Colombia’s Guillermo Zuñiga shines in a World Baseball Classic David vs. Goliath moment
PHOENIX — Mike Trout scoring twice in Team USA’s win over Great Britain wasn’t the biggest storyline from Day 1 of the World Baseball Classic at Chase Field.
It wasn’t the most surprising thing that happened. And it certainly wasn’t the most important thing on a day when the US took care of business and Colombia shocked Mexico in extra innings, a 5-4 thriller we’ll get to in a moment.
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Quiet . . . Mike Trout batted twice against Great Britain. He’s one of the top five players in the major leagues, but in his first at-bat he lost to Vance Worley, the 35-year-old who hasn’t played in the majors since 2017. And that in the fifth inning, he struck again, this time at 23-year-old Ryan Long, who spent all of 2022 pitching with the single-A Delmarva Shorebirds, an Orioles subsidiary. Long was the team’s Player of the Year, but it’s quite certain that nobody expected this duel to favor the land of tea drinkers.
And it doesn’t even mean anything. I know that. Mike Trout will be fine. He had a bad day, he hasn’t forgotten how to hit. The two deletions would be an afterthought if I didn’t bring it up again.
But it just fits with the WBC, a tournament that’s often David vs. Goliath, but also David vs. David, and sometimes even Goliath vs. Goliath. In what other major competition would we see matchups like this?
Here’s a moment that will stay with us long after Day 1.
The Strikeout: Mexico vs. Colombia
Guillermo Zuñiga received a major league contract from the Cardinals this offseason, despite entering the season at 25 and never having served through Double-A. We saw why St. Louis believe in the big right-hander in Colombia’s shocking, on paper but not shocking, win over heavily favored Mexico in their opener.
Zuñiga, who had played in the Dodgers organization since 2018 and in the Atlanta system the two years before that, pitched two unforgettable scoreless innings for Colombia. He struck out four while conceding just one hit and one intentional walk. And, of course, the 10th inning started with a magic runner on second base.
“He showed a lot of heart,” said Colombia coach Jolbert Cabrera. “Incredible performance by this boy. You will see him often. You will be seeing a lot of him from today.”
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The at-bat that stole the show came in the ninth inning. With one on and two outs, Mexican leadoff batter Randy Arozarena – a right-hander – headed for the plate. The crowd, decidedly pro-Mexico, roared in anticipation. Arozarena already had a home run and a double in play, both hitting with an exit speed north of 110 mph. And everyone in baseball remembers his incredible 2020 postseason, when he carried the Rays into the World Series with a dominant October.
Cabrera chose to walk him on purpose and brought up Red Sox outfielder Alex Verdugo, a left-hander. It’s not often that you give the batsman an advantage with the right-left move. Especially when this lefty leveled the game with an RBI single in his previous at-bat.
But it’s also not often that a pitcher reacts like Zuñiga. He threw three pitches to Verdugo, and the six-year MLB veteran looked as overwhelmed as you’ll ever see.
Three swinging beats, all at least 100 mph, the last at 102.
“We had a conversation (Friday) during our practice,” Cabrera said, “and I told him that he was going to be the guy that was going to take us to the next level because we’ve never had a guy like that before.” Now we have a guy who goes 99, 100, 101, 102. And he can go toe-to-toe with anyone.”
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Colombia have Sunday off and then play Great Britain in the early game on Monday. Win that and get up to 2-0, and that’s a big step towards a possible spot in the next round.
“It means a lot to us,” said veteran catcher Jorge Alfaro, who scored twice and netted three of Colombia’s five carries. “This is a country very well known for football. But at the same time we just go out and tried to show everyone and remind them that we’re going out there. We’re not afraid to play baseball and we can play baseball.”