Written by Dayn Perry at CBSSports.com
Faced with potential elimination, Team USA on Sunday in Miami whipped Canada by a score of 8-0 and in doing so remained alive in the 2017 World Baseball Classic. Canada, meantime, is now out of the tournament.
Starter Danny Duffy was the story for the U.S. He worked four shutout innings, struck out seven without walking a batter, and spotted 44 of his 63 pitches for strikes. On the other side, Canada starter Ryan Dempster didn’t make it out of the first inning. Nolan Arenado homered and drove in three for the Americans.
And now for some things to know about this one …
1. The U.S. is moving on.
Thanks to their heartbreaking loss to the Dominican Republic on Saturday, the U.S. entered Sunday’s game against Canada needing a win in order to advance while avoiding any tiebreaker scenarios. They did just that.
As a result they’ll move on to the second round and be a part of Pool D at Petco Park in San Diego, which gets underway on Tuesday. The U.S.’s first game will be on Wednesday. Other Pool D combatants include the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Venezuela is likely to be the fourth team, but we won’t know that until the conclusion of the late game on Sunday. The top two teams from Pool D will advance to the semifinals in Dodger Stadium.
2. The U.S. once again got strong starting pitching.
Against Colombia on Friday, starter Chris Archer gave the Americans four scoreless frames. Marcus Stroman contributed 4 2/3 shutout innings against the powerful Dominican Republic lineup on Saturday, and then on Sunday Danny Duffy blanked Canada for four innings. So that’s a combined 12 2/3 scoreless innings from the U.S. starting pitchers, and over that span they’ve struck out 14 batters without issuing a walk. That’s dominance.
3. Christian Yelich continues to rake.
The Marlins’ outfielder once again delivered at the plate for Team USA. Yelich entered Sunday’s game against Canada with a batting line of .600/.667/1.000 through the first two games of the tournament. Then he went 2-for-4 against the Canadians with a pair of runs scored. Yelich is rightly regarded as one of the top young talents in all of baseball, and thus far in the 2017 WBC he’s reminded us of that.
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