A lot has happened in the World Baseball Classic over the past 24 hours, and you’ve probably seen it all, but you like to visit my blog and see the stuffs, right? Right.

Beginning with the wild one in Italy and Mexico, and no doubt Edgar Gonzalez has become a household name in households that watched this game, had a pitch hit by Anthony Rizzo to him off of San Francisco Giants closer Sergio Romo. All Gonzalez had to do was catch the ball, and the damage would be limited to a tie ballgame. Instead…

Sigh.

However, this game did end with one team being happy, and everybody loves it when an underdog team is really happy (as long as they’re not being happy against your team), and Italy was plenty happy.

Oh, by the way, they just mercy ruled Canada 14-4 in 8 innings to make them 2-0 and are on their way to a trip to Miami for the next round.

I take you next to San Juan, Puerto Rico where the Dominican Republic and Venezuela locked horns in a battle of recognizable names. Robinson Cano had a nice beginning of a double play to glove flip it to Jose Reyes. Watch and love:

Hanley Ramirez also destroyed a baseball in the game and decided to watch it go:

…and you know I love the bat flips:

Fernando Rodney also doesn’t care what you think of how he wears his cap.

A good response from Keith Law to people that are upset about how Rodney wears his lid:

Is this better?RT @kingofkingsjd: What do youof Rodneys hat? #disrespectfultwitter.com/keithlaw/statu…

— keithlaw (@keithlaw) March 8, 2013

The beautiful thing about this tournament at this stage of it is that there’s so much going on right now, and what day of baseball wouldn’t be complete without some call for instant replay? Curt Smith of the Netherlands had himself a moment:

My favorite part being the, “K, let’s get on with the gam–out? out. OH OUT! Yes! Ahem. Yes.”

Baltimore Orioles prospect Jonathan Schoop also had himself a day, including this 3-R HR that put the Netherlands up for good:

Talk about someone that’s had his stock get a bit raised in the eyes of the public, and he is already on the Orioles’ 40-man roster.

The game after that one that saw some see-sawing late in the game from Chinese Taipei and Japan ended with some fun for Japan, and a way of thanking from the Chinese Taipei squad that I really liked.

First, Sho Nakata acknowledges the crowd as he jogs out to the outfield in the bottom of the 10th, who were celebrating his go-ahead sacrifice fly (Japan was the visiting team, being the #2 seed from the Pool they advanced from).

“Yeah!”

After the game, Chinese Taipei thanks the fans in a fashion I wouldn’t mind seeing more often:

As for the action today, Italy beat Canada 14-4 in 8 innings at Chase Field (moved indoors due to rain outdoors), and Spain and Puerto Rico are squaring off in San Juan right now. the US and Mexico will begin play at 6PM PST tonight on MLB Network.