Welcome to the first of what will be daily recaps of World Baseball Classic action. Essentially, it will be the Minor Lines feature we do during the season, just with WBC games instead of Red Sox minor-league games. I’ll mostly be featuring those players with a connection to the Red Sox along with some notable performances in each game. In today’s edition, we get to take a close look at Israel, who dominated the Day One coverage.
Israel 2, Korea 1 (F/10)
Israel
Nate Freiman: 0-4, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 R
Cody Decker: 0-3, 1 K
Michael Meyers: 0-0, 1 R
Ryan Lavarnway: 1-3, 2 BB
Scott Burchman: 2-5, 3 K, 1 RBI
Jason Marquis: 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K
Josh Zeid (W): 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K
Korea
Geonchang Seo: 2-4, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 SB
Seung Hwan Oh: 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K
Well, this was an exciting way to kick off this tournament, and a hell of an upset, too. This is Israel’s first appearance in the tournament. Believe it or not, Lavarnway was a key force in this game, as his single in the tenth moved the go-ahead runner to third. Michael Meyers, who spent last season in Salem, pinch ran for Ike Davis and became that go-ahead run. Scott Burcham, a minor-leaguer in Colorado’s system, had the game-winning hit and followed it up with a great diving catch in the bottom of the 10th.
Israel 15, Chinese Taipei 7
Israel
Michael Meyers: 0-0, 1 BB, 1 R
Nate Freiman: 3-6, 1 HR, 3 R, 4 RBI
Ryan Lavarnway: 2-3, 1 HR, 2 R, 2 RBI
Ike Davis: 3-5, 1 3B, 2 R, 2 RBI, 1 K
Corey Baker (W): 4.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K
Chinese Taipei
Chih-Hao Chang: 2-5, 1 2B, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2 K
Chih-Hsien Chiang: 2-4, 1 2B, 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 E
Because of time zones, Israel played two games on Monday, or at least our Monday. In reality, the two games were at 6:30 PM and 12:00 PM, local time. Despite the quick turnaround, they became the early story of the tournament taking their first two games. This one was a rout let by a couple of former Red Sox minor-leaguers in Nate Freiman and Ryan Lavarnway. Don’t be surprised when this becomes many people’s favorite team as this tournament really gets rolling.