The Dominican Republic capped off their undefeated run to the World Baseball Classic title game with… that’s right you guessed it another win!
After making their way through Venezuela, Spain, Italy, the United States and Team Netherlands, the Dominican Republic defeated Puerto Rico 3-0 Tuesday night from a rain-soaked AT&T Park in San Francisco. In fact though this would be the third time the Dominican Republic beat their Caribbean counterparts with the first victory coming in pool play, the next in the second round and the final one in tonight’s title game.
Dominican starter Samuel Deduno was phenomenal throwing five scoreless innings striking out five and allowing just two hits. After Deduno (who turned out only allowing one earned run throughout the tournament) Octavio Dotel, Pedro Strop, Santiago Casilla and Fernando Rodney, each contributed scoreless innings en route to the win.
Offensively Edwin Encarnacion provided the spark smacking a two-run double in the bottom half of the first inning after Puerto Rico decided to walk the batter ahead of him Robinson Cano.