Author: rincon

Cal Raleigh insisted Tuesday he has no beef with Randy Arozarena even though his Seattle Mariners teammate lashed out with a vulgar rant after Raleigh left him hanging for a handshake at the World Baseball Classic.

The kerfuffle went viral when Arozarena, a two-time All-Star outfielder playing for Mexico, cursed out Raleigh to a reporter after the Team USA catcher did not accept a handshake before an at-bat in the United States’ 5-3 win.

Speaking to Mexican journalist Luis Gilbert in Spanish, Arozarena said Raleigh “has to thank God that he has nice parents, well educated,” and said he recently hugged them during a friendly greeting at the team hotel.

He then used profane Cuban and Mexican slang to insult Raleigh before pivoting to English and saying Raleigh could shove his “good to see you” in his rear. Arozarena was born in Cuba but defected to Mexico to pursue an MLB career.

Arozarena had reached down to greet Raleigh in his catcher’s squat at home plate, and Raleigh declined to offer his hand back. Raleigh appeared to say something to Arozarena during the exchange at the plate that could have set off the Mexican star.

Arozarena appeared to be visibly upset at Raleigh, though it wasn’t totally clear if he was just having fun at his teammates’ expense. The pair have been teammates since Arozarena was traded from Tampa Bay to Seattle during the 2024 season.

Raleigh called Arozarena a baseball “brother” while explaining there was no tension between the teammates.

“Emotions are running high,” Raleigh told reporters. “There’s no beef here. Like I said, there’s no story to me. I’m not taking this as a big deal, and I don’t think he is either.”

Mariners manager Dan Wilson told reporters he planned to speak to both of his players at Tuesday.

“These guys are incredible athletes because of their competitiveness, and that’s where they’re at, and that’s why they’ve gotten to the level that they’ve gotten,” Wilson said. “But I also know that our team loves each other deeply. And that’s one of the key ingredients we have in that clubhouse, is how much they love each other, and so I don’t anticipate this being any bit of an issue.”

Wilson doesn’t expect whatever happened between the two to linger into the regular season. The Mariners went 90-72 in 2025 and won the franchise’s first AL West title since 2001 in large part behind Raleigh, who became the seventh player in major league history to hit 60 homers in a season.

“Competitiveness is competitiveness,” Wilson said. “It doesn’t matter. Sometimes, it’s a backyard game. Whatever. These guys are competitive. But like I said, I think the love that they have for each other will shine.”

Aaron Judge hit a two-run homer and Roman Anthony added a three-run drive in a big third inning to lead the United States to the win. The U.S. improved to 3-0 and will meet Italy (2-0) on Tuesday night, seeking to secure a spot in the quarterfinals in Houston this weekend.

Jarren Duran homered twice for Mexico (2-1), which will face Italy on Wednesday night in the last game of Group B play.

“I hate that this is a thing. I really don’t think this is a big deal, a big story,” Raleigh said. “It shouldn’t be a thing. I love Randy. I have all the respect for him and Team Mexico.”

Reporting by The Associated Press. 

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Daikin Park (Houston) — One more win on Tuesday night would seal Pool B for the United States and send the team through to the quarterfinals, but it won’t come easy.  

And after holding on late Monday night to beat Mexico for the first time since 2006 and remain undefeated, Team USA won’t be taking unbeaten Italy lightly. 

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“With Mexico playing Italy the day after us, we will approach it like it’s a must-win game,” said USA manager Mark DeRosa following the 5-3 win at Daikin Park, home of the Houston Astros. 

USA’s win on Monday avenged its 2023 pool-play loss to Mexico and put the host nation in a strong position to win Pool B. Boston Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony, whose three-run home run turned out to be the difference in the win, described the environment as the loudest game he has ever been a part of. 

“Just amazing to get baseball like that this early in the year,” Anthony said. “And always great when you win. So, the vibes are great.” 

But with the U.S. at 3-0, Italy at 2-0, Mexico at 2-1, nothing is determined yet. The two teams in the pool with the highest winning percentage will advance to the quarterfinals.

If two or more teams have the same winning percentage, the first tiebreaker will be head-to-head record. (The team that won the most games between the tied teams will get the higher position.) 

After that, it gets a bit more complicated, coming down first to the lowest quotient of fewest runs allowed divided by the number of defensive outs recorded in the games between the tied teams. The next tiebreakers are fewest earned runs allowed between the tied teams, then highest batting average and finally the drawing of lots. (Let’s hope it doesn’t get that far.)

Team USA can avoid any of those scenarios by beating Italy on Tuesday night, when 24-year-old Nolan McLean will make his tournament debut for Team USA against Rockies pitcher Michael Lorenzen for Italy. 

If that happens, the winner of the game between Italy and Mexico on Wednesday will determine which team advances as the runner-up in the pool. That game will likely feature MLB pitchers Aaron Nola for Italy starting against Javier Assad for Mexico.

Italy’s lineup features a number of MLB players, including Royals hitters Vinnie Pasquantino and Jac Caglianone, White Sox catcher Kyle Teel, Marlins outfielder Jakob Marsee and Mariners outfielder Dominic Canzone, who hit a three-run home run in a shutout win against Brazil.

Through two games, Italy’s supporting cast has helped lift the offense. Dante Nori, a 2024 first-round pick of the Phillies, is 5-for-7 with three extra-base hits. MLB veteran Jon Berti is 3-for-5 this tournament, while Andrew Fischer, a 2025 first-round pick of the Brewers, and Angels minor leaguer J.J. D’Orazio have also hit home runs. 

“All these teams are good in this tournament,” said Italy infielder Miles Mastrobuoni. “It’s not just [the U.S.]. But it’s going to be fun to go against those boys, and you got some guys that you play on the same team as, so it’s going to be fun to compete against them. We’re going to give them everything we’ve got, for sure.”

Mexico hopes for another crack at USA 

Despite Mexico’s loss on Monday, manager Benji Gil was pleased with the way his team battled back from a 5-0 deficit. 

“If I had one word to use, I would say admirable, the way they just kept plugging away… facing, as everybody has considered, right, a super team, and yet they battled and battled and battled, and we were one swing away from tying the game,” Gil said. 

Mexico came back to put the tying run at the plate with no outs in the ninth inning before falling short. 

“If you want to go really in depth, we shut them out for seven innings,” Gil continued. “We shut them out for seven innings. And you change one pitch, right, you change one pitch, we’re going into the ninth inning up 3-2.”

Mexico had won the previous three WBC meetings against the U.S. dating back to 2006. 

Three years ago, Mexico upset the U.S. in pool play, but both teams advanced to the quarterfinals. They nearly met again in the finals, as Mexico held a 5-4 lead on Japan in the ninth inning of their semifinal game, but a walk-off from Munetaka Murakami sent Japan through. 

This time, Gil is hoping his team will get another crack at facing USA and believes the result would be different. He’ll need a win against Italy to dream of that scenario. 

“You know what, I want to face them more than I want anything else in the world, how is that?” Gil said. “Unless, I don’t know what the lottery is at right now, but if the lottery is right around $800 million, yeah, I’ll win the lottery and cheer everybody from afar. But outside of that, I desire that more than anything in the world, to face them again in Miami. I think that we’ll end up 1-1 against the U.S. this tournament. And Mexico won’t lose again until three years from now.”

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Defending champion Japan defeated the Czech Republic 9-0 on Tuesday in the final World Baseball Classic Pool C game at the Tokyo Dome.

Despite the score, it wasn’t easy for Japan, which finished 4-0 in pool play. The Czechs, the 2025 European championship bronze medalists, finished 0-4.

Japan, held scoreless through seven innings, broke through with nine in the eighth. Teruaki Sato scored on a double by Kenya Wakatsuki and a throwing error by Czech right fielder William Escala. Ukyo Shuto added a three-run homer and Munetaka Murakami capped the inning with a grand slam.

Czech pitching did the job most of the night as Japan rested Shohei Ohtani to prepare for the quarterfinals in the United States.

Czech starter Ondrej Satoria — pronounced “Andre” — kept Japan scoreless in 4 2/3 innings and very uncomfortable with his soft stuff, almost all in the 68-75 mph range. His fastball barely touches 80.

He scattered six hits and struck out three on 67 pitches.

His replacement, Michael Kovala, kept Japan scoreless in the seventh but stumbled in the eighth and picked up the loss. The win went to Yumeto Kanemaru.

Satoria is famous in Japan. He struck out Shohei Ohtani on three pitches in the 2023 World Baseball Classic in Tokyo but missed Ohtani this time.

Japan had already clinched a berth in the quarterfinal, so Ohtani was rested and missed facing Satoria.

“I’m sad,” Satoria said before the game, knowing Ohtani was out of the lineup. “I think a lot of fans are sad, too. Maybe he’s resting for the long trip to Miami.”

All of the Czech players have day jobs. Satoria, who is retiring from the national team, is an electrician and manager Pavel Chadim — that’s Dr. Chadim — is a neurologist.

Chadim wore the 2025 European championship bronze medal to an interview session to make his point.

“I have this medal because I want to show to some people in the world that we are not baseball tourists,” Chadim said. “We are doing baseball as professionals. We don’t want excuses. We play as professionals on the field.”

That worked for seven innings.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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