World Baseball Classic 2017: Bracket, Saturday’s schedule, and scores

It’s all come down to this: a rematch between the Dominican Republic and the United States, a winner-take-all game for a shot at the World Baseball Classic Championship round. Last night, Puerto Rico clinched their spot in the semifinals by defeating the United States 6-5 in yet another tense affair in Pool F at Petco Park. Today, the winner of the final Pool F game will earn the right to travel to Dodger Stadium to face Japan in the semifinals on March 21. It doesn’t get much more exciting than this.

Puerto Rico opened the scoring by rattling off six straight hits in the bottom of the first before recording an out, setting starter Seth Lugo out to a early 4-0 lead. The US began chipping away at the lead in the top of the second as Nolan Arenado doubled and scored on an Eric Hosmer single. After solo homers from Buster Posey in the fifth and Adam Jones in the sixth it was 4-3 in the bottom of the sixth. Puerto Rico had runners on second and third with two outs when Angel Pagan hit the ball to third base. The ball took a strange hop and our usually reliable Nolan corralled it only to make a low throw to first, allowing two runs to score to make it a 6-3 game.

Down three in the top of the ninth and facing young Mariners fireballer Edwin Diaz, Nolan drew a leadoff walk and Eric Hosmer singled to bring the tying run to the plate with no outs. Back to back strikeouts from Posey and Paul Goldschmidt left the game in the hands of Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford, who drove the 2-0 pitch deep into the left-centerfield gap, scoring two. Crawford, who probably would have been ruled out at third trying to stretch the double into a triple had there been instant replay, ended up stranded as Josh Harrison struck out to end the game.

Arenado, who entered the game with just one hit in the WBC, finished 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored. He also, in what has been a theme this WBC for him, had one hit taken away on this phenomenal diving grab by Carlos Correa of the Astros.

Today is a double-header in Petco Park, both rematches of first round action. First, in the afternoon session, Puerto Rico will try to keep their undefeated 2017 World Baseball Classic record intact as they take on Venezuela for the second time.

Then, the main event: The United States will try to avenge a first round 7-5 loss by sending Royals righty Danny Duffy against Ervin Santana and the Dominican Republic in the nightcap. You may recall that the Dominican Republic prevailed in that first game behind a 4-run eighth inning off of all-everything reliever Andrew Miller. Tonight’s rematch has the makings to be the most exciting game of the tournament thus far.

Pool F schedule for Saturday, March 18

Puerto Rico vs. Venezuela

Location: Petco Park, San Diego, California

Time: 1:30 pm MT

TV: MLB Network

Steaming: MLV.tv

United States vs. Dominican Republic

Location: Petco Park, San Diego, California

Time: 8 pm MT

TV: MLB Network

Steaming: MLV.tv

Second Round

Championship Round