Canada has advanced to the World Baseball Classic’s playoff round for the first time in the international tournament’s 20-year history.
Bo Naylor had an RBI double and Otto Lopez followed that with a two-run single as Canada scored three in the sixth inning to beat Cuba 7-2 on Wednesday in San Juan, Puerto Rico to reach the quarterfinals.
Although Canada has participated in all five WBCs (2006, 2009, 2013, 2017, 2023), it has never reached the knockout stage.
The Canadians finish the round-robin stage of the tournament in one of the top two spots in Pool A, but their playoff opponents are not yet known.
Canada and Puerto Rico will play quarterfinals in Houston this weekend.
Owen Caissie had a sacrifice fly in the third and Abraham Toro added a solo home run for Canada (3-1) in the fifth. Josh Naylor’s RBI single in the eighth and Caissie’s run-scoring single in the ninth added insurance for the Canadians.
Yoelkis Guibert’s fielder’s choice in the fifth scored a run for Cuba (2-2) to cut Canada’s lead to 2-1. Ariel Martinez’s run-scoring single made it 5-2 in the sixth.
Later Wednesday, Mexico and Italy were to play at Houston in a Group B game that will determine whether the United States advances.
