Padres News: Friars Stars Manny Machado & Juan Soto Out Of WBC Early
Fans were beyond excited to see two Padres All-Stars in Manny Machado and Juan Soto prepare for the regular season by suiting up in fresh jerseys with the Dominican Republic spelled across their chests in this year's WBC. With Machado having just secured his extension with the Friars and Soto likely to get his next, the duo headed into the tournament with a lot of momentum.
The team was even labeled as a modern day "Dream Team" by some so the expectations were clear: Anything less than winning the whole tournament would be failure. However, the Dominican Republic squad would go on to not even win their pool nor advance to the quarterfinals. They lost to a Puerto Rico squad led by Fransisco Linder 5-2 and are now packing their bags.
Their team did deal with a lot of injuries, both before and during the tournament, and that seemed to hurt them a lot as their games unfolded. They also didn't capitalize much when they had runners on base throughout their pool's games and actually left 20 of them combined over their two losses.
However, not many fingers can be pointed at Machado and Soto when it comes to talking about why the country's team didn't live up the hype. Both were able to do what they were brought in for, dominating third base and right field respectively, and getting consistent hits whenever they were called up to bat.
The two contributed in a variety of ways as they notched multiple doubles, RBI's, and hit balls out of the parks that tracked well over 400 feet. Even though it was nice to see two of the best talents in the MLB representing their country in this storied tournament, Padres fans should be jumping with joy to welcome them back to their training camp. The rest of the team has been preparing for a potential championship season and they will pop right back in to those plans.
