Angel Obando never made it out of the Dominican Summer League, hasn’t been affiliated with a Major League Baseball team for eight years yet, at the age of 27, was one strike from pitching Nicaragua to an epic upset over Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic on March 7.
Instead, up two runs with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the bases empty and two strikes on the batter, Obando saw a dream outcome for Dusty Baker’s Nicaragua squad turned into a nightmare by three major league stars.
Boston Red Sox center fielder Ceddane Rafaela dunked a squibber into right field – exit velocity, 76.7 mph – to bring the tying run up. San Diego Padres All-Star shortstop Xander Bogaerts dribbled a ball down the third base line – that struck the bag for a fluke double.
And then, Obando delivered a first-pitch fastball over the heart of the plate to three-time All-Star Ozzie Albies, who with a simple flick sent the ball over the right field wall at loanDepot Park, delivering the heavily favored Netherlands a stunning 4-3 victory that keeps itself alive in Pool D in Miami.
Albies got the standard ice bath after crossing home plate, though his teammates were likely too stunned to produce a garish celebration.
So, too, were the Nicaraguans.
Obando cursed into his mitt after Rafaela’s ball dropped into right, as if to foresee the coming calamity. Baker, soon to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, chomped on his toothpick, per usual, in the Nicaraguan dugout.
Yet nine innings of nearly pristine baseball got undone in just three batters, capping a brutal 18-hour sequence for Nicaragua.
They held leads of 1-0 and 3-2 against a Dominican Republic squad that thoroughly outmanned them on paper, and carried a 3-3 tie into the bottom of the sixth in their March 6 opener. But Junior Caminero’s home run snapped the deadlock and the dam burst: Dominican Republic 12, Nicaragua 3.
Undaunted, Nicaragua came back just hours later and broke a 1-1 eighth-inning tie on Jeter Downs’ two-run homer. Obando, who’d pitched 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief against a lineup of five current or recent major league regulars, came back out to close it out.
The first two outs came easily, as a group of Nicaraguan fans gathered behind home plate to video the final out of this upset. Instead, they were left to witness a stunning Netherlands celebration.
And was just one strike, one good hop, away from doing so.
