SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Through the first three days of play in Pool A, Hiram Bithorn Stadium is where good fundamental baseball has gone to die. Seriously, if you’re a coach or instructor looking for do-not-do-this videos to show players, well, there is plenty to choose from, both on the basepaths and in the field.
Canada mostly avoided the slog during an opening 8-2 win over Colombia, pressing the other side and capitalizing on its mistakes, with manager Ernie Whitt saying Sunday that’s a priority “in every tournament we play in. You give extra outs, you give the opportunity to score more runs. It adds onto our pitcher’s (pitch) count, which, of course, we’re limited to anyway. It’s important to play clean.”
Several hours later, after a rain delay pushed back first pitch some 60 minutes, the Canadians were, for the most part, again doing that before they slipped in a gruesome sixth inning that, suddenly, muddled their path forward in this tournament.
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A 4-3 loss to Panama dropped them to 1-1, behind 2-0 Cuba and Puerto Rico, who meet in a pivotal clash Monday night. Canada is off until Tuesday, when they will likely start Jordan Balazovic against the Pool A hosts. Panama (1-2) meets Colombia (0-3) on Monday, with the winner avoiding the need to requalify for the next World Baseball Classic.
Underlining the dangers of even a momentary lapse, Canada carried a 2-1 lead into the sixth inning, where they handed the ball to James Paxton, the veteran lefty who last pitched in the majors Aug. 11, 2024, when he left with an injury, and retired after the season.
He walked leadoff man Jose Ramos, and after the wind knocked down an Edmundo Sosa rocket that might otherwise have landed in the left-field bleachers, Josh Naylor dropped a clean relay from third baseman Abraham Toro on what should have been the second out.
After a Luis Castillo pop-out, Miguel Amaya’s grounder was knocked down by sliding second baseman Edouard Julien, who couldn’t relay to load the bases. Pinch-hitter Ruben Tejada followed with a bouncer up the middle that Otto Lopez kept in the infield as the tying run scored, and then his relay home was unwisely cut off by Paxton, allowing another to cross when an out was available. Enrique Bradfield Jr. followed with yet another grounder that remained in the infield. Julien bare-handed it, but was unable to get his footing set for a relay.
By the time Jose Caballero flew out to end the inning, Panama had taken a 4-2 lead without pushing a ball out of the infield, Paxton bled despite featuring good stuff and touching 95, and it was just as ugly as all that sounds. Compounding matters is that Laval, Que., born lefty Miguel Cienfuegos stuffed them on just seven pitches in the bottom half of the sixth, keeping the heat reversed.
It wasn’t until the eighth that Canada managed to regain momentum, a tremendous defensive play helping them turn the tide.
Owen Caissie collected a Caballero double in left field, relayed it to Lopez, who fired home to get Bradfield, holding the deficit at 4-2. In the bottom half, Caissie hammered a Humberto Mejia changeup to straightaway centre for a double that cashed in Bo Naylor, but pinch-hitter Tyler Black struck out to end that rally.
Jameson Taillon delivered 3.2 innings of one-run ball and did his part to get Canada off to a good start. He settled after allowing an Enrique Bradfield Jr. bunt single that Toro threw away and a walk to Caballero, getting a Leo Bernal double-play ball before escaping unharmed on a Sosa strikeout.
That was the first of seven straight Panama hitters he retired, a streak broken by Leo Bernal’s single leading off the fourth. Two outs later, he was at 58 pitches – the first-round limit is 65 – and Antoine Jean took over, surrendering consecutive singles to Christian Bethancourt and Castillo to tie the game 1-1.
A two-out rally in the bottom half off Jamie Barria restored Canada’s edge as two-out singles by Bo Naylor, Caissie and Denzel Clarke cashed in the go-ahead run. Abraham Toro’s run-scoring double in the second, his third RBI of the tournament, opened the scoring, but he was stranded there, one of many chances the Canadians failed to capitalize on.
