Mexico shocks US with 11-5 rout at World Baseball Classic
Team USA was beaten by Meneses Mauler on Sunday night, Washington Nationals slugger Joey Meneses smashed two homers and drove five runs to lead Mexico to 11-5 Baseball World Classic victory in front of a rowdy sold-out crowd of 47,534 at Chase Field.
Meneses, a 30-year-old journeyman who played 10 years in the minor leagues and 10 winterball seasons in Mexico ahead of his breakthrough 2022 season with the national team, sent a 109 mph screamer into left field. , off San Diego Padres right-hander Nick Martinez for a homer with two runs in the first half.
Menezes went into the singles infield and scored in the third inning to give a 3–1 lead. The first baseman then followed Randy Arozarena’s RBI double and Alex Verdugo a walk with a towering three-run homer to left field from Kansas City Royals right-hander Brady Singer for a 7-1 lead in the fourth.
Meneses, who hit .324 with a .930 slugging percentage, 13 homers and 34 RBIs in 56 games for Washington last season, punctuated his second throw with a bat flip, tossing his log about 20 feet. into the air in front of Mexico’s first base dugout, while his teammates, including the lefty Dodgers Julio Urias – got mad.
Urias and Meneses, both from Culiacan, have known each other since childhood but have never played together because Meneses is four years older than Urias (26).
Meneses has been starring in the winter ball Los Tomateros de Culiacán for many years. Urias said last year that he wants to end his career at Los Tomateros.
Angels left-hander Patrick Sandoval threw three one-run, two-hit innings, while Chicago Cubs right-hander Javier Asad threw three scoreless one-hit innings to help Mexico climb to 1-1 in Group C. Team USA dropped to 1.-1, making his path to the WBC quarter-finals in Miami a little more treacherous.
Canada and Colombia 1-0. The US could take the place in Miami by defeating Canada on Monday night and Colombia on Wednesday night.
The battle between Angels teammates ended in a tie, with Sandoval taking out US team center fielder Mike Trout, who looked down and in at the slider in the first inning, and Trout making the only walk to close nine fields at bat. in third.
Trout fouled three full-score sliders in the third inning, all down and forward, before taking a fastball for the fourth ball. Sandoval avoided further damage by bowling out No. 1. 3 hitter Paul Goldschmidt with a nasty slider and getting sweeper Nolan Arenado to land to shortstop to maintain a 3-1 lead.
Sandoval struck out two and walked two in his 55-inning start, conceding his only run as Kyle Tucker hit a one-out triple to right field and scored on a Tim Anderson single from right in the second.
Catchers Dodgers Will Smith and Austin Barnes also took on each other with Barnes, who plays for Mexico, stealing second base from Smith in the sixth inning. Smith hit a solo homer from the left to cut Mexico’s lead to 7-2.
Mexico made four more tries from Colorado, closing on Daniel Bard in eighth thanks to Arozarena’s RBI double, Rowdy Tellez’s two-run single, and Luis Urias’s RBI single to take it to 11-2 and chase Bard after he threw 33 innings in innings. . . .
USA responded with three runs late in the eighth round to Bobby Witt Jr.’s RBI double and Anderson’s two-run double, but Smith crashed into deep center with runners in second and third to end the inning.