8:24 PM ET
MIAMI — Mexico’s manager, Benji Gil, said he doesn’t believe his team should be playing until Saturday. Its quarterfinal game against Puerto Rico in this year’s World Baseball Classic instead took place on Friday night, which meant a tough turnaround for a team that was navigating the pool-play portion of the tournament nearly 2,500 miles away.
“We’re not looking for excuses,” Gil said moments before Friday’s 5-4 come-from-behid win. “We’re not gonna make an excuse if we win, and we’re not gonna make an excuse if we lose. But before it’s played, it’s a hundred percent a disadvantage. And I’m not saying it’s a disadvantage because Puerto Rico didn’t travel. They were here. And that’s fine. That’s the way it should be. But at the end of the day, before the tournament happened, the 1-seed was playing on Saturday. And then when stuff got complicated, it became that the U.S. plays on Saturday no matter what.”
The World Baseball Classic bracket disseminated by Major League Baseball indicates that the Pool C winner (in this case Mexico) would face the Pool D runner-up (Puerto Rico) on Saturday, with the Pool D winner (Venezuela) playing the Pool C runner-up (Team USA) on