Canada opens WBC with chaotic, mercy-rule win over Great Britain

PHOENIX – Teams line up rosters and map games out based on expectations of what should happen in the World Baseball Classic at their own peril. Time and again this tournament takes small-sample-size randomness and multiplies it by spring-training variance to produce utter chaos. As a result, the best laid plans don’t just get torn up, they get shredded and burned with the ashes tossed into the wind.

That’s how you get, for instance, Ondrej Satoria, an electrician by day who tosses high-70s slop by night, striking out once-in-a-lifetime talent Shohei Ohtani for the Czech Republic. Or the wild five-way tie in Pool A decided by the best quotient of fewest runs allowed divided by the number of defensive outs recorded. Or the hot mess that was Canada’s 18-8 mercy-rule victory over Great Britain on Sunday afternoon, quite possibly the best worst game you’ve ever seen.

Beyond that, nothing other than the result went to plan for the Canadians, who got only two outs from ace Cal Quantrill and trailed 3-0 in the blink of an eye before steeling themselves in a Gong Show game with fall-instructs vibes, veering away from disaster to ideal before a Chase Field crowd of 11,555.

“Wow. I don't know how to describe it, I really don't,” said Canadian manager Ernie Whitt. “There was a lot of offence out there. A little bit of sloppiness on their side. We hit the ball extremely, extremely well, which was nice to see.”

Even at 6.5 innings, the game lasted three hours 38 minutes and featured 13 pitchers throwing 356 pitches, only 189 for strikes. The Canadians, in tying the single-game Classic record for most runs by one team established by Japan versus China in 2006, had the same number of runners cross the plate as outs made at the dish. They had 17 hits, 16 walks and left 14 men on base. Four players took an at-bat in each of their six innings. They hit around in an inning three times.

“The boys kept the rally going today,” said Tyler O’Neill, who had four hits including a three-run double in a four-run third and an RBI single in the six-run fourth that broke the British spirit. “A lot of good at-bats out there. A lot of walks, not giving anything away, it was really fun to watch.”

Canada also scored three times the number of runs the Americans did in Saturday night’s 6-2 win over Great Britain, underlining just how weird the Classic can be.

Yet even with the offensive outburst, the game was a grind, as Quantrill fought his command and failed to escape the first while Evan Rutckyj, gave up a run in the third and then, after Canada had opened up a 10-5 lead, surrendered a three-run shot to Seattle Mariners catching prospect Harry Ford in the fourth that made it a game again.

“Great Britain, they just kept battling back,” said Whitt. “But we had some great at-bats. We grinded out our at-bats. We took our walks. And we capitalized on some of the mistakes they made.”

Before they did that, Edouard Julien, a fast-rising Minnesota Twins prospect, jumpstarted the offence by ripping a first-pitch fastball from Akeel Morris over the wall in right. The immediate response after falling behind 3-0 in the first “was awesome,” said O’Neill. “Kudos to Jules for getting that done. That really got the wind back in our sails.”

But the Brits gave Canada the first of several unintentional assists later in the inning when with the bases loaded, Abraham Toro hit a chopper to first baseman Nick Ward, who instead of throwing home to keep the force intact, touched the base at first for an out and then bounced his throw home, allowing two runs to score and tie the game 3-3.

Toro may have very well disrupted the throw by not peeling off after Ward touched the bag. RBI singles by Owen Caissie and Jacob Robson, on an infield chopper off reliever Carmin Opp’s glove, made it 5-3 to cap a 50-minute opening frame and they didn’t trail again.

“That swing by Eddie was absolutely massive,” said Curtis Taylor, whose three-up, three-down fifth was the first clean inning by a pitcher in the game. “That got all the boys in the 'pen fired up. It's slightly concerning to start, but we knew we were able to score, we were going to have to score to win that game and Eddie just re-instilled that confidence in us.”

Taylor’s outing helped lock the game down, as he, John Axford – in his second game since Tommy John surgery in the fall of 2021 – and Mariners closer Matt Brash retired the final 10 British hitters.

Still, Taylor also got some Brit help in the fourth, when he gave up a long two-out double to centre by Darnell Sweeney, but caught a break when B.J. Murray didn’t run hard from first base and had to stop at third. Taylor then rallied to get Knowles swinging, calling it the biggest strikeout “of my life.”

“I knew I had to get that guy,” said Taylor. “That was that was the only option.”

Key outs also came from Phillippe Aumont, the first-rounder-turned-farmer who cracked his tailbone playing beer-league hockey in January, escaping the bases-loaded jam left by Quantrill in the first.

Canada wasn’t totally clean in the field either, surrendering a tournament-record tying five stolen bases including a delayed double-steal of home, and left an out at second on the field in that fourth when Sweeney was slow into second but no one was there to cover.

But the relentless offence ultimately carried the day, with Owen Caissie’s 108.3 m.p.h. drive 427 feet above the yellow homer line in centre, among the highlights.

He wasn’t sure the ball cleared the marker so he raced around the bases, just in case – “I didn't see any umpire (signal homer), so I'm going to keep going,” he explained – and his hustle served as an apt metaphor for the way the Canadians had not let up, with team at-bats up and down the lineup.

“It's just really being disciplined,” said Caissie. “We did a really good job of that.”

Added Julien: “We don't go out there to walk. The pitchers were just getting behind in the counts. We have good hitters in this lineup and we’re patient and we’re able to drive the ball like we showed. We did a good job.”

That tenacity eventually broke the will of the Brits, who stood on their feet for long inning after long inning in a day game after night.

“It’s not what anyone wants,” said British manager Drew Spencer. “They're pros, they've been there. I think what we have to recognize is that we had a late game (Saturday) night. It was an exciting game, emotional, in front of a big crowd. And then we had the early game. So it was always going to be a tough turnaround. … And then to be standing up a long time in that kind of situation is probably not the situation you want to be in.”

The Canadians also found themselves in a situation they didn’t want to be in, too, and it could have sent their tournament off the rails right from the hop. But as unexpected as their poor start was, they put themselves back on track in a similarly unexpected fashion, the unusual once again the norm at the World Baseball Classic.