USA Shuts Out Puerto Rico to be Crowned the 2017 World Baseball Classic Champions
And just like that, the United States stunned the Team Puerto Rico to win their first-ever World Baseball Classic championship.
With all eyes on Dodger Stadium, Team USA defended their nation's pastime by defeating Puerto Rico 8-0 to become the 2017 World Baseball Classic champions. This marks the second straight WBC that the Puerto Rican club has reach the finals, but has come away on the short end each time.
Following Jonathan Lucroy's leadoff single in the third, Ian Kinsler opened up the scoring with a two-run home run to center. Two innings later, Christian Yelich and Andrew McCutchen both singled in runs in the fifth to pad the United States' lead to 4-0.
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Despite facing two outs in the seventh, Brandon Crawford and Giancarlo Stanton gave the United States a 7-0 lead with a RBI singles. McCutchen tacked on another run in the eighth to put the United States ahead by the final score of 8-0.
The United States plowed through the WBC with a 6-2 record, defeating both of the teams they lost to earlier in the tournament. The championship game loss was Puerto Rico's only defeat during the tournament, putting a sour ending on an otherwise fantastic tournament from the club.
Puerto Rico was one of the more exciting clubs to watch during the tournament, from the blonde barrage, to Javier Baez celebrating before he caught the ball at second, to Yadier Molina showing the world once again that he's one of the best catchers/leaders in baseball, this team played with heart each and every game.
It's a bummer that they couldn't pull off the victory, but with the trio of Baez, Carlos Correa and Francisco Lindor, they should have a nice core to start building from for the next WBC.
