Orioles vs. Dominican Republic WBC team game thread

This should be cool. The Orioles exhibition against a team full of players from the Dominican Republic, or players with Dominican parents, has finally arrived. No, you won’t be able to watch the game on television, because MASN apparently decided that there would be no interest in the contest, but it will, at least, be on Baltimore radio.

It doesn’t much matter if the Orioles win the game. Indeed, you shouldn’t expect that they will, because the Dominican lineup has nine players who are MLB-caliber in 2017, whereas the Orioles lineup does not - in part because two of the Orioles starting position players are currently with the DR team.

Following this tune-up, the Dominican team will get its first official World Baseball Classic action on Thursday at 6pm against the Canadian team.

The Orioles starting lineup:

1. Seth Smith - RF
2. Robert Andino - 2B
3. Chris Davis - 1B
4. Mark Trumbo - DH
5. Hyun Soo Kim - LF
6. Ryan Flaherty - 3B
7. Francisco Pena - C
8. Logan Schafer - CF
9. Paul Janish - SS

Kevin Gausman is the starting pitcher for the Orioles. According to MASN’s Roch Kubatko, other pitchers listed behind him for today’s game are: Brad Brach, Jed Bradley, Joe Gunkel, Zach Stewart, and Logan Verrett. Those names are in alphabetical order so that may not be the order in which they’ll pitch.

The Dominican Republic lineup:

1. Jose Reyes - SS
2. Manny Machado - 3B
3. Robinson Cano - 2B
4. Jose Bautista - RF
5. Carlos Santana - 1B
6. Nelson Cruz - DH
7. Starling Marte - CF
8. Gregory Polanco - LF
9. Welington Castillo - C

Samuel Deduno is the starting pitcher for the Dominican team. I have to say that I like a lineup with Machado batting second and I wish the Orioles would do that more often, or ever.