Manny Machado shows off power to lead the Dominican Republic to a needed WBC victory
Manny Machado didn’t want to be left out from wearing “la ñoña.”
That’s the Spanish name for a presidential sash — a symbol of power — that the Dominican Republic players are draping around the neck of any of their teammates who hit a home run in this year’s World Baseball Classic.
Machado, however, felt the often-frustrating aspect for power hitters at loanDepot park twice on Monday afternoon.
Machado watched two balls he smoked 390 and 404 feet each land in the glove of Nicaragua center fielder Juan Diego Montes right in front of the wall.
But in the bottom of the seventh, Machado earned the right to wear “la ñoña,” after he crushed an 88-mph fastball from reliever Joaquin Acuna 393 feet to right field as part of the Dominican Republic’s 6-1 rout of Nicaragua in its second WBC game in Pool D.
Machado had gone 0 for 7 until that blast, which followed a 401-foot homer by Juan Soto that hit the facade of the upper deck in right field.
“[Machado] hit the ball almost 800 feet without a homer so I told him, ‘I think you need to hit the gym,’” Dominican Republic manager Rodney Linares joked.
During the postgame press conference, Machado said with a laugh, he agreed.
After Machado and Soto — teammates with the San Diego Padres since last season — each homered, they wore the sash and joined the rest of their teammates in a wild celebration at the plate with the majority of the announced crowd of 31,696 yelling from the stands.
Machado said the idea for the sash originated from their Padres teammate Nelson Cruz, who is the Dominican Republic team’s general manager and outfielder in this WBC. Unfortunately for the Dominican Republic, it was unable to bust out the celebratory sash during its first game Saturday.
“Obviously, we didn’t hit one the first day,” Machado said. “It took us a little bit to get one in there, but it started that day from the beginning.”
Soto added with a laugh: “It was very difficult to steal the presidential sash when the president was here, but we borrowed it. Nelson brought that. That was a new celebration in the team. Thank God we could do it today, and we enjoyed that moment.”
This was the scene the Dominican Republic hoped to witness from the start with its star-studded lineup crushing pitches frequently and their young arms like the Astros’ Christian Javier shutting down opposing hitters.
Javier, who was part of Houston’s rotation last season during its World Series championship run, struck out four and gave up only two hits and one walk through four innings.
“Success for me was to believe in God and to attack the hitters and locate the pitches in the zone,” Javier said in Spanish postgame. “That was the key for me.”
And it’s what the Dominicans needed following a disappointing 5-1 loss to Venezuela in its opening game Saturday.
For now, it’s about survival for the Dominican side, which needs to take care of business as the favorite against Israel Tuesday night and then win what is shaping up to be a win-or-go-home matchup with Puerto Rico on Wednesday to conclude pool play.
“It’s going to be a great game, but we have to think about tomorrow’s game first,” Machado said. “[Israel] has a great team, and we’ll have to win both games. Tomorrow we are going to play the way we did today.”
For Machado, the Hialeah-born superstar third baseman who played his high school baseball at Brito Miami Private School, the experience of having played in the previous WBC for the Dominican Republic has instilled confidence in him.
Machado crushed pitches to the warning track or further all four times he came up to bat on Monday, dropping a double that traveled 349 feet and dropped just in front of the left field wall in the ninth inning.
“It’s fun hitting home runs in the Classic,” Machado said. “The environment that was there today was unbelievable. They’ve been bringing the energy every single day the last two days, and it’s been awesome to play in front of them and in front of this home crowd.”
This story was originally published March 13, 2023 at 3:17 PM.
