Welcome to Pinstripe Alley’s coverage of the 2026 World Baseball Classic! We previewed Pool A, Pool B, Pool C, and Pool D in the linked articles. Since the first several days of the WBC feature a bevy of games, we’ll be recapping them in batches. Enjoy!
The WBC officially kicked off on Wednesday night (ET) with Australia winning a minor upset over Chinese Taipei, 3-0, aided by a homer from 2024 top draft pick Travis Bazzana. Kevin provided a direct recap of that game for Pinstripe Alley, but as the
note above indicates, most of the recaps from now until the semifinals will feature multiple WBC contests from the previous 24 hours.
This marks the first of those, and it’s a little unusual given how the ol’ clock lines up for us in the Eastern Time Zone. The two games both featured teams in Pool C. Technically, the first from yesterday at the Tokyo Dome began at 5am ET and the second started at 10pm ET. Although that’s the same day for us, they respectively began on Thursday night and Friday afternoon in Tokyo. So you’ll see the Czechia twice because they had the tough draw of a day game after a night game. Ah, logistics!
Pool C: South Korea (1-0) 11, Czech Republic (0-1) 4
The Czechia club was one of the best stories of the 2023 WBC, with a scrappy team of players who don’t have the luxury of playing baseball full-time. They even won a game against China to earn instant qualification for this year’s WBC. During that previous WBC stint though, Korea jumped all over the Czechs in the first inning of their contest, batting around and plating five runs en route to a 7-3 victory.
The script evidently did not change all that much in their 2026 rematch.
Czechia starter Daniel Padysak immediately ran into trouble from the jump, as a couple walks and a Jung Hoo Lee single loaded the bases with one out for Bo Gyeong Moon, who has hit 46 homers across his last two season for the KBO’s LG Twins. Sure enough, he hit a moonshot (sorry) for a grand slam, and Korea had a 4-0 lead already. They kept the pressure on the Czechs, as Astros infielder Shay Whitcomb tallied two dingers against the arms that followed, Jeff Barto and Michal Kovala.
Former Orioles utiltyman Terrin Vavra, the lone Czechia player with MLB experience, had briefly made it a ballgame again at 6-3 in the fifth with a three-run shot off righty Woo Joo Jeong. But Whitcomb’s second long ball pushed his team’s lead back up to a comfortable five, and they only added from there. 2024 Yankee Jahmai Jones clubbed a solo shot of his own to join in on the action.
South Korea was expected to take care of business against the Czech Republic in their WBC opener, and they certianly did. They’ll face a far greater challenge tomorrow morning, when they square off with Shohei Ohtani and longtime rival/defending champion Japan at 5am ET — a Saturday night thriller at the Tokyo Dome.
Pool C: Australia (2-0) 5, Czechia (0-2) 1
No rest for the weary Czechs, who went right back to business in reporting to the ballpark the following morning. Their tenacity was briefly rewarded when they drew first blood against the Aussies. Tomas Ondra threw two scoreless innings, and in the the third, Vojtech Menšík gave Czechia a 1-0 lead on a sacrifice fly.
That being said, even the brief tally wasn’t a pure feeling of relief, as from the outside, it sure seemed like skipper Pavel Chadim played it too safe by going for small ball. The inning began with a Martin Cervenka double and a walk to Marek Chlup had set the table for one of their few power bats, Martin Mužík. But Chadim had Mužík bunt the runners over, which just looked worse when the sacrifice came on a 3-0 count. (In the postgame, Chadim said that he had indeed called for the bunt, but hadn’t wanted it after going up 3-0.) The Czechs played for one run, got it, and never scored another.
The very next inning burned this decision. Left fielder Chris Burke beat out an infield single for Australia’s first hit, and after a fielder’s choice at second that should’ve been a double play, Bazzana walked to set the table for White Sox infielder Curtis Mead — a familiar name around these parts as a former Rays prospect. Ondra went ahead 1-2 and was nearly out of the jam. Then Mead went monster.
The three-run shot proved decisive. The rest of the Czechia pitchers did a better job of holding down Australia than Korea, as it remained a 3-1 score into the ninth. Unfortunately for them, the Aussie arms had little trouble of their own. Josh Hendrickson, Coen Wynne, Blake Townsend, Ky Hampton, Todd Van Steensel, and Mitch Neunborn combined to hold Czechia to four hits on the day. Alex Hall homered in the ninth as part of insurance for Australia and Neunborn closed it out to move Australia to 2-0.
More likely than not, the Australians will have to at least beat Korea in their eventual head-to-head to advance in the WBC as they did in 2023, but they’ve put themselves in prime position by handling Chinese Taipei and Czechia. As for the Czechs, they know that they won’t be moving on. All they can do now is try to take down Chinese Taipei and at least ensure an automatic qualification for the 2029 WBC by avoiding last place in the pool, as they did by beating China in 2023. Chinese Taipei is far more internationally renowned though, so it’s a tall task.
Today at the WBC
/deep breath/
Japan vs. Chinese Taipei (Pool C)
Time: 5:00 a.m. ET
TV: FS1
Venue: Tokyo Dome, Japan
Cuba vs. Panama (Pool A opener)
Time: 11:00 a.m. ET
TV: FS2
Venue: Hiram Bithorn Stadium, San Juan, PR
Netherlands vs. Venezuela (Pool D opener)
Time: 12:00 p.m. ET
TV: Tubi
Venue: loanDepot park, Miami, FL
Mexico vs. Great Britain (Pool B opener)
Time: 1:00 p.m. ET
TV: FS1
Venue: Daikin Park, Houston, TX
Puerto Rico vs. Colombia (Pool A)
Time: 6:00 p.m. ET
TV: FS1
Venue: Hiram Bithorn Stadium, San Juan, PR
Nicaragua vs. Dominican Republic (Pool D)
Time: 7:00 p.m. ET
TV: FS2
Venue: loanDepot park, Miami, FL
United States vs. Brazil (Pool B)
Time: 8:00 p.m. ET
TV: Fox
Venue: Daikin Park, Houston, TX
Chinese Taipei vs. Czech Republic (Pool C)
Time: 10:00 p.m. ET
TV: FS2
Venue: Tokyo Dome, Japan
Away we go!
