Team USA punched its ticket Sunday night with a 14-2 win over Team Cuba.
Team USA, the defending champions, is one game away from repeating as champs. Team Japan is the only team to win back-to-back WBC titles, which it claimed in 2006 and 2009.
Trea Turner followed his go-ahead grand slam in the quarterfinals by going three for five and hitting two home runs in the semi-final win over Team Cuba. That performance makes Turner only the second player in Team USA history to have a multi-home run game. The only other player is Hall of Famer Ken Griffey, who serves as Team USA’s hitting coach.
Turner wasn’t alone in the romp over Cuba. Paul Goldschmidt launched a two-run homer, and the team combined for 14 runs and 13 RBIs and drew seven walks. Pitchers Adam Wainwright, Miles Mikolas, and Aaron Loup gave up 12 hits and two earned runs, and they had four strikeouts. Team Cuba used five pitchers (R, Elias, M. Romero, C. Viera, R. Bolanos, E. Leyva, F. Alvarez, and J. Rodriguez) who gave up 14 hits and 14 earned runs.
The energy in the stadium vs. Team Cuba was electric, described by several players as a “World Series atmosphere.” Don’t expect that to change when Team USA takes the field tonight against Team Japan at 7p. You can watch it live on Fox Sports 1.
NOTE: Nolan Arenado left Sunday night’s game after being hit by a pitch on his right hand. He seemed to indicate in the dugout that the injury was not severe, and an X-ray came back negative.
