World Baseball Classic Day 6: Team USA hits a speed bump vs. Mexico
By Bill Felber
World Baseball Classic: Australia 8, Czech Republic 3
In Tokyo, Australia wrapped up advancement to the quarterfinals by eliminating the Czechs in what amounted to a play-in game.
Australia finished 3-1 in Group B, one game behind the powerhouse Japanese hosts. Had the Aussies lost, the identity of the group runner-up would have been thrown to the WBC’s intricate tie-breaking system, with the Czechs and Korea also in play.
That wasn’t necessary because Australia broke open a 1-1 tie with seven runs in the game’s final three innings. It marks the first time in WBC history that Australia survived the Group stage play.
Monday’s game was closer than the final score suggests. Australia broke on top when the game’s second batter, Alex Hall, homered, but the Czechs tied it on Eric Sogard’s third inning run-producing hit, and that’s where things stood into the seventh.
That’s when Marek Minarik, the second Czech pitcher and a former U.S. farm system product, could not contain the Australia offense. A single and walk set the stage for Logan Wade, whose double high off the right field wall brought both runners home.
Hall added two more runs with a double of his own in the eighth. In the ninth, reliever Jon Kennedy squelched a final Czech threat by inducing a game-ending double play off the bat of Jakob Kubica.