Doubles down the line. Stringing together three singles to score three runs. Stranding runners on base. Throwing runners out trying to advance.

Baseball was back last night.

The Netherlands beat Cuba 4-2 in the World Baseball Classic.

If felt good to watch baseball again. After a long baseball-less winger, the WBC is such a welcome dose. A lot of current and former players were on display. Yoán Mancada, Luis Robert and Yoenis Cespedes played for Cuba. Jurickson Profar, Xander Bogaerts, Didi Gregorious, Jonathan Schoop, Wladimir Balentien, Andrelton Simmons and Chadwick Tromp played for The Netherlands. Most of these players are from islands in the Caribbean that are Dutch territories like Aruba and Curacao.

There are three games today.

Panama plays Chinese Taipei at 8:00 am.

Australia plays Korea at 9:00 pm

Panama plays The Netherlands at 10:00 pm.

The United States doesn’t play its first game until Saturday at 8:00 pm against Great Britain, on FOX.

*****

TODAY’S GAME:

Texas @ Arizona, 2:10