World Baseball Classic: Puerto Rico 9, Nicaragua 1
Puerto Rico laid down its marker in the challenging Miami-based Group D with a decisive opening victory.
One key was the performance of a half-dozen Puerto Rico pitchers led by Cubs starter Marcus Stroman. He pitched four and two-thirds innings of two-hit ball, and his successors surrendered only two more hits while walking just one.
Francisco Lindor had two hits, and one of those (a too-hot-to-handle grounder to first) ignited a five-run Puerto Rico fifth inning that broke a 1-1 tie. Royals outfielder M. J. Melendez, Diamondbacks infield prospect Emmanuel Rivera, and Twins catcher Christian Vazquez each drove in two runs for the winners.
Brewers prospect Carlos Rodriguez gave Nicaragua four strong innings, allowing just one run. But the Puerto Ricans lit up his successor, Angels reliever J.C. Ramirez, for three hits and a walk in that five-run fifth. Ramirez retired only one batter.
The winners added three insurance runs in the seventh, two of them coming home on Vazquez’s base hit.
White Sox farmhand Nicholas Padilla faced only one batter taking over for Stroman with two outs in the fourth. He got Alex Blandino on an infield grounder, and picked up the victory as the pitcher of record when his teammates posted that five-run fifth.