The Netherlands have done it again. They beat the highly favored Dominican Republic in dramatic fashion, scoring 2 runs in the bottom of the eleventh inning to come from behind and take the game 2-1. Unbelievable!

Let me just list a few well known names on the D.R. team: Jose Reyes, Hanley Ramirez, David Ortiz, Miguel Tejada, Jose Guillen, Robinson Cano ...

No a few names on the Dutch team you might know:

The D.R. got seven hits and seven walks but managed only one run. They left 23 men on base. The Netherland struck out 15 times, walked once and got five hits, but won because Carlos Marmol, the Cubs closer, made an error on a pick-off attempt that allowed the tying run to advance from first to third. The winning run then came home on a fielding error by Willy Aybar (Recap). If you needed more prove that fundamentally sound baseball wins games, you got it here.

If you want some impressions from the Dutch team, I suggest you head over to Canadutch, where Leon 44 blogs about his WBC experience. Leon 44, I'm sure, is noone else but Leon Boyd, a Canadian with a Dutch passport and the closer of the Dutch team. I'm sure once he is done celebrating with his teammates, he will have a few things to say about how it feels to first give up the potentially losing run and then ending up the winning pitcher in the greatest upset the WBC has seen so far. So drop over and say hello.

Addition: I did not know that Bert Blyleven is the pitching coach of the Netherlands. He is certainly doing a great job. Hat Tip: Babes love baseball

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