Luis Urías hit a go-ahead single in a three-run seventh inning to lead Mexico to a 5–4 victory over Puerto Rico and advance to their first World Baseball Classic semifinal.
Mexico will face Shohei Ohtani and Japan in the semi-finals on Monday. Puerto Rico failed to make it past the second round for the first time.
“What a game. I don’t have the cap, but if I did, I would tip it to Puerto Rico,” said Mexico manager Benji Gil. “We fought until the end. Thank God we managed to win against a great team.”
Isaac Paredes, who had homered in the first, tied it at 4, with pitcher Alexis Diaz walking in Austin Barnes and Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Randy Arrozarena.
Puerto Rico tried to rally in the ninth with singles from Christian Vazquez and Francisco Lindor, but reliever Giovanni Gallegos got out of the jam for the save.
Arozarena saved the potential tying run in the eighth when she homered with a jumper over the wall in left-center.
“We know the kind of player Randy is. He is a great player. He killed us,” said Puerto Rico manager Yadier Molina. “We couldn’t score. But he played very well. We started very strong, but then the Mexican pitching made some adjustments and kept us in the net.
Puerto Rico was coming off an emotional quarterfinal victory over the Dominican Republic on Wednesday when New York Mets star Edwin Diaz tore a patellar tendon in his right knee while celebrating the victory. A sellout crowd of 35,817 at Miami’s LoanDepo Park cheered when Diaz’s jersey appeared on the jumbotron.
Javier Baez and Eddie Rosario struck out Mexico starter Julio Urías for four runs in the first inning.
Rosario hit his second home run of the tournament. Baez, in one of his best games of the contest, had three hits, giving him a total of seven hits.
“We had a very difficult start to the game but we know what kind of team we have and how united we are,” Paredes said. “There were several innings left and we responded in the Zero Hour.”
Urias allowed five hits and four runs and struck out four before being lifted after the fourth inning on 60 pitches, which is 20 short of the WBC quarterfinal pitch limit of 80.
Jojo Romero got the win.
Paredes made it 4–1 in the second when he homered against Marcus Stroman, one of Mexico’s five hits from Puerto Rico’s starter.
Stroman allowed three singles in the fifth, one of which scored a run to put Mexico up 4–2. He had two strikeouts in 4 1–3 innings.
Puerto Rico finished second in the last two WBCs. Earlier in the tournament, its pitchers tied their all-time best against Israel in pool play with an eight-inning perfect game.
Mexico won Group C with a 3–1 record in pool play.