MIAMI — At this time six years ago, MJ Melendez was a senior catcher at Westminster Christian in the Miami area, working his way toward being a top pick in the MLB draft and starting his career as a professional baseball player.
Also at this time six years ago, Puerto Rico made a furious run to the championship game of the 2017 World Baseball Classic only to lose to the United States in the championship game — its second consecutive runner-up finish in the international tournament.
Fast forward to present day, and the 24-year-old Melendez made his MLB debut, is establishing himself as a full-time player and is on a star-studded Puerto Rico roster that is trying to break through for a title in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
And it was the up-and-coming Melendez who provided one of the key hits in Puerto Rico’s 9-1 win over Nicaragua to open pool play at loanDepot park on Saturday.
With the bases loaded and no outs, Melendez sent a cutter from Erasmo Ramirez to shallow center field for a two-run single to extend what ultimately became a five-run inning for Puerto Rico that broke open a game that to that point was tied 1-1.
Melendez’s hit came after Christian Vazquez drew a one-out walk and Martin Maldonado, Francisco Lindor and Enrique Hernandez hit three consecutive singles. Melendez then moved to second on an Emmanuel Rivera RBI groundout that scored Hernandez and capped the rally by scoring on Javier Baez’s RBI single.
The rally came after Nicaragua went to its bullpen. Starter Carlos Rodriguez, a Miami native and Miami Christian alumnus, held Puerto Rico to just one run over four innings while striking out three.
“It was a good team effort,” Puerto Rico manager Yadier Molina said. “Obviously, the other teams have very good pitching and very good teams. As a whole, we are not playing with weak teams. All the teams are very good. That young pitcher [Rodriguez] did a good job at the beginning of the game, but the coaches made some adjustments with the players, and we were able to win.”
The announced crowd of 35,399 — which was predominantly supporting Puerto Rico — went into a frenzy with each hit.
It’s the latest big moment in Melendez’s burgeoning career.
The Kansas City Royals drafted Melendez in the second round of the 2017 MLB draft and he made his MLB debut last season. Melendez played in 129 games for the Royals as a rookie, splitting time between catcher (78 games, 65 starts), left field (23 starts), right field (15 games, 14 starts) and designated hitter (23 games, 22 starts). He hit .217 with a .706 on-base-plus-slugging mark, 18 home runs, 21 doubles, 62 RBIs and 57 runs scored in 534 plate appearances.
But it wasn’t just Melendez who came up clutch for Puerto Rico.
Lindor and Baez each had two hits and were magnificent in the middle infield. Vazquez and Maldonado also had multiple hits. The offense as a whole had 11 hits, with all nine starting position players safely reaching base at least once.
Marcus Stroman was dominant over 4 2/3 innings, with his only blip a solo home run to Nicaragua designated hitter Elian Miranda to end his outing.
Stroman was efficient with his pitches and looked sharp considering he had only thrown 4 1/3 innings in spring training and only threw 2 1/3 innings the last time he started on March 2.
“I’m a little off schedule,” Stroman said, “so I thought I threw the ball pretty well considering. ... To go out there and make it into the fifth having nine days off, I think that’s a pretty good accomplishment. I knew these boys were going to get hot sooner or later. So I just had to limit the other team. I knew if I kept them to one, two runs or less, I knew that we were going to bounce back and score runs at some point.”
That they did.
Puerto Rico followed its five-run fifth inning with a three-run seventh, and the bullpen of Nicholas Padilla, Yacksel Rios, Duane Underwood Jr., Anthony Maldonado (a Miami Marlins prospect) and Emilio Pagan covered 4 1/3 scoreless innings.
All together, it gave Puerto Rico an early win in pool play.
Considering the field, it was a needed win if Puerto Rico wants a chance to make a run at its first World Baseball Classic title after coming oh-so-close each of the last two tournaments.
The rest of the pool in Miami to open the tournament includes the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Israel. Every team faces each other once, and the two teams with the best record after those games advance to the quarterfinals.
“We are not saying that we are the favorite team. We are going to show the world what we can do,” Lindor said. “We are here to play the game at the highest level, so we are moving forward.”
