Dominican Republic: Close up of the elimination to contest the Olympic medal

The Dominican Republic Baseball Team has the opportunity to reach the semifinals with a win against the United States, after being just three outs from an unexpected elimination at Tokyo 2020

The first mission of the Dominican baseball team in the Olympic Games has been fulfilled. The country has qualified for the bronze medal match and has a chance to reach the semi-finals if it manages to defeat one of its bitter rivals, the American team.

However, to be among the four best teams in the Olympic tournament was a real odyssey for the Dominican Republic, which, despite being singled out as one of the favorite teams to compete for the medal, has had to overcome a slow start with two defeats that brought it to the brink of elimination.

In the opening game of baseball against Japan, the Dominican players did all the right things until the ninth inning, where they allowed three touchdowns and were left on the field. The same story was repeated during the first game of the second round against South KoreaIt all worked out for the Caribbeans, who lost again despite starting the last inning with a two-run lead.

This made the Dominicans have to risk their lives in a playoff game against Israel, a team that, despite having the lowest ranking among all the participants classified to the tournament, proved to have a baseball level that was enough to eliminate Mexico and to place Dominican Republic three outs from an unexpected exit from Tokyo.

The country entered the playoff as the worst offense of the tournament (seven runs in three games and a .211 batting average). They had barely scored seven runs in their three previous games, left a significant number of runners on the bases, and despite having a good job from their starters overall, they were unsure about how their closers would throw after matches against Los Angeles. two Asian countries.

Everything changed with the triumph, coming from behind, against Israel. Suddenly the team was able to capitalize on opportunities and score runs, their closer managed to get the job done, despite being down on the mark and they managed to score the same number of laps they had achieved in the tournament, in a single game. The Dominican Republic He changed his destiny and today he is back.

Jose Bautista He pointed out after the game against Israel that the energy that the victory left them would be the same with which they would arrive at the match against United States And if anyone knows the importance of that, it is the former player of Big leagues, who lived the euphoria of victory and the pain of defeat against that country in the 2017 World Classic.

Today, Dominican Republic is one of the four best teams in Tokyo 2020It only took one game for him to remember his position as a global baseball powerhouse, one game to change his destiny.

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