Trea Turner of the United States hits his first of two homers against Cuba in the WBC semifinals Sunday night at Miami. Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press
MIAMI — Trea Turner homered twice to give him a tournament-leading four, and the defending champion United States romped over Cuba 14-2 on Sunday night to reach its second straight World Baseball Classic final.
Paul Goldschmidt and Cedric Mullins also homered for the Americans, who scored in seven of eight innings — putting up crooked numbers in five of them. Turner and Goldschmidt had four RBI each.
The U.S. plays Japan or Mexico in Tuesday night’s championship, trying to join the Samurai Warriors as the only nations to win the title twice. Japan plays Mexico on Monday night.
Turner, hitting No. 9 in the batting order, has a tournament-leading 10 RBI. He followed his go-ahead, eighth-inning grand slam a night earlier against Venezuela with a solo homer in the second inning off Roenis Elias (0-1) and a three-run drive in the sixth against Elian Leyva.
Cuba went ahead when its first four batters reached off Adam Wainwright (2-0) without getting a ball out of the infield. The 41-year-old right-hander recovered to strand the bases loaded, and the American offense pummeled Cuban pitchers for 14 hits, including eight for extra bases.
The U.S. was gifted seven walks.
Goldschmidt hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the first on a 112 mph rocket high over the left-field wall. He added a two-run single in the fifth.
St. Louis third baseman Nolan Arenado left after he was hit on a hand by a pitch in the fifth inning, briefly raising another injury concern before X-rays came back as negative.
Fans in the sellout crowd of 35,779 at LoanDepot Park sounded evenly split between the U.S. and Cuba. Several hundred people gathered before the game outside the ballpark in Miami’s Little Havana section to protest the presence of the Cuban team, whose island nation has been under communist rule since 1959.
Play was briefly interrupted in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings when fans ran onto the field. The first held a banner that read “Libertad Para Los Presos Cubanos del 11 de Julio (Freedom for the Cuban Prisoners of July 11)” referring to the date of 2021 demonstrations.
Cuban fans roared in the early going when their team’s first four batters strung together three infield hits and a bases-loaded walk off Wainwright, who contributed to his early troubles when he failed to field a pair of grounders. Wainwright allowed one run and five hits in four innings. Cardinals teammate Miles Mikolas pitched the final five innings.
An Olympic gold medalist in 1992, 1996 and 2004, Cuba’s national team has struggled in recent years as many top players left for MLB. Cuba failed to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Games.
Cuba for the first time this year is using some players under contract to MLB clubs, including Chicago White Gold Glove centerfielder Luis Robert and third baseman Yoán Moncada. Former All-Star outfielder Yoenis Céspedes also is on the roster.
Copy the Story LinkComments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
