MIAMI: Trea Turner, Paul Goldschmidt and an unrelenting US lineup kept putting crooked numbers on the scoreboard, a dynamic display of the huge gap between an American team of major leaguers and Cubans struggling on the world stage as top players have left the island nation.
Turner homered twice to give him a tournament-leading four, driving in four runs to lead the US to a 14-2 rout Sunday night and advance the defending champion Americans to the World Baseball Classic final.
Goldschmidt also homered and had four RBIs and Cedric Mullins went deep in a game interrupted three times by fans running on the field to display protest signs.
“The team kind of represents the government over there, and people aren’t too happy about it,” US manager Mark DeRosa said.
The US play Japan or Mexico in Tuesday night’s championship, trying to join the Samurai Warriors as the only nations to win the title twice.
“I think it took us a little bit of time, but now we kind of found our stride a little bit,” Turner said.
Turner has a tournament-leading 10 RBIs. He followed his go-ahead, eighth-inning grand slam a night earlier against Venezuela with a solo homer in the second inning off Roenis Elias (0-1) and a three-run drive in the sixth against Elian Leyva.
“I kept saying every time he went deep, who is the idiot that’s hitting him ninth?” DeRosa said.
Cuba went ahead when their first four batters reached off Adam Wainwright (2-0) without getting a ball out of the infield. After forcing in a run with a walk to Alfredo Despaigne, the 41-year-old right-hander recovered to strand the bases loaded.
“I put myself in that situation in the first place by making horrible PFP plays — or not making PFP plays,” Wainwright said in a reference to pitchers’ fielding practice and two grounders he failed to come up with.
American batters had 14 hits, including eight for extra bases, and seven walks as they scored in seven of eight innings — five with multiple runs.