The baseball angels guided -again- Cuba and "Team Asere" overcame Australia (4-3) today to label its name at LoanDepot Park, in Miami, United States, venue of the semifinals of the World Classic.
The match at the Tokyo Dome stadium in the Japanese capital was all about "Win or die", and the Caribbean players knew how to use their weapons to emerge victorious and maximize their dreams in a territory that follows their team's progress with ineffable passion.
However, the Aussies opened the scoreboard in the second chapter, with a 400-foot double by Darryll George, a sacrifice bunt by Aaron Whitetefield and a leadoff single through the right field by Rixon Wingrove off the bat of West Indian starter Yariel Rodriguez (3.1, 1C, 2H, 5BB, 4K).
Minutes later, with a pair of outs on the electronic scoreboard, Cuba threatened in the bottom of the episode after a hit by Ariel Martinez and a ticket to Yadir Drake, but Yadil Mujica perished on a harmless fly out to center fielder Whitefield.
True to his strategy, Oceanic manager Dave Nilsson, former major league catcher with the Milwaukee Brewers, took left-hander Steven Kent (2.0, 0C, 1H, 2BB) off the mound, who at 33 years of age fulfilled the mission of holding the West Indies bullpen in a six-out opening.
However, Nilsson placed his trust in right-hander Mitch Neunborn (1.0, 1C, 1H, 1BB, 1K), who was unable to hold the lead, after throwing four pitches out of the zone to Roel Santos, allowing Yoan Moncada's huge homer and Luis Robert Jr.'s ground ball to level the game.
In the fourth inning, the Australians lost a golden opportunity, when Rodriguez, from the Japanese club Dragones de Chunichi, lost the route to home plate against Wingrove and Logan Wade, but reliever Miguel Romero put his arm in to bring calm to the Antillean ship.
An old baseball axiom says that when "when you don't do it, they do it to you" and that's what happened: Cuba produced a three-run run in the bottom of the fifth, thanks to Santos' infield hit, a ticket to Moncada, a deadball to Robert Jr., a sacrifice fly by Alfredo Despaigne, a rocket by Erisbel Arruebarena and a two-run single by Yoelquis Guibert.
With a three-run lead on the stat sheets, the winners decided to take out the winner Romero (2-0, 1.2, 0C, 1H, 1K) and put in left-hander Roenis Elías (2.0, 2C, 2H), who suffered, on the blink of an eye, an error by bullpen man Arruebarena and a home run by Rixon Wingrove to add more drama to the story.
Although with a rebellion of the losers in the eighth, Liván Moinelo (1.0, 0C, 0H, 2BB, 2K) and the savior Raidel Martínez (one, 1.0, 0C, 0H, 2K) finally put an end to Australia's dreams in the main contest of balls and strikes between nations.
This was the third victory over the Aussies in World Classics, as they previously lost 5-4 and 4-3 in the 2009 (Foro Sol, Mexico) and 2017 (Tokyo Dome, Japan) editions.
After an uncertain and unpromising start, the performance of the island breaks the molds of imagination, with an almost unfading resilience, which will have another chapter in four days, thousands of kilometers away from this city, but with the glory just two baseball games away.