Cubans in Midseason Form

The Cuban baseball team gathered Saturday afternoon on the mound at Petco Park, their equipment bags scattered about the diamond, and laughed and shouted and waved red caps to the crowd.

Without a major leaguer on their roster, the Cubans defeated the Dominican Republic, 3-1, to advance to the World Baseball Classic final.

For all of its world championships and Olympic golds, after decades of dominating other amateurs, Cuba’s two weeks in the WBC brought further validation where once there was first America’s major leagues and then everyone else.

What the Japanese and Koreans did on their side of the bracket, the Cubans did in theirs, playing through rosters stacked with familiar names and esteemed games, from the Venezuelans to the Puerto Ricans to the Dominicans.

“It was a wonderful show, what you saw in the field today,” Cuban starting pitcher Yadel Marti said through a translator. “This is a Cuban sport being played at its best.

“We thought Venezuela was one of the strong teams and they could have made it to the final, but they didn’t, but Cuba did. ... It seems to us that we deserve to be here; we did play well, and now we’re here. The last word is in the field the day after tomorrow.”

Playing at midseason of the Cuban leagues, against major leaguers whose season begins in two weeks, Cuba stayed with a Dominican Republic lineup featuring Albert Pujols, David Ortiz and Miguel Tejada.

Marti, a slow-working, soft-throwing right-hander, pitched entirely from the stretch after the first inning and did not allow a run in 4 1/3 innings. Right-hander Pedro Lazo replaced him in the fifth, allowed one unearned run, and threw 81 pitches, the last of which struck out Alfonso Soriano and sent Cuba to the final.

After being shut out for six innings by Bartolo Colon, the Cubans strung together two soft hits, a throwing error by Adrian Beltre, a run-scoring grounder, two clean hits and a sacrifice fly to take a 3-1 lead in the seventh. Two runs were charged to Odalis Perez, who took the loss.

Colon threw 70 pitches, well short of the 95-pitch limit, but left after developing a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand. He said he did not believe the blister would prevent him from maintaining his normal throwing schedule with the Angels.

“I’ll be OK,” he said.

He said he would be back in Angel camp Tuesday, and then sidestepped a cart that carried Cuban players to their clubhouse. Standing nearby, Ortiz high-fived the players, shouting encouragement for their game Monday night.

“I’d rather give them credit than make excuses,” Dominican Manager Manny Acta said. “I think everybody in baseball knew, even before the All Star Break last year, that we were going to play this baseball classic, and everybody that had the desire to play prepared themselves to play for this tournament.

“Yes, they didn’t have 100 at-bats or whatever before this, but we got all the way to the seventh game. We played two rounds, the guys saw enough pitches, they had enough at-bats, and there’s no excuses.”

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Road to the world championship

How Cuba and Japan got to the World Baseball Classic title game, which is set for Monday at San Diego (6 p.m., ESPN)

CUBA

Pool Play

at San Juan, Puerto Rico

* Def. Panama, 8-6 (11 inn.)

* Def. Netherlands, 11-2

* Lost to Puerto Rico, 12-2

* Def. Venezuela, 7-2

* Lost to Dominican Republic, 7-3

* Def. Puerto Rico, 4-3

Semifinals at San Diego

* Def. Dominican Republic, 3-1

JAPAN

Pool Play at Tokyo

* Def. China, 18-2 (8 inn.)

* Def. Taiwan, 14-3 (7 inn.)

* Lost to Korea, 3-2

Pool Play at Anaheim

* Lost to U.S., 4-3

* Def. Mexico, 6-1

* Lost to Korea, 2-1

Semifinals at San Diego

* Def. Korea, 6-0

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WBC FINAL

Cuba vs. Japan

Monday at San Diego

6 p.m., ESPN