2013 World Baseball Classic scores: USA stomps Puerto Rico, Dominicans get comeback win over Italians

David Wright continued to live up to his new "Captain America" moniker Tuesday night, driving in five runs on two hits to give Team USA a 7-1 victory over Puerto Rico in their first Round 2 match-up. Nationals left-hander Gio Gonzalez had a stellar outing on the mound for the US, holding the strong Puerto Rican offense to no runs on just three hits in five innings -- striking out five. Catcher Joe Mauer got things started for the US in the first with a two-out, RBI double, but it was pretty much the David Wright show after that. The Mets third baseman had an RBI groundout in the third and a run-scoring single in the fifth, then capped it all off with a bases-clearing double in the seventh to give Team USA an insurmountable 7-1 lead.

For much of Tuesday's afternoon's game between the Dominican Republic and Italy, it looked as though the Italians' Cinderella run was going to continue. Italy jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the first inning with a sac fly followed by a three-run blast from Chris Colabello. Working with the early lead, Italian right-hander Tiago Da Silva held the powerful Dominican offense mostly in check, leaving the game after 5⅓ with a 4-2 lead. Former switch-pitcher Pat Venditte -- now just a lefty -- tried to preserve the lead for Da Silva in the seventh but quickly loaded the bases and eventually took the loss when all three of his base-runners came around to score. Texas Rangers right fielder Nelson Cruz notched what ended up being the game-winning single for the DR.

Well, the Netherlands weren't on the wrong end of the mercy rule in their second contest against Japan, but things still didn't really go much better. Andrelton Simmons led off the game with yet another home run for the Dutch, but an eight-run second inning from Japan -- which included two home runs from designated hitter Shinnosuke Abe -- quickly put the game out of reach. Netherlands managed to bring the game to 8-6 in the seventh with run-scoring singles from Kalian Sams and Quentin De Cuba, but never got any closer than that. Japan scored two insurance runs in the eighth on a two-run single from Hisayoshi Chono then shut down the Dutch squad in the ninth to clinch their top seeding in the final round. Netherlands also advances.

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