Mexico and the Dominican Republic face off late on Thursday night in an Olympic baseball showdown at Azuma Stadium in Fukushima. This is the second game for the Dominican Republic while Mexico is playing in their first game.
Mexico is currently ranked 5th in the world and they have a lot of former MLB talent on this team. Óliver Pérez pitched for the Cleveland Indians earlier this season before being released. Perez is going to be leaned on heavily on the mound for this team. At the plate, Mexico looks to be led by Adrián González who hasn’t played in the MLB since 2018 but did play a little professional baseball to get ready for the Olympics. This is a Mexico squad that has a good offense, and in this game, it’s going to be the offense that is going to need to be good that they lean on this game.
On the other side of this matchup is the Dominican Republic who probably feel like they should be 1-0 so far in this tournament, but they blew the first game late. The Dominican Republic had a 3-1 lead heading into the ninth inning against Japan, but their bullpen let them down late, and that led to the 4-3 defeat. Charlie Valerio was the best player for the Dominican Republic, having two hits and driving in two runs. In this game for the Dominican Republic, they need to get better pitching production late. They are facing a good offense in Mexico, and the Dominican Republic can’t blow another game late.
Losing the first game for the Dominican Republic has to be a big blow to their confidence. Mexico’s offense is going to be strong in this game, and that will lead to Mexico coming away with the victory.