GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Jose Quintana looked to be in midseason form Friday night, when he took a no-hitter into the sixth inning in Colombia's World Baseball Classic opener against the United States at Marlins Park in Miami.
Quintana allowed one run on one hit with one walk and four strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings, with his outing cut short after 63 pitches due to the WBC's 65-pitch limit for starters. And he did it against a stacked American lineup, too, featuring perennial All-Stars like Nolan Arenado, Buster Posey and Giancarlo Stanton.
"He's really, really, really good," White Sox left-hander Carlos Rodon said. "It's hard to say he's underrated. He faced an All-Star lineup and literally no hit them. That speaks for itself."
Quintana left with a 2-0 lead but earned a no-decision -- an all-too-frequent occurrence for him on 35th and Shields since 2012 -- as the United States rallied to win, 3-2, in the 10th inning.
"Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things." George Carlin
To get that first title the U.S. will have to avenge one of its two losses from this year’s event, against a Puerto Rico team that is not hurting for big names, what with Carlos Correa, Francisco Lindor, Yadier Molina, Javier Baez and Carlos Beltran. Those players are just a few of the reasons why that squad has rolled through the bracket, going 7-0 and outscoring its opponents 55-18 (the U.S., by comparison, is 5-2 with a 33-21 run differential).
Four of those runs came against Team USA’s Marcus Stroman, who will start Wednesday’s final. The Puerto Ricans started last Friday’s game against Stroman by stringing together six straight hits and jumping out to a big lead, eventually holding on for a 6-5 win. Stroman did settle down after that rough beginning, not allowing another run in the rest of his 4 2/3 innings of work, but he needs to keep the U.S. in the game early.
In that same game the U.S. got to Puerto Rico’s starting pitcher, Seth Lugo, for three runs on five hits in 5 2/3 innings, and will get another chance at him on Wednesday. Both Jones and Buster Posey had home runs off Lugo in that game. Posey has sometimes been kept out of the starting lineup by manager Jim Leyland in favor of Jonathan Lucroy, but expect to see him in there against the Puerto Ricans in the final.
"Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things." George Carlin
It took four tries, but the United States finally won one of these things. Behind a dominant pitching performance by Marcus Stroman, and following a home run by Ian Kinsler, the USA shut out Puerto Rico 8-0 in the championship game Wednesday in Los Angeles.
It marked the USA’s first appearance in the tournament finals, and they’re the third country to win in the tournament’s four editions. They beat both former champions along the way — Japan in the semifinals and the Dominican Republic in the quarterfinals.
The story of the day was USA starting pitcher Marcus Stroman, who brilliantly rendered the Puerto Rican bats toothless for much of the evening while taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning. After a lengthy time watching while his team scored three runs in the top half of the frame, he allowed a leadoff double to Angel Pagan in the bottom half. Stroman left with a 7-0 advantage, having struck out three with just one walk allowed.
The USA got on the board in the third inning when Kinsler returned a 91 mph fastball thrown by Puerto Rico starting pitcher Seth Lugo over the left-center field wall. Team USA added more runs in the fifth inning when Christian Yelich drove in Kinsler on a single. That was enough for Puerto Rico manager Edwin Rodriguez, who pulled Lugo in favor of Joe Jimenez. Lugo was tagged with the loss after giving up four runs on five hits and four walks while striking out seven.
Five USA batters recorded two hits for the day (of the USA’s 13 total) while another pair reached base via walk at least twice. Pagan had two hits for Puerto Rico while Yadier Molina added one of his own.
"Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things." George Carlin
