Puerto Rico advances in World Baseball Classic but Edwin Diaz injury dampens celebration

Puerto Rico was celebrating and they should have been. They had just advanced to the World Baseball Classic quarterfinals after a 5-2 win over the Dominican Republic, a team considered a heavy favorite to win the tournament. An announced crowd of 36,025 at loanDepot park that had been in a frenzy all night was joyous in the stands as the dugout emptied and made its way to the infield. Manager Yadier Molina hugged his coaching staff.

And then ... the celebration stopped.

Edwin Diaz, one of the top closers in Major League Baseball who had just struck out the side to secure the win, was down on the field.

The New York Mets’ reliever who signed a five-year, $102 million deal this offseason sustained a right knee injury amid the celebration. He’s undergoing tests and the severity of the injury is not yet known, but the pitcher put no weight on his right leg before being carted off in a wheelchair. The team was distraught. Diaz’s brother and fellow reliever Alexis Diaz was in tears.

The mood quickly went from jubilant to somber.

“It comes to a certain point that it gets bigger than the game and there’s something very unfortunate happened,” center fielder Kike Hernandez said, “and as excited as we were about the game and all that, it’s one of our brothers and some of us grew up together and all that. It’s real easy to set aside the game and worry about us as humans.

“It definitely doesn’t feel in there like we just beat the Dominican Republic to advance.”

Puerto Rico, which has finished as the runner-up at each of the past two Classics, joins Venezuela as the two teams from Pool D and will face Mexico in the quarterfinals either on Friday and Saturday at loanDepot park. Venezuela won the pool by going a perfect 4-0.

The team wasn’t focused on that, though.

Diaz’s injury took priority.

“It sucks,” Molina said, “but when you see a guy that works so hard like Edwin, I mean when you see him on the ground like that, I mean it just is sad.”

The moment soured what was otherwise a lively night for a game that had high stakes.

The matchup on its own made it a marquee event. Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic have one of the best baseball rivalries in the Caribbean.

What was at stake only magnified the outing.

Both teams entered the final game of pool play with 2-1 records, each having lost to Venezuela earlier in the tournament.

The winner would advance out of pool play and into the World Baseball Classic quarterfinals. The loser’s time in the tournament would come to an end, right there.

But by the third inning the game became a one-sided affair.

Christian Vazquez opened scoring with a home run off a middle-middle Johnny Cueto fastball. The crowd broke into a frenzy as the ball sailed into the home team bullpen in left field. One fan was even caught on video lifting what appeared to be a chair into the air while celebrating.

The rally and the celebration continued as Viamel Machin and Martin Maldonado hit back-to-back singles — Maldonado’s coming on a bunt — to chase Cueto from the mound. Both scored on two more singles, this time from Francisco Lindor and Hernandez against Bryan Abreu. An RBI groundout from MJ Melendez, a Miami Westminster Christian alumnus, capped scoring in the inning.

And in the fifth, Lindor had the highlight-reel play of the night when his line drive hopped past Julio Rodriguez and to the center-field wall.

Lindor rounded second and got to third by the time the ball was thrown back into the infield. When Ketel Marte bobbled the ball just beyond the second-base bag, Lindor scampered his way the final 90 feet home, sliding head first and throwing his helmet into the air as his teammates ran out of the dugout to celebrate with its captain.

Now, the Dominican Republic had its chances, but Puerto Rico kept them at bay.

Juan Soto responded to the four-run third inning with a 448-foot leadoff home run off Jovani Moran to straightaway center in the bottom half of the inning. The Dominican Republic couldn’t muster anything else.

In the fifth, the DR had the bases loaded and no outs. They scored just one run when Manny Machado grounded into a double play.

Eloy Jimenez led off the sixth with a double and Jeimer Candelario hit a two-out single but both were stranded.

Puerto Rico pitchers Jorge Lopez, Duane Underwood Jr. and Diaz then closed out the game with three perfect innings.

“Obviously aside from being the best closer in the game right now, and being a huge part of this team, Sugar is one of the glue guys in that clubhouse,” Hernandez said. “He’s been leading the charge in terms of setting up parties for us in Fort Myers, to start getting together as a team and having a good time and getting to know each other, the guys that don’t know each other. Same here, he was one of the guys that set up that big dinner we had last night. He’s just a guy that, I mean, I’m just going to put it out there, like he has a really big bank account, but his heart is way bigger than his bank account is. He’s one of the really special human beings we got in that clubhouse. I mean, it sucks that — it doesn’t matter who it would have been, it would have sucked either way. But the fact that it was him, it just, it’s a big blow in more ways than one.”