To begin its Pool D quest in the 2026 World Baseball Classic Friday night at loanDepot Park, Dominican Republic, one of the most talented teams of the tournament, defeated Nicaragua by a final of 12-3.
With 14 hits overall, including a Junior Caminero two-run home run, Julio Rodríguez solo-blast and towering three-run bomb from Oneil Cruz, Nicaragua had no answer for the D.R. after a lot of back-and-forth baseball early on.
Nicaragua took the lead to open the game, lost it, regained it shortly after in the second inning, saw it get tied and lost it again in the sixth which was when J-Rod connected on his 393-foot HR, a game-breaking swing.
Though, with all the momentum swings and fight from Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic must have felt at ease no matter what was listed on the scoreboard.
And it showed.
That confidence and swagger has much to do with the team’s roster, one that doesn’t contain many holes and is guided by general manager Nelson Cruz and skipper Albert Pujols.
A stacked lineup from one to nine essentially, while several elite names remain ready off the bench, like Cruz, who made all of 35,127 at the Marlins’ home ballpark in Miami stand up and jump with his 450-foot homer during the eighth inning.
Add in a starting rotation of LHP Cristopher Sánchez (Friday’s starter for the Dominican Republic, going just 1.1 innings with three earned runs allowed and four strikeouts), RHP Brayan Bello, RHP Luis Severino and RHP Sandy Alcántara, paired along to a bullpen of RHP Carlos Estévez, RHP Camilo Doval, RHP Huascar Brazobán and LHP Gregory Soto, among others.
“I think everybody is loose,” said Pujols following D.R.’s win Friday night. “They know that’s just one pitch, one at-bat before that often clicks in. I think it happens after Junior’s at-bat right there, starting off with our captain Manny Machado with a double. It was pretty impressive the quality of at-bats.
You have to give credit especially early in the game to Nicaragua pitching. They were keeping our guys off balance and we made the adjustment that we had to make to score some runs later on.”
Machado Flashin’ The Leather
On the defensive side of the diamond, flashing the leather all night long was Dominican Republic’s captain Manny Machado, who had back-to-back breathtaking plays at the hot corner of third in the eighth inning where he secured two backhand ground balls and completed each throw off balance to nail the runner at first base with time to spare.
Julio Rodríguez on Machado: “He’s the minister of defense, right? Incredible. Incredible. The first play was with a ball that was higher and the other one was with the ball lower.”
Albert Pujols: “He’s like a vacuum cleaner on third base. If he catches a ball, he will make the out at first.”
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