Olympic dreams dashed by narrow loss to DR
Team Israel’s Olympic dream came to an end on Tuesday at Yokohama Baseball Stadium in Japan with a 7-6 loss to the Dominican Republic. Jose Bautista’s single with 2 outs and 2 strikes in the bottom of the ninth inning drove in pinch-runner Nefri Perez for a walk-off win. Israel finished the Olympic tournament in fifth place with a 1-4 record. The Dominican Republic will play Team USA on Wednesday to keep its gold medal hopes alive.
Israel entered the ninth inning in the drivers’ seat after Danny Valencia’s dramatic two-run homer in the top of the eighth gave Manager Eric Holtz’s men a 6-5 lead. Zack Weiss, who struck out the side in the bottom of the eighth, ran into trouble immediately in the bottom of the ninth when he allowed a monster game-tying home run to Johan Mieses.
After Melky Cabrera singled, Perez came in to run and Roldani Baldwin laid down a sacrifice bunt, Holtz elected to intentionally walk Jeison Guzman and then called on DJ Sharabi to replace Weiss. Sharabi promptly induced a ground ball to second that could have been an inning-ending double play, however shortstop Scotty Burcham was unable to make the relay throw and Israel settled for a force out at second. Sharabi appeared to have ended the inning when he threw a 2-strike pitch against Bautista over the corner of the plate, but home plate umpire Katsumi Manabe called it a ball. Bautista then lined a single to left to secure a Dominican victory.
Luis Castillo, who pitched a scoreless ninth, was credited with the win. Julio Rodriguez stood out for the winners with 2 hits and 2 RBIs. Guzman hit a go-ahead home run in the seventh, too.
Weiss took the loss for Israel after giving up 3 runs on 3 hits in 3 innings. He struck out 5. Josh Zeid started the gam and allowed 2 unearned runs in 4 innings with 3 Ks. Jake Fishman allowed 2 runs on 1 hit and 3 walks in 1.1 innings in between them. Israel’s big offensive inning came in the fourth when Mitch Glasser drove in Ty Kelly and Zack Penprase with a double to tie it and then came around on Scotty Burcham’s base hit. Ian Kinsler scored Burcham with a single, too.
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