinez dotted BBs for four dominant innings, inducing a weak 5-3 grounder from Justin Morneau in the first on a pitch clocked at 101 mph. The only run against him the Canadians managed was on a balk and the 4-1 lead he handed to a power-arm loaded bullpen was never threatened.
Still, the Canadians hung with them until the sixth, when consecutive singles off Kevin Chapman to open the inning set the stage for Jose Bautista, who crushed a 2-0 fastball to the concourse behind the left-field bleachers. That made it 8-2 and the only question that remained was whether Canada could avoid the mercy rule and not burn too many relievers.
A predominantly Dominican crowd of 27,388 made Marlins Park feel like a stadium in Santo Domingo, the fans singing and dancing in the standings while the players exited the dugout to celebrate each returning runner after he scored.
“I think it can make a huge difference,” Bautista said of the Dominicans’ camaraderie. “As long as you put the name on the front before the name on the back, just like you do during the regular season, it can take you a long ways. But playing for your country means a lot. … 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.”
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DEMPSTER’S DUE: Forget the result, Ryan Dempster taking the mound after not throwing a pitch of consequence since the 2013 World Series with the stuff he was featuring showed a remarkable amount of courage.
Relying heavily on his splitter, he tried to nibble on the edges of the zone but couldn’t get the Dominicans to expand. They got to him in the second when Nelson Cruz opened the inning with a double and scored on Gregory Polanco’s RBI single before Welington Castillo went oppo for a two-run shot.
Jose Bautista capped the rally by poking a chopper through the 3-4 hole to score Jose Reyes.
Dempster allowed four runs on seven hits and a walk with a strikeout – on a Bautista check swing – in two innings, but threw only 49 pitches, so he’ll be eligible to pitch in one of Canada’s next two games.
Whether or not his body will allow him to is another matter.
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PLAY SOME D: Canada executed a beautiful relay in the fifth inning to cut down Jose Bautista at home and keep a one-run Dominican rally from opening up even further. Dalton Pompey picked up Carlos Santana’s smash to centre by the 407 mark on the wall, made a perfect throw to shortstop Jonathan Malo, who fired a perfect strike to George Kottaras at home, who comfortably tagged Bautista, trying to score from first, for the out.
The out kept the score at 4-2, but Adrian Beltre soon cashed in Santana with a single that made it 5-2 before Kevin Chapman took over from Jim Henderson and escaped the jam.
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A FOR ALBERS: The best Canadian pitching line of the night belonged to Andrew Albers, who threw two shutout innings in relief of Ryan Dempster to really stabilize the game for Canada.
He allowed only a two-out Manny Machado single in the fourth, quickly recovering to get Robinson Cano on a groundout. More importantly, he used only 28 pitches, and will be a candidate to either pitch against Colombia on Saturday or perhaps start versus the Americans on Sunday.
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MALO THE MAN: Not only did Jonathan Malo, a 33-year-old who spent the past five seasons playing for the Quebec Capitales of the independent Can-Am League, show up in the field, he did so on the basepaths, too.
In the third, he got down the line hard to force Jose Reyes into a throwing error that pushed him to second, and eventually he scored on a Carlos Martinez balk to cut into a 4-0 Dominican lead. Then in the fifth, he avoided a double play by charging up the line and promptly scored on Dalton Pompey’s double.
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SEIZE THE MOMENT: International tournaments are inherently cutthroat and Pete Orr, a veteran of more than his share of events, believes baseball players must make a mental adjustment when playing in them.
“There’s no waiting around. You don’t get the chance to necessarily feel things out. The game’s halfway over or all the way over at that point,” he said. “You don’t have to be overaggressive or play out of, try to do things you don’t normally do, but you got to be prepared to do them right away, that’s for sure.
“It’s a Game-7 situation every game you play and you have to be ready to take advantage of everything you can do. It’s hard that way because when you play a 162-game schedule, you train yourself in your mind. If you played this way for 162 games, you would burn out. So you have to kind of adjust the way your mind plays the game.”
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