(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
   Netherlands Team suffers big loss in second exhibition-game in Arizona
Nederlands
 SCOTTSDALE, Arizona (USA) -
The Netherlands Team played its second exhibition game in Arizona on Tuesday (February 21) as part of its preparations for the upcoming World Baseball Classic, which opens on March 8.
The Netherlands meets Cuba in the opening game of the global event in Taichung (Taiwan).
Today, the Netherlands Team again played against Hanwha Eagles on one of the auxiliary fields at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, the Spring Training-complex of Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks.
After having lost the first game against the South Korean professional team on Sunday with a 4-1 score, the Orange suffered a bigger loss today.
This time, Hanwha Eagles won 15-4 in a 9-inning game on fifteen basehits off of five pitchers.
The Orange-offense, which played with ten batters in its batting order, produced eleven basehits off of six pitchers, but managed to score only four runs.
Hanwha Eagles struck early and scored eight of its fifteen runs in the first four at bats off of two pitchers.
The first two Korean runs were scored quickly off of starter Juan Carlos Sulbaran.
The righthander gave up a lead-off single to Hyun-Bin Moon, then next batter Si-Hwan Roh hit the ball into rightfield for a 2-run homerun.
After a flyout had accounted for the first out, Sulbaran struckout the next two batters, but the Netherlands Team trailed 2-0.
The Orange Team got one run back in its first at bat off of Félix Peña, who turns 33 in a few days.
The Dominican righthander pitched in the Major League for Chicago Cubs (2016-2017) and Los Angeles Angels (2018-2021), mostly as a reliever.
On July 12, 2019, Peña was part of a combined No-Hitter.
On that day, against Seattle Mariners, Peña took over the pitching from starter Taylor Cole in the third inning and threw seven hitless innings to complete the No-Hitter.
In 2022, Peña signed a Minor League-contract with New York Mets, was released in June and signed three days later with Hanwha Eagles.
Since November 2020, Venezuelan Carlos Subero is the Manager of Hanwha Eagles.
Subero had been a Minor League-Manager since 2001 and was the 1B and Infield Coach of the Major League-team of Milwaukee Brewers in 2016-2019.
In the bottom of the first inning, Peña faced lead-off hitter Andrelton Simmons, who in 2018-2020 was his teammate when both played in the Major League for Los Angeles Angels.
In the mentioned No-Hitter, Simmons was the short stop, went 3-for-5 and also scored three runs in the 13-0 win.
Peña gave up a lead-off infield-hit to Simmons, but he was forced out moments later on a grounder by Didi Gregorius.
With two outs, Gregorius moved to second base via a wild pitch, then scored when Roger Bernadina followed with a double down the leftfield-line.
A flyout ended the at bat.
Hanwha Eagles added another run in the top of the second.
With two runners on base (both walks) and two outs, Hyun-Bin Moon delivered a runscoring single.
The Netherlands left another runner in scoring position in the bottom of the second.
With one out, Ray-Patrick Didder singled, stole second base and moved to third base on a wild pitch, but stranded.
In the top of the third inning, the Korean opponent scored four more runs off of new pitcher Ryan Huntington, all unearned.
With one out, Eun-Seong Chae reached on a single.
He then appeared to be forced out at second base on a grounder by Tae-Yean Kim, but short stop Ray-Patrick Didder committed an error.
With two outs, three runscoring basehits followed.
First, Woon-Ho Jang singled in the first run.
With runners at the corners, Gwan-Hoe Heo hit the ball into right/centerfield for a 2-run double.
Moments later, Heo scored himself on a single by Sun-Jin Oh and that lifted the Korean lead to 7-1.
In the bottom of the third inning, off of new pitcher Hyun-Sang Joo, the Netherlands came close to its second run.
With two outs, Didi Gregorius hit the ball into deep rightfield for a homerun, but it ended up in foul territory.
He then flied out to rightfield, which completed a rare one-two-three at bat in which all three outfielders made in an out respectively from left to center to rightfield.
Hanwha Eagles scored another run off of Ryan Huntington in the top of the fourth.
The lefthander got the bases loaded via two walks and a single.
After Si-Hwan Roh had led off with a walk, Brian O'Grady singled, then another walk loaded the bases.
Roh then scored on a wild pitch.
With runners now on second and third base, Huntington struckout the next batter (first out), which also ended the at bat, as the lefthander had reached his pitch-count.
Wladimir Balentien led off the bottom of the fourth inning for the Netherlands with a single off of new pitcher Min-Je Jang.
However, his stay at first base would be brief.
Next batter Roger Bernadina hit a pop-fly behind first base near the foul-line in short rightfield.
Balentien left first base on contact.
After the ball was caught by the second baseman, he threw it to first base to complete a double play, as Balentien was back too late.
A strikeout ended the at bat.
In the top of the fifth inning, Eric Mendez Matos took over the Orange-pitching and made his debut in the National Team.
With one out, he hit a batter, but then was supported with a double play.
Trailing 8-1, the Netherlands got another run back in the bottom of the fifth.
Josh Palacios led off with a single, moved to second base via a wild pitch, then scored on a 2-out single by Juremi Profar.
Hanwha Eagles took more distance in the top of the sixth by adding two more runs.
With one out, Eric Mendez Matos walked three batters in a row.
The two runs were then scored when John Polonius made an error.
Polonius had entered the game in the previous inning as new second baseman.
With two runners on base, a single re-loaded the bases.
That also ended the inning, as Mendez had also reached his pitch-count, just as Ryan Huntington in the fourth.
...John Polonius...
...two basehits...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Facing new pitcher Seung-Hyuk Han in the bottom of the sixth, with one out, pinch-hitter Denzel Richardson connected for a broken-bat single, which was the seventh Orange-basehit in the game.
Han then struckout Wladimir Balentien and Richardson was forced out on a grounder by Roger Bernadina.
Franklin Van Gurp became the fourth Dutch pitcher when he took the mound in the seventh inning.
He retired the side, then saw his teammates scored twice in the bottom of the seventh.
Trailing 10-2, the Orange Team had a fine bottom of the seventh off of Seung-Hyuk Han.
John Polonius led off with a single, moved on a wild pitch, then scored on an one-out double by Ray-Patrick Didder.
Next batter Zander Wiel then lined out to leftfield, but Juremi Profar reached base on a walk.
Thanks to a wild pitch, the Didder and Profar advanced to third and second base, then both scored when Sicnarf Loopstok followed with a runscoring single to make it a 10-4 score.
With two runners on base, the inning ended when Dwayne Kemp grounded out.
After his successful seventh inning, Franklin Van Gurp gave up four runs in the top of the eighth.
With a runner on second base (hit by pitch, wild pitch), the righthander gave up a single to Jung-Hyun Park.
With runners at the corners, Park was forced out on a grounder by Eun-Won Jung, but also led to a run.
After next batter Do-Yun Lee had walked, it was Jin-Hyuk Jang, who delivered a runscoring single.
Next, Hanwha Eagles got the bases loaded when Soo-Kwang Ro walked.
Hereafter, In-Hwan Kim hit a comeback infield-hit off Van Gurp's right shin.
Lee scored and when Van Gurp made a following throwing error towards first base, Jang also scored, which made it a 14-4 score.
The play also ended the at bat.
The Korean opponent turned another double play on a flyout in the bottom of the eighth inning and again veteran Wladimir Balentien was involved.
With one out, Balentien walked.
Next batter Jiandido Tromp then drove the ball into deep centerfield.
Balentien took off and already had passed second base before the centerfielder caught the ball.
He then threw the ball via the second baseman to first base to complete the double play.
Although a 10-run difference had been reached, the international mercy-rule was not used and so the game continued.
Hanwha Eagles then scored its final run in the top of the ninth off of Antwone Kelly, who also made his Netherlands Team-debut.
He gave up a lead-off double to Jae-Hoon Choi, who scored on a following single by Jin-Young Lee.
With one out, a single down the leftfield-line towards third base by Sang-Un Park resulted in another runner, but Kelly then closed with two strikeouts.
In the bottom of the ninth, Si-Hwan Jang closed the game for the Koreans.
He was greeted with a lead-off single by John Polonius, but he was eliminated when Ademar Rifaela grounded into a double play.
Jang then walked Ray-Patrick Didder, but the game ended when a deep fly into centerfield by Zander Wiel was caught.
The following players came into action for the Netherlands:
Andrelton Simmons (3B, 1-for-2), Dwayne Kemp (3B, 0-for-2), Didi Gregorius (1B/DH, 0-for-2), Denzel Richardson (PH/DH, 1-for-2), Wladimir Balentien (DH, 1-for-3), Roger Bernadina (CF, 1-for-3), Jiandido Tromp (CF, 0-for-1), Sharlon Schoop (2B, 0-for-2), John Polonius (2B, 2-for-2), Josh Palacios (RF, 1-for-2), Ademar Rifaela (RF, 0-for-2), Ray-Patrick Didder (SS, 2-for-3), Zander Wiel (LF/1B, 0-for-4), Juremi Profar (Extra DH/LF, 1-for-2), Dashenko Ricardo (C, 0-for-2), Sicnarf Loopstok (C, 1-for-1) and pitchers Juan Carlos Sulbaran, Ryan Huntington, Eric Mendez Matos, Franklin Van Gurp and Antwone Kelly.
(February 21)
Related Articles:
 Netherlands Team opens exhibition-series in Arizona with loss. (February 19)
Roster Netherlands Team announced for World Baseball Classic. (February 10)
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Eric Mendez Matos and Antwone Kelly make their debut in the Netherlands National Team.