2019 Premier 12: Another bitter loss for Dutch

The Kingdom of the Netherlands took on the Dominican Republic. Both teams started a pitcher with MLB experience. Ervin Santana for the Dominicans, Jair Jurrjens for the Dutch. What appeared to become a great game for the Dutch ended as a major disappointment as they were beaten 14-4 in seven innings.

Jair Jurrjens didn’t pitch for some time as he battled shoulder and elbow injuries, Ervin Santana pitched just two MLB games in the past season and spent most of the time in the minors at various levels in the Mets organization.

Jurrjens started the game rather well despite walking two batters but needed 26 pitches to get out of the inning. Santana didn’t start that well as he served up a melon with his very first pitch to Roger Bernadina that ended in the left-field bleachers. After Santana gave up a single to Calten Daal, he also threw a wild pitch that allowed Daal to advance to second base before he retired Yurendell de Caster on a flyout to shallow right field. But Santana would get into more trouble. With two outs he could not get out of the inning as he gave up a two-run blast to Chadwick Tromp that gave the Dutch a 3-0 lead.

But the Dominicans bounced back with a solo shot by Charlie Valerio that ended in the right-field bleachers. With two outs, the Dominican pushed once more when Gilberto Celestino tripled to right field corner on the fast artificial turf but a dribbler towards first base ended the inning.

But from the third inning, things would turn ugly for the Netherlands. A lucky hit put Otto Lopez on base and a double by Alfredo Marte drove in Lopez all the way from third base followed by another dribbler that put runners on the corners. For manager Hensley Meulens that was the sign to replace Jurrjens and send Orlando Yntema to the mound.
A groundout drove in the game-tying run for the Dominicans but Yntema could get out of the inning without more damage.

With runners on first and second, Ademar Rifaela pulled the ball to right field that made Hendrik Clementina dash for home. With normal turf, Clementina may have scored the go-ahead run but with the speedy Astroturf the ball goto to right fielder Carlos Peguero rapidly and he threw out Clementina at home with a laser throw.

In the top of the fourth, Orlando Yntema started with a four-pitch walk and gave up a pitch that ended up for a double to left field, hit by Gilberto Celestino that drove in slow pacing first baseman Edwin Espinal. Celestino advanced to third on an error by left fielder Ademar Rifaela. Yntema continued to struggle but he was bailed out by his defense when Alfredo Marte flied into a double play as center fielder Roger Bernadina gunned the ball to home plate where Celestino was tagged out on a close play.

A play that needs to be mentioned was the one of Dominican center fielder Gilberto Celestino in the fourth inning. Roger Bernadina hit a long fly ball that appeared to go over Celestino’s head but with an incredible diving catch with his back to the ball, he caught out Bernadina and prevented Ray-Patrick Didder, who had gotten on base on a double, to score the tying run. The play was even that spectacular that the Dutch players stepped out of the dugout to applaud it.

A mental error by left fielder Ademar Rifaela who hesitated a moment to get in on a line drive single by Edwin Espinal led to the ball sailing over his head and allowed the Dominicans to score two more runs to take a commanding 6-3 lead. It appeared to be the death blow for the Dutch team that never recovered. The Dutch pitching collapsed and couldn’t keep the Dominican Republic from scoring many more runs.

With nine hits, one can say that the Dutch offense did not do bad but after the first inning, those hits were too much spread out over the game for the Dutch to become dangerous. The problem today was the pitching that absolutely did not pan out.

Thanks to this loss, the Dutch will depend on the results of other games to have a slim chance to advance. As a consequence the team will likely drop in the WBSC’s world ranking as well. How much spots the Dutch will drop remains a question as the formula that the WBSC is using is quite a riddle.