WBC: Netherlands Open Tournament With Victory Over Cuba

The Netherlands defeated Cuba, 4-2, in the opening contest of the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) on Wednesday in Taiwan. The victory puts the Dutch, who have finished fourth in consecutive editions of the WBC, in the driver’s seat in Group A, which also includes the hosts Taiwan, Italy, and Panama.

Cuba opened the scoring in the second inning and the Dutch responded with a Didi Gregorious RBI single in the third, with the teams remaining deadlocked until the bottom of the sixth, when the Dutch scored three runs to take the decisive lead. A Chadwick Tromp bloop single was responsible for two of those runs.

Cuba, featuring players on Major League Baseball (MLB) rosters for the first time in the WBC’s history, most notably Luis Robert Jr. and Yoan Moncada, both of the Chicago White Sox, was limited to just three hits by six Dutch pitchers.

Former Detroit Tiger farmhand Tom de Blok started and tossed three innings for the Netherlands. He allowed one hit and walked four, including three in the first inning to load the bases, but Cuba’s batters were unable to take advantage of the early base runners, with a double play ending the first-inning threat.

The Netherlands’ notable names struggled as well. Aside from Gregorious, who opened the scoring with the aforementioned single and later scored himself in the sixth after reaching on a walk, the quartet of Xander Bogaerts, Jurickson Profar, Jonathan Schoop, and Andrelton Simmons went a combined 2-for-15 with eight strikeouts.

The Group A schedule has the Netherlands taking on Panama on Thursday, with Cuba scheduled to challenge Italy on Friday.