A battle of gauchos and kiwis was supposed to be tense and it was. It was a pitcher's duel for much of the game and ultimately a second victory for the albiceleste who will live to fight another day in the World Baseball Classic qualifiers. As for the haka, we will have to wait for a while to see it again on the field.
Both starting pitchers were outstanding. Ryan Sanders gave New Zealand 4.2 innings of shutout ball with five strikeouts and four hits scattered. His opposite number, Federico Robles, gave Argentina perhaps its most clutch pitching performance in its baseball history. He gave them seven innings of one run ball. The only blemish was a solo homer by Chayton Krauss to dead center in the sixth. Robles also fanned six men and saw a brilliant diving stop to his left by third baseman Andres Kim in the third. This is perhaps the best defensive play of the qualifiers so far.
Argentina didn't really look like scoring for the first six innings and attempts to force the issue through base stealing were rebuffed. But then Elliot Johnstone started the seventh off with consecutive walks. Then Kim was hit. Bases loaded. And then, a pitching change. The new pitcher Ryoto Okumoto surrendered a bloop single to Lucas Stalman. Tie game. Sebastián Garcia recorded a painful RBI thereafter to give Argentina the lead and ultimately decide the game. The third kiwi pitcher of the game, Connor Gleeson, uncorked a wild pitch to score another run and a few batter ls later, Eduardo Zubriggen would coax another walk to score a fourth run. Damage done. Argentina would then call on Jose Mendoza to pitch the final two innings which he did basically without incident to save the win.
With that result, Argentina will try for the upset against Nicaragua. A win there would see them vie for a WBC ticket. A loss would be the end of a respectable showing. New Zealand become the second team to bow out after back to back losses where the team had a respectable showing but ultimately was unable to translate it to wins. A tight, hard affair resembling a passionate tango ultimately went the way of the gaucho.
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