Raining Champions

The Dominican Republic battled through a persistent rain Tuesday night to take a 3-0 win over Puerto Rico and capture the World Baseball Classic title in soggy conditions at San Francisco's AT&T Park.

True to the weather forecast, rain began falling as the two Caribbean neighbors played in the fourth inning, just about the time I finished tucking my kids into bed and tuned into the game. How lucky can a sports/weather blogger get, right?

(I had to toss in that last bit of information because this post was beginning to sound a bit too newsy.)

Anyway, the rain proved to be only a minor inconvenience, probably more so to the 35,703 fans than to the ballplayers. However, as the wet stuff continued to fall, Dominican Republic pitcher Samuel Deduno did ask for the grounds crew to work on the front of the mound. He also had a pitch slip out of his hand during the frame.

Deduno, who struck out five in five scoreless innings, got some help from center fielder Alejandro De Aza who made a nice catch on a long drive during perhaps the heaviest part of the rain. The catch enabled Deduno to get out of the inning in which he had issued two walks.

MLB.com has a photo gallery containing a handful of rainy night shots.