The 2023 World Baseball Classic continued with another historic day on Monday, but for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the tournament, they had a pretty quiet showing.
Mookie Betts was the most productive player, going 1-for-3 with a hit by pitch while scoring two runs in the Team USA rout of Team Canada.
USA jumped out to an early lead with a nine-run first inning and never looked back in a 12-1 victory at Chase Field. The game was called after seven innings due to the mercy rule.
For Canada, Freddie Freeman went 0-for-3, which was a trend for most of their lineup. Abraham Toro was the only player on the Canadian team with two hits in the game, while three others had one each.
USA received some help from Team Great Britain in a win over Team Colombia, which puts them back in control of their own destiny after the upset loss to Team Mexico on Sunday. USA was in danger of being eliminated from the tournament early if they tied at 3-1 with Mexico and Colombia.
The only other Dodgers player to appear in one of the WBC games was Trayce Thompson, who started for Great Britain. He ended up walking twice in the game, but finished 0-for-3 in his at-bats during the 7-5 win.
Former Dodgers mostly shine in World Baseball Classic
The most memorable game of the day happened when Team Puerto Rico defeated Team Israel 10-0.
It was started by José De León, who was once one of the Dodgers’ top pitching prospects before he was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays for Logan Forsythe in 2017.
De León pitched 5.2 perfect innings for Puerto Rico before he was forced to be removed from the game due to the 65 pitches limit. The right-hander also struck out 10 hitters.
Following De León, Puerto Rico relied on Yacksel Ríos, Edwin Díaz and Duane Underwood Jr. to pitch the final 2.1 innings before the game was called due to the mercy rule. None of the pitchers allowed a runner to reach base, and Puerto Rico recorded the first perfect game in WBC history.
Kiké Hernandez finished the day 2-for-4 with one double, one run, two RBI and a walk for Puerto Rico. For Team Israel, Joc Pederson went 0-for-3 in the game, including 0-for-2 against his former teammate.
Ian Gibaut, who spent less than a week on the Dodgers’ active roster during the 2022 season and did not appear in a game, earned the save for Great Britain by pitching two innings, giving up two runs (one earned) and striking out two.
Manny Machado went 2-for-5 with a run scored and an RBI in Team Dominican Republic’s 6-1 win over Team Nicaragua, and Trea Turner was 1-for-4 with two runs scored, two RBI and a home run for USA.
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