The top eight teams are now set, with the second round of the Classic slated to start Saturday from Dolphins Stadium in Miami. All the teams that I predicted were going to the second round advanced, except one very BIG notable exception. The Dutch team is going and the Dominican Republic is not. How weird is that?? The Dutch managed to pull the upset of the century by beating the Dominican team TWICE in pool play. The Dominicans should be embarrassed. Felipe Alou shouldn't managed them again. Next up for the Dutch, they will play Venezuela to begin the second round while the US will meet with undefeated Puerto Rico.
On the other side, Mexico and Cuba still need to battle out who will win their pool with a game tonight (I think Cuba will win) and then the winner will face Japan while whoever loses will meet with the team from Korea. And there you have it. The top eight team. The Elite Eight. Let's play some ball!
Yes. That one shocked the hell out of me! The Dutch! . .. Wow!!!!
ReplyDeleteShabby defense did it for the Dominicans and of course the Dutch capitalized on that on both games. They were great games to watch too!
ReplyDeleteDin't the Dutch win like 2 to 1? I'd say it was either the Dutch pitching that won the game ( which makes no sense) or a complete lack of dominican hitting (which is more likely), which shows that it's good to have some bashers on the team, but only when it's tempered with some on base percentage.
ReplyDeleteOf course this is only conjecture on my part. I didn't see the game, I'm not sure what the actual score was, and I don't actually know who is on either team. So with that in mind, how accurate is my assessment, do you think?
I think it was both. They (the Dutch) played 5 games, all against elite baseball nations (D.R., Puerto Rico, Venezuela, U.S.) and were able to hang in there in each one of those games. So the pitching is obviously there for the Dutch. The Dominicans were simply outplayed and outpitched. Good pitching always beat good hitting.
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