Alden GonzalezESPN Employees Writer22:31 ET3 minutes of reading
Mexico celebrates following Final K and eliminates Puerto Rico
Giovanni Gallegos iced Enrique Hernandez to send Mexico into the semifinals to face Japan.
MIAMI — Trailing a star-studded Puerto Rico group, Mexico battled back, stringing with each other a 3-run seventh inning to steal a five-four victory in front of a sold-out crowd at LoanDepot Park on Friday evening in the quarterfinals.
Mexico sophisticated to the semifinals for the very first time in 5 Planet Baseball Classics. They will face Japan in the semi-finals on Monday.
Puerto Rico, playing following a sobering knee injury to Edwin Diaz, jumped out to a four- lead in the very first inning against Mexican ace Julio Urias on back-to-back household runs by Javier Baez and Eddie Rosario. But Puerto Rico did not get significantly offense the rest of the way, and Mexico ultimately closed the gap with seven outs remaining.
Alexis Diaz walked into his brother’s renowned song, “Narco,” but continued to load the bases with none out, providing up a double to Austin Barnes and back-to-back walks to Randy Arozarena and Alex Verdugo. Jorge Lopez came off the bench and recorded two rapid outs. But Isaac Paredes laced a two-run single to left field and Luis Urias lined a base hit to shallow suitable, providing Mexico its very first lead of the game.
Puerto Rico had a likelihood to tie the game in the eighth, with a runner on very first and Emmanuel Rivera uncorking a deep drive to left-center field. Arozarena – the Pool C MVP who seemed to have his fingerprints on each game Mexico won this tournament – ran into the gap and created an extraordinary leap to the fence, beautiful a Miami crowd that seemed to be mainly in favor of Puerto Rico.
As the ball was thrown back into the infield, Arozarena settled into the warning lane and spread his arms, palms open and mouth agape, a different signature pose of the Cuban-born outfielder who fell in appreciate with Mexico following defecting there. in 2016