World Baseball Classic 2017 GameThread: U.S.A vs Dominican Republic

Daniel Murphy struck out twice in a game just six times in the 142 games he played for the Washington Nationals in 2016, in a .347/.390/.595, 47 double, 25 HR, 5.5 fWAR campaign in the nation’s capital. He struck out twice in four at bats last night in his WBC debut, though the U.S. team Murphy served as the DH for managed a 3-2 win without any offensive contributions from runner-up for 2016’s NL MVP.

Tonight in Miami, another National gets his chance to make a contribution as the U.S. squad takes on the Dominican Republic in Marlins Park.

Tanner Roark is scheduled to be the second pitcher of the game for the United States after starter Toronto Blue Jays’ starter Marcus Stroman is done.

Roark told reporters, including Washington Post beat writer Jorge Castillo, that he was looking forward to the atmosphere in Miami:

“It might feel like we’re the away team playing in the U.S., but it’ll definitely be loud and it’ll be crazy,” Roark said.”

U.S.A. manager Jim Leyland talked after last night’s win over Colombia about the tough challenge his team has tonight in taking on the Dominican Republic, who opened WBC play with a 9-2 win over Canada on Thursday night.

“We know that the lineup obviously that the Dominican has, it's unbelievable,” Leyland said.

“But hey, this is the big boys game. This is what it's all about. They have a fantastic lineup, we think we have a great lineup, and we'll just see how it plays out.”

Murphy is coming off the bench tonight for the 6:30 PM EST matchup with the DR.

Here’s the full lineup for Team U.S.A.’s second WBC game:

FOLLOW: Tonight’s game is available on the MLB Network and MLB.tv. As noted above, for those with a Nationals-related rooting interest, Tanner Roark is going to piggy-back-start after Marcus Stroman is done on the mound.