The Dominican Republic‘s dream of reaching the final of the World Baseball Classic was ended by a refereeing error. The United States advanced to the final with a 2-1 victory in the midst of controversy, a context that Juan Soto did not miss to belittle the American triumph.
The Dominican Mets player was very upset by the way the American team won through a wrong decision by the umpire when he called strike in favor of pitcher Mason Miller in the ninth inning and left a man from the Dominican Republic on third base.
The pitch was to be marked as a ball, but something else was decided that influenced the direct result. In addition, it lent itself to all kinds of interpretations that fuel the morbid fear of alleged favoritism towards the American team.
Juan Soto’s reaction
Hot about the situation, still with the adrenaline of the game in him, the Mets slugger belittled the rival’s victory and praised his own team despite the defeat. He did so in a petulant tone, with an attitude of annoyance at the resolution of the game with an umpiring decision that harmed the Dominican Republic.
We showed the world who the best baseball team is. That’s all I have to say
The fans respond to Soto
After learning of his statements, fans, particularly Americans, took to social media to comment that the baseball player was “kicking and screaming” and giving a bad image of a sportsman by not accepting defeat.
A common myth is that the Dominican Republic national baseball team has dominated the World Baseball Classic era. The reality is different: they had a historic performance in 2013, but have struggled in most of the other tournaments
They questioned how the Dominicans scored just one run with a team that included Juan Soto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr, Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr, a competitive roster that could not compete against the United States pitchers.
Read the full article here
