The lows of the mercy blowout to Italy. The highs of blowing out Mexico plus an unforgettable brawl. And the game with the United States had highs and then lows.
Canada's ride at the 2013 World Baseball Classic was better than 2009, not as good as 2006, yet up 3-2 in the top of the 8th inning, we still have to wonder what might have been … .
Canada finished in 3rd place in Pool D with a 1-2 record with a 10-3 win over Mexico. The good news is that Canada won't have to qualify for the 2017 World Baseball Classic. If Canada had won on Sunday, the United States would have had to qualify in 2017. That mark goes to Mexico, which also finished 1-2 but lost the tiebreaker to Canada.
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Chris Robinson isn't a major league catcher, but he sure played like A.J. Pierzynski. Robinson's late slides in the 1st inning and 7th inning against Mexico were right out of Pierzynski's playbook. Robinson stood his ground with a crashing Karim Garcia, tagging him out in the 4th inning.
Even Robinson convincing the umpire that a pitch hit him in the toe in the 7th inning was something where Pierzynski would have been proud. If Pierzynski would have played where running up the score was necessary, he so would have bunted to lead off the 9th inning.
Robinson's ability to bunt came up quite a bit in just 3 games. He laid down the sacrifice that the MLB Network announcers didn't like in the 4th inning against Italy. Robinson laid down a sacrifice bunt in the 5th inning against Mexico. There are major leaguers who could take bunting lessons from Robinson.
Before Rene Tosoni became known for being hit by an Arnold Leon fastball against Mexico, he did have a cute moment. After a Canada double against Italy, Tosoni was shown in the Canada dugout making moose antlers above his head. So totally Canadian.
Even they were having fun with the Canadian stereotypes.
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Can't say Adam Loewen looked familiar, but the announcers reminded us that Loewen was the winning pitcher for Canada in the 2006 win over the United States. Loewen threw 3⅔ hitless innings against the U.S. team to get the 8-6 win.
Injuries forced Loewen to reinvent himself as a position player. Loewen now has the beard, missing from his pitching days, making him more unfamiliar.
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3 games isn't a fair representation, but Cale Iorg went 1-for-11 (.091) and Tyson Gillies went hitless in the tournament. Adam Loewen and Pete Orr each hit .200. Pitchers figured out pretty quickly that 7-8-9-1 for Canada wasn't going to do much. That lack of depth was going to hurt them, and manager Ernie Whitt had few options to replace them.
Eric Hosmer may have hit 8th for the United States, but he did drive home 3 runs with a double in the 9th inning off John Axford.
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Joey Votto was seen as a potential savior for Team Canada when he agreed to play. His .222 batting average wasn't much; you could tell that his swing wasn't 100% and his running ability is still not up to par. Votto draws a walk better than just about any MLB player, drawing 5 walks and scoring 5 runs in the 3 games.
Votto may have hit .222 but his on-base percentage was .500. Gillies OBP was .000.
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Brett Lawrie, Russell Martin, Jason Bay, and Jesse Crain would not have helped beat Italy or made the win over Mexico any easier. Each of those players would have helped against the United States.
Canada showed that the country does have baseball talent. Michael Saunders had a wonderful series, winning the Pool D MVP trophy. Justin Morneau was back to his old form. Chris Robinson played above his head. Canada's pitching handled the U.S. team, at least for the first 7 innings.
Get a leadoff hitter who can hit, a healthy Votto, some help up the middle, and a bit more depth and who knows what Canada could do in 2017.
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Matt Vasgersian brought out plenty of hockey puns and Canadian references scattered throughout the telecasts. The telecasts brought out elements of the countries involved in Pool D. Vasgersian elaborated on nice things about Canada national parks and sincerely mourned the loss of Les Expos. The move on Friday allowed for Vasgersian and Jim Kaat to call the entire weekend. Kaat is underrated as a colour analyst, and Vasgersian has experience calling games for Fox and the MLB Network.
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Canada's best inning of the tournament didn't air on U.S. television. The first inning was lost due to overrun of the previous game. MLB Network interrupted the previous game to bring the United States-Canada game on time.
While having the MLB Network carry the entire tournament mostly worked out, the channel clearly couldn't handle the overspill for several games. There was no outlet for when games started other than you missed the action.
The World Baseball Classic offered an option for people to watch the games online, but only if you were a customer of Bright House, DIRECTV and Time Warner Cable. Either the MLB Network needs to give us a secondary outlet for the start of other games, or it needs to spread the wealth.
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Some consumers, include myself, missed the top of the 1st inning of the Italy game because of the time change. Moving the game indoors from Salt River Fields at Talking Stick in Scottsdale to Chase Field in downtown Phoenix was genius, but nobody really explained why the game started 30 minutes sooner than scheduled.
photo credits: Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports (top photo);World Baseball Classic/MLB Network (antlers photos)
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