The Dominican Republic team kicked off its defense of its World Baseball Classic title with a win against an overmatched Canadian team on Thursday night, 9-2. The two Orioles on the DR team, Manny Machado and Welington Castillo, made key contributions to the victory.
Facing a Canadian pitcher in Ryan Dempster who, at 39, has not pitched in three years, the Dominican lineup unloaded in the second inning and never looked back. Dempster gave up four runs in only two innings of work. That included an opposite field shot from Castillo, the Orioles catcher, a two-run bomb that put the DR team up 3-0.