World Baseball Classic schedule: Dodgers departing Sunday, Monday for tournament

The 2013 World Baseball Classic begins on Friday night, with Australia batting Chinese Taipei from Taiwan in an 8:30 p.m. PT game that will be televised by MLB Network. The tournament has a total of 39 games, including at least one game per day every day through March 19.

For the Dodgers, they have five players playing in the WBC, and they all depart this weekend to report to their WBC teams on Monday.

Hanley Ramirez (Dominican Republic) and Ronald Belisario (Venezuela) are in Pool C, which plays in Puerto Rico beginning Thursday. Both of them are scheduled to play on Saturday when the Dodgers battle the Mariners in Peoria, then fly on Sunday to Puerto Rico.

Nick Punto (Italy), Luis Cruz (Mexico), and Adrian Gonzalez (Mexico) are in Pool D, which starts play in Arizona on Thursday. Team Italy has been training on the back fields at Camelback Ranch for a week, and Team Mexico will do the same next week. Manager Don Mattingly said all three players will likely play on Sunday, when the Dodgers host the Indians at Camelback Ranch, before reporting to their teams on Monday.

Here is an infographic provided by Major League Baseball with some facts about the WBC: