(Miguel Tejada after scoring the Dominican Republic’s 1st run in the 2nd inning)
Dominican Republic 3, Venezuela 3 (top of the 7th)
The Dominican Republic’s two-run lead just evaporated ; Jose Valverde allowed a two run triple to Franklin Gutierrez, scoring Marco Scutaro and Ramon Hernandez (who homered off Juan Cruz earlier in the game)
The YES Network’s tape delay coverage starts at 9pm. If you take your eyeballs away from Duke/North Carolina, or at least push the record button for the former, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. The WBC might have the bigger names and MLB’s considerable marketing muscle, but these games have been a blast to witness, an absolute sight for sore eyes in early February. And even over the laptop’s limited video capacity, the atmosphere is totally cracking.
Best of all, the frequent audio outtages mean there’s less Billy to Sample.
That said, I’m braced for any accusations from Chris Russo that this entire tournament is a cynical attempt to pander to Hispanics.
(UPDATE : Sandy Martinez just homered to right field off Jeremi Gonzalez to give the Dominican Republic a 4-3 advantage.)
You mean Mets fourth catcher Sandy Martinez? Nice!
I saw the last innings of that game in a bar after watching Sam Cassell beat the Knicks with a little help from Elton Brand and the Tall Man from Phantasm — and I have to say that, while I agree with GC’s sentiments on the earlier games (and on Billy Sample), the final inning of the game was pretty much slapstick. For those who didn’t see it: a badly blown run-down on a single by someone I thought I recognized as Alex Gonzalez late-of-Marlins sets up a should-be pop-out that, after some confusion between leftfielder and shortstop, actually bounces off the side of the shortstop’s head and past the leftfielder, thus scoring from first the runner who should’ve been retired in the rundown. Then came the full-on fan bum-rush of the show, despite what were presumably the best efforts of the uniformed and apparently armed paramilitary-looking dudes ringing the field. Goofiest ending to a baseball game I’ve ever seen. Well, in February.
i spared you the recap of the ending as I didn’t play spoiler for anyone who’d catch this on TV. But yeah, not only was it comedy, but even better with no play by play whatsoever.