For the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic, Hanley Ramirez hit a long home run on Thursday against Venzuelan pitcher Jhoulys Chacin of the Colorado Rockies, but what was more memorable about the shot was the admiration of his own work by Ramirez, who ended his celebration with the best bat flip this side of Hong-Chih Kuo.
Mike Petriello of Mike Scioscia's Tragic Illness captured the moment in GIF form.
Ronald Belisario allowed a hit and a walk but also recorded two outs for Venezuela.
In Arizona, Italy upset Mexico 6-5 thanks to a two-run double that was a fly ball off the glove of Edgar Gonzalez in left field in the ninth inning. Nick Punto started the rally with a one-out double of Giants closer Sergio Romo. Luis Cruz was 1-for-4 with an RBI and a walk, and Adrian Gonzalez was 2-for-2 with two walks.
Gonzalez also got hit in the knee by a Jason Grilli pitch in the ninth inning, but manager Don Mattingly said Friday morning that Gonzalez was fine after the HBP.
On Friday, there are two WBC games involving Dodgers players:
- Italy takes on Canada from Chase Field at 11 a.m. PT
- Mexico takes on the United States, also from Chase Field at 6 p.m. PT
With all the rain in the Phoenix area on Friday, anyone with a ticket to a rained out Cactus League game on Friday can exchange it with $5 for a ticket to one of the WBC games at Chase Field.