World Baseball Classic: Australia vs. Mexico

I took a cab back from the hotel to the stadium for Sunday night’s game between Australia and Mexico. I arrived over an hour early for the game and decided to buy a Cuba hat as a souvenir. However, all of the Mexico and Cuba hats were sold at the game Sunday afternoon. I thought to myself – how could the World Baseball Classic not supply enough hats for even the fans attending the second game to purchase?

Just as I had eaten for lunch, I ate at the same taquito concession stand for dinner. The taquitos were only 10 pesos each and were hand made by the concessionaires. Regular beers in the stadium cost 30 pesos whereas the big beers I had purchased Saturday night in Pachuca cost 80 pesos.

The Game
Mexico went down in the top of 1st inning 3-0, but came back in the bottom of the 1st inning and took the lead 5-3. In a back and forth (and very long) game Australia defeated Mexico 17-7 in 8 innings. Australia’s 22 hits set a WBC record for most hits in a game.

World Baseball Classic Rules
There are three major rules that that affect World Baseball Classic games:
1) A game is terminated if one team is ahead by more than 15 runs after the 5th or 6th inning or more than 10 runs after the 7th or 8th inning.
2) No pitcher may throw more than 70 pitches during first round games.
3) Beginning with the 13th inning, teams will start the inning with a runner on first and second base.

I believe rule #1 was created for the disparities between the teams talent in the first round. However, I am sure Mexico never planned to be slaughter ruled by Australia in the first round. If anything they thought it would be the other way around.