The fifth installment of the World Baseball Classic begins on Tuesday night at 11:00 p.m. ET with Cuba playing the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Taiwan as part of Pool A.
Cuba (0-0) vs Netherlands (0-0) – Pool A
RHP Yariel Rodríguez vs. RHP Tom de Blok
Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium, Taichung, Taiwan
Tuesday, March 7, 11:00 PM, FS1
The Cuban team includes big leaguers Yoan Moncada and Luis Robert alongside older stars Yoenis Cespedes and Alfredo Despaigne. The 36-year-old Despaigne leads World Baseball Classic tournament history with seven home runs.
The Netherlands has a long list of players with major league experience including star shortstop Xander Bogaerts, outfielder Jurickson Profar, and veteran infielder Andrelton Simmons.
Panama (0-0) vs Taiwan (0-0) – Pool A
RHP Humberto Mejia vs RHP Chih-Wei Hu
Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium, Taichung, Taiwan
Wednesday, March 8, 6:00 AM, FS2
Former Met Ruben Tejada and current Met Jonathan Arauz are part of the Panama infield. Team Panama has gone 0-5 in two WBC appearances. Game 1 starter Humberto Mejia signed a minor league deal with the Mets this offseason.
Big leaguer infield Yu Chang will lead the Taiwan offense that will also have former Mets minor leaguer Tzu-Wei Lin.
Make sure to check out our Pool A preview and our WBC power rankings.
