The New York Mets made it to the World Series in 2015 in large part because of pitcher Matt Harvey and slugger Yoenis Céspedes and on Thursday morning those two were opponents as Italy took on Cuba in the World Baseball Classic.
Neither player saw major league time in 2022 with Harvey pitching to a 3.72 ERA in the Orioles’ minor leagues and Céspedes only playing a few games in the Dominican Winter League.
Harvey showed better in this game as the starting pitcher for manager Mike Piazza in Game 1 of their 2023 World Baseball Classic play. Harvey, with a fastball topping out at 90 mph, pitched three scoreless innings with zero strikeouts. The former All-Star was a groundball machine getting six outs via the ground. In the third inning, he faced a tough spot with runners on second and third with one out and big leaguers Yoan Moncada and Luis Robert coming to the dish. A pop-out and ground-out got Harvey out of the jam.
https://twitter.com/WBCContent/status/1633801553252593665
Harvey was pitching for Italy for the first time in his career. His Italian heritage comes from his mother’s side with family living outside Rome. Team Italy decided to wear their dark jerseys for the first time in international play to honor the Dark Knight. Piazza said that he had no idea Harvey was Italian, but was really excited when he found out and was happy to have him on the team.
The game was a much different story for Céspedes. La Potencia went o-for-4 with groundball outs at the plate including one with the tying run on second in the eighth inning. He also dropped a ball in left field that led to a run for Italy.
Italy took a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning before Cuba score one in the frame and another in the bottom of the eighth to tie it at 2-2. Erisbel Arruebarrena scored the first one for Cuba and knocked in the second.
Italy and Cuba became the first 2023 WBC game to head to extra innings. The rules are the same as Major League Baseball with a runner on second starting in the 10th inning.
Italy scored four runs in the 10th inning capped by a two-out, two-run single by Royals’ infielder Nicky Lopez. Cuba scored one run in the bottom of the 10th, but it wasn’t enough as Italy won 6-3 in their first game. Cuba dropped to 0-2 in Pool A which is led by the 2-0 Kingdom of Netherlands.
Royals’ first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino was on base three times for Italy. Dominic Fletcher and Miles Mastrobuoni each had two hits for the Italian team. Italy is back at it on Friday at 6:00 a.m. ET against Taiwan (Chinese Taipei). Cuba looks to get their first win when they play Panama on Thursday night at 11:30 p.m. ET.
