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By Lewis Rubman
March 18, 2016
MEXICALI,BC, MEXICO–The Czech Republic staved off elimination from the 2017 World Baseball Classic by defeating Germany 15-3 this afternoon in the second game of the eliminatory series being played at Mexicali’s Estadio B’Air. The teams were coming off close loses to Mexico and Nicaragua, respectively, and today’s encounter promised to be a continuation of those nail-bitters. But, as they say in Cuba, the ball is round and comes in a square box. That is, you never know what will happen in this game, and the blow out we witnessed this afternoon confirms the Cuban refrain. The Czech victory was so definitive that home plate umpire Maikel Tibabijo invoked the mercy rule, under which the umpire in chief can halt a game and award the win to a team leading by more than nine runs after seven innings of play, when Petr Mnarik got Chris Howard to ground out to short, ending the eighth frame with the Czechs ahead fifteen to three. It had been fifteen to two when Germany’s half of the eighth began, but Bruce Maxwell’s two-out double to center scored Donald Lutz from first with what was too little, too late for the Germans.
The game featured some good and some adequate pitching by the Czechs and some slovenly glove work by both teams. The box score showed only one error for the Czech Republic, but Jakub Hajtmar’s wide throw to first in the bottom of the third clearly would have been an error if the scorer had been allowed to anticiate a double play. The German team was charged with two errors, but it seemed as if every hard hit ball that bounced off an infielder was considered too difficult to be handled with an ordinary effort.
Each of the three the Czech hurlers gave up one run, starting and winning pitcher John Strala in his five innings before being removed when he was six pitches short of the mandatory 85-pitch limit, and relievers Martin Schneider and Minark in two and one innings, respectively. All of the runs were earned.
It was inopportune errors by the German defense that did in Germany’s starter and losing pitcher, Jan-Niclas Stocklin; four of the five runs with which he was charged being unearned. The earned runs in the lines of Kevin Trisl, Will Ohman, Sven Schuller, Daniel Thieben, and Daniel Hinz, the parade of relievers who followed Stocklin, ranged from one in an inning pitched (Trisl and Hinz), through the four in four and a third innings surrendered by Schuller, to the ERAs of infinity recorded by the Chicago White Sox’ Ohman (a run, resulting from the walk to the only batter he faced) and Thieben’s three in no innings pitched. Theieben’s runs came from the double, intentional walk, and hit batter he gave up between coming in for Ohman and making way for Hinz, who promptly surrendered a grand slam to the Czechs’ catcher Cervenka.
First baseman Mike Cervenak led the Czech offense, going four for five. Cervenka and Jakub Hajtmal followed with two for five. Howard and Lutz each got two his in three at bats for Germany.
Mexico and Nicaragua will face each other at 7:30 tonight in a contest between yesterday’s winners.
CORRECTION: In my account of last night’s contest between the Czech Republic and Mexico, I erroneously stated that Alex Sogard had played for the Sioux City Explorers in 2015. His team was the St. Paul Saints.
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