PHOENIX – For the Colombian team participating in Group C of the World Baseball Classic, everything seemed to fall into place on Monday afternoon at Chase Field, where Jolbert Cabrera’s team won 3-0 over Great Britain, a team that had been healthy. both the United States of America and Canada defeated in the first two games as a country in the history of these tournaments.
However, by the end of the fourth event, the British had outscored the Colombians 7-2 on the scoreboard, en route to a 7-5 victory. It was a result that proved fatal for Colombia, who after the victory over Mexico on Saturday in their first game of the tournament, would be in excellent shape if they arrive on Tuesday with a 2-0 record in this group stage.
“It’s a difficult defeat because all defeats hurt you,” Cabrera said.
It was not a fair story for Columbia. On defense, two errors. They gave up eight walks. And on offense, runners were 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position, leaving a total of 10 outstanding.
“Too many walks. Very inconsistent pitching today,” said Cabrera, whose team is currently 1-1 in Group C. “We couldn’t keep them on base.”
Among the Colombian fans present and the press covering the event from that country, there was a factor of surprise as they saw their team lose to their opponents, no one was expected to act in this way.
But Cabrera didn’t see it that way.
“It’s not that I’m surprised,” he said casually. “Teams like Great Britain, if you don’t take it early in the game and keep it close in the game, it will eventually get you down and that’s what happened. We don’t.”
Another difference between Colombia’s victory over Mexico and Great Britain’s loss was the atmosphere in the stadium. The attendance was nearly 30,000 at Saturday’s game. On Monday, 10,416 people said they were present. the discrepancy is noted.
“We have to raise the energy level,” said Cabrera. “I knew that the adrenaline of my players was not going to be the same, because the stadium was going to be empty. So when you come from something edited and the next game is delayed a day later, it’s hard to catch up again.
“But my hat’s off to Great Britain. They played a fantastic game.”
As Cabrera points out, there is still a long way to go to determine the two teams that will advance from Group C to the next round in Miami. Colombia’s next game will be next Tuesday against Canada, with Adrián Almeida opening the game on the mound.
“Now we’re thinking about Canada,” Cabrera concluded. “This is already done.”
