{"id":429420,"date":"2023-03-08T10:39:23","date_gmt":"2023-03-08T15:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/ca\/?post_type=news&#038;p=429420"},"modified":"2023-03-08T10:40:58","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T15:40:58","slug":"netherlands-stun-cuba-in-world-baseball-classic-opener","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/news\/netherlands-stun-cuba-in-world-baseball-classic-opener\/","title":{"rendered":"Netherlands stun Cuba in World Baseball Classic opener"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"t-content__chapo\">The Netherlands shrugged off nerves to stun Cuba 4-2 in the opening game of the 20-team World Baseball Classic, which got underway after a six-year absence on Wednesday in Taiwan.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Team Netherlands gets the first W of the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WorldBaseballClassic?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#WorldBaseballClassic<\/a>! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8QitNH5eIc\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/8QitNH5eIc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; World Baseball Classic (@WBCBaseball) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WBCBaseball\/status\/1633366309395210242?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">March 8, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>This is the first World Baseball Classic in which MLB players are eligible to play for Cuba.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Xander Bogaerts puts the finishing touches on Team Netherlands&#39; first win of the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WorldBaseballClassic?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#WorldBaseballClassic<\/a>! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KRdYN96Vm6\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/KRdYN96Vm6<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; World Baseball Classic (@WBCBaseball) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WBCBaseball\/status\/1633368390520782848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">March 8, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The Netherlands scored three runs in the sixth inning in Taichung to sink Cuba. Didi Gregorius and Josh Palacios each scored a run for the Dutch, who finished fourth at the two previous editions of the world tournament, while Chadwick Tromp notched two.<\/p>\n<p>Cuba, who finished runners-up in the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006, scored both their runs through Yadil Mujica.<\/p>\n<p>Ex-MLB player Yoenis Cespedes, who played for Cuba in the event in 2009, hit .458 in that tournament and began his MLB career three years later with the Oakland Athletics.<\/p>\n<p>He played in part of eight seasons with Oakland, the Boston Red Sox, the Detroit Tigers and the New York Mets.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s very, very important to win the first game &#8212; it takes a monkey off your back, it relaxes everybody,&#8221; said Netherlands manager Hensley Meulens.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-429422 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/neth-base.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"\" width=\"680\" height=\"445\" title=\"\"><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We know we have the talent. Until you win that first game though, it&#8217;s like a nervous wreck.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The win gives the Dutch, whose roster features several players with MLB experience such as Gregorius and San Diego&#8217;s Xander Bogaerts, the early edge in a Pool A that also includes Taiwan, Italy and Panama.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-68 p Component-p-0-2-59\">In a late game on Wednesday, Panama played Taiwan in Group A.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-68 p Component-p-0-2-59\">Play in Group B kicks off on Thursday in Tokyo with South Korea playing Australia and host Japan \u2014 led by Los Angeles Angels star Shohei Ohtani \u2014 up against China.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-68 p Component-p-0-2-59\">Play in Groups C and D starts Saturday in Phoenix and Miami.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-68 p Component-p-0-2-59\">The United States won the last tournament in 2017 and is among the favorites with the Dominican Republic and Japan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-68 p Component-p-0-2-59\">Japan has won it twice (2006, 2009) and the Dominicans once (2013).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Netherlands shrugged off nerves to stun Cuba 4-2 in the opening game of the 20-team World Baseball Classic, which got underway after [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4224,"featured_media":429421,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"tags":[16909,16984,17653,17483],"news_category":[16708,16715],"gn_keywords":[],"acf":{"announce":"The Dutch scored three runs in the sixth inning","video":[]},"rank_math_focus_keyword":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_robots":"","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_facebook_title":"","rank_math_facebook_description":"","rank_math_facebook_image":"","rank_math_twitter_title":"","rank_math_twitter_description":"","rank_math_twitter_image":"","rank_math_snippet_shortcode":"","rank_math_primary_category":"","rankmath_seo":{"focus_keyword":"","description":"","title":"","canonical_url":"","robots":"","facebook":{"title":"","description":"","image":""},"twitter":{"title":"","description":"","image":""}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/429420"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/429420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429420"},{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=429420"},{"taxonomy":"gn_keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gn_keywords?post=429420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}