The Dominican Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands faced off in Miami on March 8 for the next game of their pool play of the World Baseball Classic. 

The Dominicans, who came into this tournament with something to prove after their poor showing in 2023, wasted no time showing that they came to really play this tournament with a 11-3 over Nicaragua in their first game of pool play. 

The Netherlands came into this game after an electric walk-off home run the day before against Nicaragua to keep themselves alive, since they had already lost to Venezuela in their first game.

The game started off with a lot of energy from the Dominicans, with Luis Severino taking the mound for the team and setting down the Netherlands lineup 1-2-3 to start off. During the bottom half of the first, Fernando Tatís Jr. and Ketel Marte both drew walks, and after Juan Soto struck out, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. singled to left to give DR a quick 1-0 lead. 

Manny Machado then grounded into a double-play ball but a missed throw from Netherlands shortstop Xander Bogaerts led to the Dominican’s second run.

At the top of the second, veteran Didi Gregorius hit a solo home run off Severino to cut the lead in half. That would be the end of it for the Netherlands as the Dominicans took off. In the bottom of the third, another walk from Marte led to a Guerrero two-run home run.

 In the fifth, the Dominicans struck again after a Soto walk and a Machado single set up Junior Caminero for a three-run home run that opened it wide open for team Dominican Republic. 

Caminero has been the heart and soul of this team so far, and here he continues to leave it all out there. 

The Dominican Republic was far from done this innings. After a Julio Rodríguez walk to first, Austin Wells joined the party and got his first hit of the WBC after launching a two-run home run to right. 

A sacrifice fly later in the inning from Marte made it 10-1 for the Dominicans. 

Finally, in the seventh inning, Soto hit a walk-off two-run home run to end the game 12-1 on the mercy rule and put the Dominican Republic one game away from advancing to the knockout rounds.

This Dominican team is showing signs of something special early on in this tournament. Their next game is against Israel, where a win will advance them to the next round. After that is their first big test against a Venezuelan team that also has all the tools to win this tournament. 

This team was pictured as a redemption team, and so far, they are on their way to doing that.