Canada left with two pathways to reach World Baseball Classic quarterfinals

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — One of the advantages of the Canadians’ Pool A schedule at the World Baseball Classic was that by the time their final two games arrived, they would know exactly what they needed to do to advance. 

Well, heading into Tuesday night’s pivotal matchup with Puerto Rico (Sportsnet, 7 p.m. ET), that clarity is here and there are two ways for them to join their group hosts in the tournament quarterfinals.

The cleanest path forward is for the Canadians to win both Tuesday’s contest and Wednesday’s finale versus Cuba, securing the group’s top spot in the process. 

Alternatively, they can also advance by simply beating Cuba, as both teams would finish 2-2 with Canada holding the tiebreaker. That’s the only split that works, however, as a win over Puerto Rico and a loss to Cuba would leave both those countries at 3-1 with Canada at 2-2, the real penalty for their 4-3 loss to Panama on Sunday.

Canada starts Jordan Balazovic against Puerto Rico, which will counter with Jose De Leon, said manager Yadier Molina, who was going to speak with some of his position players to gauge whether they could use a break or preferred to run straight through.

“We'll see,” he said of his plan. “We’re going to come out and try to put the best team out there to try to win the game. We trust everyone, and I know whoever we put in, they're going to give me 100 per cent.”

Cal Quantrill, meanwhile, will start Wednesday when Cuba will turn back to Livan Moinello, who threw 59 pitches over 3.2 innings Friday in a 3-1 win over Panama. He’s eligible to pitch again in the first round because he’ll have had four days of rest since, a benefit to the way their schedule lined up.

The 30-year-old lefty struck out 172 in 167 innings with a 1.46 ERA for the Softbank Hawks last season, his ninth in Japan. Cuba manager German Mesa planned to watch Tuesday’s game to get ready for the pivotal finale.

“They have good players. I've seen them in good shape with good players. It's a good team,” he said of his impressions of Canada, in comments translated from Spanish. “We're going to go after it, that's all I can say. But it's a team that looks very good compared to teams of other years.”

Allen vs. Allen

Logan Shane Allen, up and down with the Cleveland Guardians at that point, first met Logan Taylor Allen when the club picked his fellow Floridian, who is also a fellow lefty, in the second round of the 2020 draft. They remained organizational namesakes up until 2022, when the original Allen was claimed off waivers by the Baltimore Orioles, although their bond endured, leading to a unique reunion at the World Baseball Classic.

Logan Shane Allen, born in West Palm Beach to a native Montrealer, stood in front of the Canadian dugout during the national anthems on Sunday, while Logan Taylor Allen, born in Altamonte Springs to a Panamanian mom, was with his Panama teammates at the same time. 

Earlier in the day, they had joked about being “so tired” of all the fuss about their names, with Canadian Allen saying, “his headshot was on MLB Network for me, and mine was for him a couple times through this whole process.”

During the anthems, "I was just saying my prayers like normal, taking it all in for a second, and I see out of the corner of my eye, he didn't move,” he continued. “I was like, now, I'm not moving. TV doesn't see it, but the anthems started at 7:46. We stood there for 14 minutes.”

The standoff, or Allen-off if you prefer, was completely unplanned and was epic. 

Canadian Allen tipped his cap at the umpire crew as they walked by for the pre-game meeting at the plate, “trying to stay on their good side because there is the rule where if you're standing off, the umpires are supposed to eject you. And I know Logan knows that since he's not pitching the rest of the round, he can stand there and whatever. I'm like, oh boy, so then I started sweating a little bit, I'm not giving up. I saw the umpires were kind of laughing and once Ernie (Whitt) got out there, I was, like, OK, I am good, Ernie is not going to let me get tossed.”

As first pitch neared, Canada's hitting coach Justin Morneau suggested rock-paper-scissors to settle matters. 

“You don't want to become a distraction. At that point it was like, I've got to get down to the bullpen, don't want to take anything from (Jameson Taillon),” said Canadian Allen. “I went scissors first, he went rock. He's a crafty lefty, I thought he was going to double up, so I went paper and he went scissors. No way. 

“He texted me after, ‘Dude, that was so fun. I knew you were hot, I didn't want you to get ejected.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I just want you to know that if I wasn’t available that day, I would have stood there until they yanked me off the field.’ I wasn't going to give in.”

Good thing he didn’t get ejected. Canada needed him to get the final out in the top of the ninth, after a 30-minute rain delay mid-inning meant Matt Wilkinson couldn’t return to the game after recording the first two outs. 

The Allen backstory

Logan Shane Allen is friends with Canadian Rowan Wick — “He’s my favourite, Canuck,” he says — and it was the reliever who first put playing for Canada on his radar, telling him that if his dad were a citizen, he’d be eligible for the Classic.

“He's like, ‘You idiot, that's what you need,’” Allen recalled.

Some digging led to a connection with director of national teams Greg Hamilton and an experience that’s left him wishing “I knew what I know now a long time ago, because I would have been around Baseball Canada a lot more growing up.”

Allen’s dad, Norman, was born in Montreal but moved south to play pro hockey, the details of which father never fully shared with son, who is familiar with mostly through old gear found in the basement. 

There are no entries for Norman on websites like hockeyDB.com and “my dad is so tight-lipped, dude,” said Allen. “He's had nine broken noses, broken jaw four times, teeth missing — he was old-school, a gamer. One of the strongest guys I know. I've watched that man break his femur and walk inside and act like nothing happened.”

Wait, what?

“Fell off a ladder, believe it or not,” he replied. “I'll never forget that.”

That happened on a construction site. After he was finished playing hockey, Norman went to the University of Florida, met his wife and Logan’s mom in West Palm Beach and eventually moved to Asheville, N.C., where he worked as an architect/contractor. He was on a job site when a ladder rung broke. 

Eventually, they went back to West Palm Beach, and Allen turned out to be a pretty good baseball player, drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the eighth round in 2015 out of the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. He was part of trades for Craig Kimbrel later that year and a three-way swap that sent Trevor Bauer to the Reds at the 2019 deadline, after he debuted with the Padres.

He’s appeared in 45 big-league games across parts of five seasons and last year pitched for the NC Dinos in Korea. This year, he’s headed to Tijuana in the Mexican league after the Classic, although there’s been some other interest, as well, including from some big-league clubs seeking pitching depth, the Toronto Blue Jays among them. 

Nothing has lined up yet.

"A lot of the opportunities that may have come up could have interfered with this, and I did not want to do that,” he said. “You never might never get to play in this, just like the Olympics, things like that.”

Allen debuted for Canada in an exhibition game at Dunedin, allowing five runs on two hits and five walks in an inning of work, when his dad clandestinely showed up to watch.

“He was pretty teary-eyed,” said Allen. “He didn't even know I was playing. My dad's stubborn. I didn't get a text, I didn't get a phone call, nothing. When my mom and dad showed up, he was all decked out in the red and white, and I was like, wow, you're starting to notice me in some way. He won't admit it, but he does. I'm just grateful to be able to support him and represent Canada.”

All of that has only strengthened Allen’s connection to Canada and Canadian sports, which extend well beyond his friendship with Wick. He’s also close with Montreal Alouettes quarterback Davis Alexander and the two train together during the off-season in Phoenix, where Ottawa-born linebacker Jason Luketa, who recently signed with the New England Patriots, also works out. (Allen throws with Tarik Skubal there, too)

“My whole family says this was 100 per cent meant to be,” said Allen. “I want to help this group as much as possible because there are a lot of guys with restrictions, a lot of guys can't go back-to-back. I'll do whatever. I'm here for this.”

Cienfuegos' moment

Undrafted out of Northwest Florida State junior college but not yet ready to give up on baseball, Miguel Cienfuegos joined the Quebec Capitales of the independent Frontier League in 2021 to continue chasing his dream.

His success there, catapulting him to an opportunity with the San Diego Padres — he finished last season at triple-A — is why he was so happy Pat Scalabrini, his manager in Quebec, was in the stands Sunday as the lefty threw 2.1 perfect innings to earn the win as Panama beat Canada 4-3. 

Cienfuegos figures he doesn’t get to that outing without the opportunity Scalabrini gave him five years earlier.

“To be able to see him after the game was definitely special. Full-circle moment,” said Cienfugeos. “The moment that I stepped into independent ball, the main goal was always to get to the majors, and it is still. We're one step away, we're still trying to make it. I believe it's going to be a special year this year. But honestly, to be able to play my first professional games back home in Quebec in front of the greatest fan base in Frontier League, it’s an honour. And to be able to represent them, my parents, the country and everyone else, all my friends and family that were watching back home in Canada, as well, you can't explain it.”

Cienfugeos was born in Montreal to Panamanian parents who moved north in the 1990’s. He was on Canada’s radar for the Classic but ended up committing to Panama before the national team was ready to commit to him, as several big-league relievers initially planned to participate before they had to withdraw.

“The interest was very, very high and very early from Panama, and I knew that I was going to be loved and enjoyed,” Cienfuegos explained. “I go by the quote of go where you're celebrated, not tolerated. They made it seem like they really wanted me to be part of this and be on the front lines for the country and the team. So for me, it was a no-brainer. … I've never been able to really put the Maple Leaf on my chest, and it's still something that I'm waiting for. Who knows when it's going to happen. But it just went the way it went.”

Cienfuegos also threw a shutout inning against Cuba and returns to Padres camp having allowed no hits and only one walk at the tournament with four strikeouts. 

Quotable

“The style of baseball that's played here, it's about winning, and I wish more teams, and I wish the game was more like this, that feeling that all that matters is if you contribute to the win because that's how you get the best out of people, and that's how everyone buys in. I didn't get a hit (Saturday in Puerto Rico’s 4-3 win over Panama). “I just got a sac fly and I made a diving play, and the way they were treating me was like I hit a walk-off home run. It's incredible what they do out here. And how they feel about the game. They pay attention to the little details and it's eye-opening.” — Nolan Arenado on his experience playing for Puerto Rico