Perez, Chirinos lead Venezuela over Canada at Americas Olympic qualifier
Photo: Baseball Canada/Twitter
June 2, 2021
By Kevin Glew
Canadian Baseball Network
Two veteran catchers spurred Venezuela to a 5-0 win over Canada in the final game of Group Play action at the Americas Olympic qualifier at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Wednesday.
Robinson Chirinos, 36, who has caught 575 major league games, reached base four times for Venezuela, going 1-for-1 with a single, two walks and a hit by pitch. While former Toronto Blue Jays prospect Carlos Perez, serving as the DH, belted a two-run home run in the bottom of the fourth as part of a 3-for-4 performance.
“It just seems like he’s seeing the ball real well right now and he was taking advantage of mistakes . . . He’s having a real good tournament,” Canadian manager Ernie Whitt said about Perez, who’s now 7-for-11 in three games.
The Canadian squad who had three pitchers combine to toss a no-hitter in their first game against Colombia on Monday could only muster one hit – a first-inning single from Jacob Robson (Windsor, Ont.) – against a quartet of Venezuelan pitchers, headed by Boston Red Sox prospect Enmanuel De Jesus who started and threw four scoreless innings, before being lifted with an apparent injury while warming up in the fifth.
“He established a breaking ball and he was commanding his fastball,” said Canadian catcher Kellin Deglan (Langley, B.C.), about De Jesus. “We just couldn’t get a whole lot going today. It was just one of those days.”
Canada finishes Group Play with a 2-1 record, but both Canada and Venezuela will advance to the Super Round which begins on Friday. With their loss today, however, Canada will carry a 0-1 record into the next round, while Venezuela will start 1-0. The Canucks will battle the Americans on Friday night at 7 p.m. and then the Dominican Republic on Saturday afternoon.
The country with the best Super Round record will become the fifth national team to advance to the Olympics, joining Japan, South Korea, Mexico and Israel. The second- and third-place teams will have another chance to qualify at a tournament in Mexico that will begin on June 22. The winner of this event will be the sixth and final nation to compete at the Olympics.
Whitt said Wednesday was a bullpen day for his club and he used five pitchers, with left-hander Travis Seabrooke (Peterborough, Ont.) getting the start. The 25-year-old southpaw allowed two runs on three hits, all in the second inning when he permitted back-to-back RBI singles to centre fielder Ramon Flores and third baseman Yonny Hernandez that scored Chirinos and Perez.
The damage, however, could have been worse that inning. Robson made a diving catch in left field on a sinking drive hit by Alexander Palma with one out. Then, later in the frame, Wes Darvill (Langley, B.C.), playing in right field for the first time in the tournament, gunned down Flores attempting to go from first to third to end the inning.
Seabrooke was replaced by hard-throwing right-hander Trevor Brigden (North York, Ont.) to start the third. Brigden held the Venezuelans off the scoreboard in that frame before serving up a two-run home run to Perez in the fourth.
Brigden struck out the next batter before being replaced by right-hander Will McAffer (North Vancouver, B.C.) who didn’t allow a run over the next 1 2/3 innings.
Brendan McGuigan (Austin, Texas) took over on the mound in the sixth and was roughed up for four hits – including a solo home run to shortstop Juniel Querecuto – in his 1 2/3 inning outing.
Left-hander Ben Onyshko (Winnipeg, Man.) got the final four outs for Canada.
“We knew it was going to be a bullpen day,” said Whitt. “So we just tried to stay as close as we could. We had some opportunities to cash in [some runs] . . . We’ll be fine going into the crossover.”
Of course, it doesn’t matter how you pitch when your offence consists of a first-inning single and four walks. Canada’s biggest threat to score came in the top of the third when first baseman Jesse Hodges (Victoria, B.C.) and second baseman Jonathan Malo (Joliette, Que.), both seeing their first action of the tournament, drew walks to begin the inning and Darvill dropped down a perfect sacrifice bunt. But the red-hot Robson grounded back to the pitcher and Eric Wood (Oshawa, Ont.) struck out to strand the runners.
After De Jesus was taken out prior to the fifth inning, three Venezuela relievers – Oddainer Mosqueda, Harold Chirinos and Henry Centeno - combined to hold Canada hitless in the last five innings.
“There’s no excuse. They pitched well. They played well. We didn’t. That’s the bottom line,” said Whitt. “We just came out flat today after a long night last night.”
Deglan offered a similar assessment.
“It was a tough loss,” he said. “We couldn’t get a lot of momentum going. Those guys came out swinging and they had a pretty good approach out there. They were disciplined and when they got their pitch, they were hitting it. So we tip our cap to them, they outplayed us today.”
Canada will now turn their focus to their first Super Round game against the Americans on Friday.
“I don’t think that you’ll see us come out flat again,” said Whitt. “We know what we have to do. We don’t get this opportunity all the time and I think our team will respond.”
Robson shines again
Robson, a Windsor Selects alum and Detroit Tigers prospect, was a standout again for Canada. He had the club’s only hit – a solid line drive to right field in the first inning – and also made a diving catch in left field in the second. He’s now a team-best 5-for-12 (.417 batting average) in the tournament.
Deglan guns down two
No one would blame catcher Kellin Deglan if he was tired. After playing all nine innings in last night’s nail-biting 6-5 win against Cuba that went until after midnight, he was behind the dish again today, calling the pitches for five different pitchers. But if he’s tired, he’s certainly not showing it. He threw out two Venezuelan baserunners trying to steal today.
Perez, former Blue Jays prospect
The Blue Jays signed Carlos Perez as an amateur free agent on January 2, 2008. At that time, Whitt was still a coach with the Blue Jays. I asked him in the conference call if he has any memories of a young Perez. He didn’t. Perez spent parts of four seasons in the Blue Jays’ organization from 2008 to 2011, rising to the class-A Advanced level before he was dealt to the Houston Astros as part of the 10-player deal that landed the Blue Jays J.A. Happ on July 20, 2012. Perez has since batted .215 in 212 major league games in parts of four seasons with the Los Angeles Angels, Atlanta Braves and Texas Rangers. He last played in the big leagues in 2018.
Ex-Jays help the Dominican Republic advance
The Dominican Republic advanced to the Super Round with a convincing 13-3 win over Nicaragua on Wednesday. Three of the first four batters in their lineup were ex-Blue Jays: Emilio Bonifacio (left field), Jose Bautista (first base) and Juan Francisco (DH).