SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – The Canadians were so hyped for their World Baseball Classic opener that, led by Michael Soroka, they charged out from the dugout for the first pitch before being cued and had to be pulled back from the field. A game official spoke to Josh Naylor and Tyler O’Neill by the dugout while the managers were brought out to exchange lineups at home plate, where there was a surprise in store, and only once through with the formalities could the festivities begin.
When they finally did, the Naylor brothers set the tone with their defensive play as Soroka settled in and Owen Caissie delivered a key early blow with a two-run homer before the offence added late in an 8-2 victory over Colombia on Saturday.
“I felt like we let it rip early and often,” said Soroka.
No doubt, and that included shaking off a last-minute Colombian pitching change revealed during the meeting between managers and umpires at the plate, with Texas Rangers farmhand Austin Bergner subbed in for former big-leaguer Julio Teheran, whom the club said had been diagnosed with a shoulder impingement that flared up during warmups.
“Sometimes you see in international play the little trickery that goes on, but I wouldn't think that from Jose (Mosquera),” manager Ernie Whitt said of his Colombian counterpart. “It was honest.”
No matter, the result gave the Canadians firm control of their fate heading into their Sunday clash with Panama, when Jameson Taillon gets the ball, while the Colombians, at 0-2, are suddenly on the precipice.
Fates can, of course, change quickly amid the unpredictability of small-sample sizes in a mid-spring timeframe, which is why the Canadians will be most pleased by the repeatable elements — strong work in the field, strike-throwing on the mound, tenacious at-bats — of their opening victory.
“We emphasized taking care of the baseball, taking care of the little things because over the whole game, those things add up, and they make the difference through nine,” said Bo Naylor, key on all fronts in this one. “It's just a matter of playing the game the right way and continuing to play the game that we know how to play.”
The Colombians helped some of that along as they squandered a promising first, when Michael Arroyo at third with one out, charged home on Reynaldo Rodriguez's grounder to first. Josh Naylor fielded it clean, relayed to his brother at home for an easy second out and Bo Naylor then threw out Rodriguez trying to steal second to end the frame.
Undeterred, Colombia tested the Cleveland Guardians catcher again the next inning and when Jesus Marriaga was cut down comfortably, ending consecutive innings with an out at second.
“We knew coming in this team was going to run a little bit, they were going to play small ball and push the ball the other way,” said Soroka. “Bo did a good job getting rid of it and finding those outs, which was huge.”
Canada got rolling in the second when Abraham Toro dunked a hustle double into left field and an out later, Caissie sent a hanging curveball from Bergner 403 feet to right field, directly to a pair of fans holding a Canadian flag.
“Give the boys a little push start. It never really hurts,” said Caissie. “Getting on the board first in these tournaments really matters. Our gameplan was short, but it worked, I guess.”
Soroka, making his long-awaited return to the senior national team, gave one back in the third on Arroyo’s RBI single, but Canada got that back in bottom half on Toro’s bases-loaded walk and added another in the seventh when Josh Naylor’s RBI single cashed in Denzel Clarke, whose fly ball to right was dropped by Marriaga for a two-base error.
But the Canadians ran themselves out of more that inning on a delayed double steal that resulted in Edouard Julien getting thrown out at home and then exacerbated things in the eighth, when Clarke’s wild relay on Harold Ramirez’s double prevented a potential out at the plate when Arroyo stumbled near the dirt.
The Colombians proceeded to put on the go-ahead run against Micah Ashman but manager Ernie Whitt turned to Royals prospect Eric Cerantola and he threw three straight sliders to Gio Urshela to escape the jam.
“Obviously it was a big spot, but it's all about executing the pitch,” said Cerantola, who’s being groomed. “And after the first couple swings, I had a good idea of what we saw there. It was just go out there, execute and take the the big moment out of it.”
Canada doubled down in the bottom half, as Tyler Black walked, stole second and advanced to third on catcher Daniel Vellojin’s throwing error and scored easy on Toro’s triple to right-centre field. Bo Naylor then cashed him in with a single, Clarke added a sacrifice fly and O’Neill a bases-loaded walk that really padded the advantage.
“Our lineup 1-to-9 is deadly — the pitchers never get a break,” said Caissie. “Eventually we're going to break through and we showed that today.”
That gave Cerantola way more breathing room than he had when he came on, recorded two more outs before Phillippe Aumont got the final out, capping a solid pitching performance that also included three shutout frames in the middle innings from Noah Skirrow.
Skirrow threw only 38 pitches, which gives him a chance to come back and pitch again this round.
“Being efficient is huge,” he said of the keys to pitching in the Classic. “Limiting your walks as much as possible, walks will come back to kill you, it's not getting any movement on the field. You want to try and induce contact as quickly possible and if you get to two strikes, finish the at-bat. Try and stretch the restrictions that we have with pitch counts and make the most of it. For Soroka to get through three there helped a lot.”
Soroka’s final two fastballs of the outing touched 97.2 m.p.h before he froze Rodriguez with a breaking ball to escape a jam in the third, a moment he savoured in an outing he thoroughly enjoyed.
“Right at the end, that’s what it’s all about,” he said. “They’ve got the three-hole hitter up. It's just bats and balls and your stuff versus theirs at that moment. Just enjoy the opportunity to be able to represent the country and do them justice with how you want to battle. … Just continue to do it, hopefully in the next round.”
Whitt then interjected: “I’m looking forward to his next start in Houston.”
A strong first game helps put Canada on its way.
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