Netherlands, Albies shock Nicaragua with walk-off win
With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the Netherlands’ game story was written.
Druw Jones had just struck out looking on a full count. Ray-Patrick Didder had flown out to left field. Nicaragua was one pitch from closing out a 3-1 win, one pitch from dropping the Dutch to 0-2 in Pool D, one pitch from turning Sunday into a survival game.
Ceddanne Rafaela stepped up next as the Netherlands’ last hope and fell behind quickly 0-2 in the count. Down to their literal last strike, Rafaela punched a single into right-center to keep the Dutch hopes alive. Xander Bogaerts followed by ripping a hard ground ball down the third-base line that hit the bag, kicked up into the air and dropped into left for a double.
Then came Ozzie Albies.
On the first pitch he saw, Albies unloaded on a fastball and sent it over the right-field wall for a three-run, walk-off home run that lifted the Netherlands to a 4-3 comeback win over Nicaragua on Saturday at loanDepot Park.
Albies said he went to the plate trying to do one thing: keep the inning alive.
“I mean, I just needed a hit to either keep the rally going or tie the game because we have speed on the bases. So I said, ‘if he brings his best pitch as a fastball, I gotta put my best swing on it.’ And that’s what happened. That’s all.”
After the barrel and crack of the bat, he didn’t pretend he didn’t know what he had just done.
“Oh, time to celebrate,” Albies said. “It hit the perfect spot on the bat. So I was really really happy it happened at the right moment.”
The swing flipped the Pool D standings with it. The Netherlands moved to 1-1 in pool play. Nicaragua fell to 0-2, another game it competed in deep into the afternoon, another game that slipped away at the finish line.
Nicaragua manager Dusty Baker called it what it felt like.
“That was a crushing defeat. That was a crushing defeat now, and for the whole country of Nicaragua,” Baker said. “And, you know, you gotta lick your wounds and then come back tomorrow.”
For most of the afternoon, the Netherlands had to battle. It scored once in the third inning, but Nicaragua starter Erasmo Ramírez held the Dutch in check across five innings, keeping the game within reach while Pool D pressure sat in the background.
Nicaragua finally broke through in the fifth to even it, then seized control in the eighth. With two outs, Jeter Downs jumped on a 1-0 pitch and demolished a two-run homer over the left-center wall, the first run by either team since the fifth inning. The swing pushed Nicaragua ahead 3-1 and put the Dutch one inning away from an 0-2 start.
The Nicaragua dugout erupted as Downs rounded the bases, and he showed it when he got back. He slammed his helmet near the steps and yelled “Vamo! Vamo!” as teammates spilled out to greet him.
Downs didn’t start in Nicaragua’s opener, but Baker penciled him into the lineup Saturday and got rewarded for it.
Netherlands manager Andruw Jones pointed afterward to how small the line is in this tournament, even when he believes his pitching has largely kept them in games.
“Well, to be honest with you, the pitching has been great,” Jones said. “I think, in the last two games we made two bad pitches, when they scored the four runs against Venezuela, and today, that two-run home run that they hit. After that, these guys have been pitching their hearts out. I’m very proud of them.”
He looked ahead immediately, knowing what the schedule and the pitch limits can do to a bullpen.
“I think, you know, tomorrow is going to be a very tough task for everybody in the bullpen,” Jones said. “So like I say, you know, it’s going to be the last out, you know, trying to make less mistakes than the other team, and we got a good chance to win.”
Once Albies walked it off, the obvious question followed Baker into the postgame room: Did you consider walking him?
Baker didn’t frame it as a debate.
“No, and I didn’t think about walking Ozzie because, you know, you don’t put the winning run on base,” he said.
The matchup also came with a dugout subplot. Jones called Baker “a great friend” before the game, and Baker left Saturday on the wrong side of the WBC’s simplest truth. One pitch can flip everything.
“Yeah, it hurts,” Baker said. “Like I said, it hurts for our team and it hurts for the whole country. And, you know, it’s very difficult, the situation. But it’s a situation where you not only deal with the joys of winning, but you now also deal with the agonies of losing. And, you know, that hurts and hurts.”
Team Nicaragua and Team Netherlands will both be back in action Sunday for their third games of pool play. The Dutch will face Pool D favorite Dominican Republic with first pitch scheduled for noon. Nicaragua will play under the lights against Israel with first pitch scheduled for 7 p.m.
