Soto, Machado lead Dominicans to 1st win at WBC
MIAMI (AP) — San Diego Padres stars Juan Soto and Manny Machado homered, and the Dominican Republic picked up its first win of WBC pool play with a 6-1 victory of Nicaragua on Monday.
Rafael Devers hit a two-out RBI double in the first against Nicaragua starter JC Ramirez, driving in Soto for a 1-0 lead. Eloy Jimenez’s single in the second scored Soto again and gave the Dominicans a 2-0 lead.
Winner Cristian Javier only allowed two hits and struck out four in four innings.
The Dominican Republic (1-1) doubled its lead in the fourth when Francisco Mejia singled off Fidencio Flores on a grounder to score Willy Adames, then Julio Rodriguez singled to left field to drive in Jeimer Candelario.
Soto blasted a shot to right field off Junior Tellez to make it 5-0 in the fifth, and Machado tagged Tellez in the next inning with a fly ball to right center field.
Soto accounted for three runs and an RBI. Machado added an RBI and had a double in the ninth.
Nicaragua (0-3) made it 6-1 in the eighth after Elian Miranda’s bases-loaded RBI single. Ramirez took the loss.