World Baseball Classic: Five takeaways from Colombia's extra-inning win over Mexico

Colombia and Mexico played a tight thriller in the opening game of Pool C play of the World Baseball Classic Saturday at Chase Field, the first WBC game at Chase Field in 10 years. It ended with a 5-4 Colombia win in 10 innings, after Jorge Alfaro scored from third base on a two-out fielding error by Mexico shortstop Luis Urias.

"I think if 'Wicho' (Urias) gets that ball hit to him 99 times out of 100, he makes that play," Mexico manager Benjamin Gil said in Spanish.

Reynaldo Rodriguez of Colombia and Randy Arozarena of Mexico and the Tampa Bay Rays each hit two-run home runs. A crowd of 28,497 was on hand, and they gave the home of the Diamondbacks an atmosphere not typically seen in Major League Baseball.

Mexico had a chance to win the game in the bottom of the ninth, but St. Louis Cardinals minor leaguer Guillermo Zuñiga struck out Alex Verdugo of Tucson and the Boston Red Sox on three straight fastballs clocked at 101, 100 and 102 mph.

Zuñiga mowed down Mexico in the 10th to finish off the game and send Mexico to its fifth consecutive opening game loss of a World Baseball Classic in all five tournaments. Zuñiga struck out two in the final inning and left a runner stranded at third base.

Hitting stars

Rodriguez is a 36-year-old journeyman who has never appeared in the major leagues but has played in Colombia, Mexico, the U.S. minor leagues, Venezuela and Canada in his career. He even played for the Yuma Scorpions of the independent Golden Baseball League in 2009.

His towering home run in the top of the fifth inning off Los Angeles Dodgers star Julio Urias gave Colombia a 3-1 lead, and he put Colombia in front 4-3 in the seventh with a single off Mexico pitcher Luis Cessa's leg.

Rodriguez, who played five seasons of professional ball in Mexico, was asked if his home run was the most important of his career.

"One hundred percent," he said in Spanish.

Colombia designated hitter Alfaro of the San Diego Padres had two doubles and scored three runs.

For Mexico, Arozarena drew chants of "MVP!" from the crowd for his game-tying home run in the bottom of the fifth, and he added a double. Austin Barnes of the Los Angeles Dodgers had two hits for Mexico.

Arozarena said he did what he could to help the team.

"We can't do anything but move forward," Arozarena said in Spanish after the game. He also was grateful for the fan support he heard all afternoon.

Starting pitchers pitch well

Urias is a 2020 World Series hero with the Dodgers who went 17-7 with a 2.16 earned run average last season. He set down the first 12 Colombia hitters in order before running into trouble in the fifth, but finished the inning and got a no-decision with three runs allowed on three hits, striking out six.

Colombia's Nabil Crismatt was 5-2 with a 2.94 ERA out of the bullpen for the San Diego Padres last season, and he allowed only a run on three hits with three strikeouts in four innings.

A game of inches

Rodriguez's home run just missed going foul, and a pair of foul balls off the bat of Mexico's Joey Meneses and Rowdy Tellez were very close to being fair balls for run-scoring extra bases in the first inning.

"If Rowdy's ball was foul, it was by an inch or half an inch," Gil said. "If it's called fair, maybe we win in eight-and-a-half innings."

Crowd factor

Mexico was the clear favorite of the thousands in attendance, and some of those fans were a little late getting to their seats.

Entry gates into Chase Field were backed up with long lines of fans waiting to pass through security and ticket scanners to get into the ballpark. It wasn't clear what the reason for the delay was, but sporting events involving teams representing Mexico often have a large walkup crowd to purchase tickets on the day of the event.

The fans gave first base umpire Edwin Louisa of the Netherlands a hard time for not calling a swinging strike on Colombia's Jesus Marriaga, who struck out anyway, in the third inning. They also booed a sharp ground ball down the first base line that Louisa ruled foul on a close call, and Tellez was visibly unhappy about the call.

Many fans also booed the smattering of Colombia fans in the stadium when they celebrated hits. But when Arozarena homered, the stadium went wild and gave Chase Field a postseason feel.

A favorite chant from the crowd was a single word repeated when a Mexico pitcher had two strikes on a hitter, "Ponche! Ponche!" as in "strikeout."

The Z factor

Colombia manager Jolbert Cabrera said he had a conversation with Zuñiga at a team practice.

"I told him that he was going to be the man that is going to take us to the next level. Because we never had a guy like that before. Now we got a guy that is throwing 99, 100, 101, 102," Cabrera said.

When Zuñiga was asked by coaches about going out for the 10th inning, the pitcher said that if Colombia were to take the lead in the top of the inning, he wanted to be the guy.

"He showed a lot of heart. Unbelievable performance by that kid," Cabrera said. "You're going to see a lot of him, starting today."

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 5 takeaways from Colombia's win in 10 innings over Mexico in WBC