Were still in the early stages on the #WBC but I already got the itch for the MLB season to start like Tyron Biggums needs a crack rock.
Day 2 featured 2 games from Pool A and 1 from Pool B.
Pool A: Panama (1-0) 12, Chinese Taipei (0-1) 5
It was nice to have this game on early enough to tune as I commuted to "another day at hell job". While there may not be any standout MLBers, the lineup and rotation has plenty of MLB experience. Rubén Tejada, Jonathan Araúz, and Christian Bethancourt are three recognizable games who combined for six hits and five runs batted in. The Taiwanese pitching struggled to find the zone consistently in the middle innings, but when they did, the Panamanian hitters made it hurt. I’ll leave you with the most impressive highlight from this game, an incredible catch by Panama’s Luis Castillo in the right center gap, who collied Jose Ramos. Both stayed in the game
Pool B: Australia (1-0) 8, Korea (0-1) 7
Heading into this game, all eye were on Korea’s incredible offensive firepower. To be honest, the question wasn’t about whether Korea would win or not, rather, how many runs they would win by. The Australians came ready to go and jumped on the back of its best hitters. This game was absolutely electric, Robbie Glendinning came up with Australia down 2, hits a nuke, pimps it with a bat flip, Australia takes the lead and never looked back.
Pool A: Netherlands (2-0) 3, Panama (1-1) 1
It wasn’t an offensive clinic by any means, however, Jurickson Profar and Xander Bogaerts combined for five hits, including two home runs. In classic Bogaerts form, he yanked a hanging breaker over the left field wall to kick off the scoring in the competition. He was then followed by Profar’s laser beam out of the park a few innings later. Netherlands secured their spot at the top of their pool after beating their two toughest tests, Panama and Cuba.