Mexico files protest after beating Venezuela, losing World Baseball Classic tiebreaker

Mexico's run in the World Baseball Classic came to an end Monday morning when the team defeated Venezuela in its final game, yet fell short of playing in a tiebreaking game by the slimmest of margins - an outcome the team protested and had the country's biggest star questioning his participation in the event.

An 11-9 victory over Venezuela left Mexico with the same record - 1-2 - as Italy and the Venezuelans. But the latter two teams will play a tiebreaking game tonight in Guadalajara because the Venezuelans edged Mexico in the tiebreaker - defensive runs allowed per inning. The margin couldn't have been slimmer - 1.11 to 1.12.

But confused reigned in the wee hours at Estadio de Beisbol Charros de Jalisco, as both teams and the news media remained unclear which team would play Italy - which allowed 1.05 runs per defensive inning - in Monday's tiebreaker. Finally, an announcement from Major League Baseball around 2 am CT that Italy and Venezuela would meet for the final second-round spot out of Pool D cleared up the confusion.

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Or so it seemed.

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Mexico's manager, Edgar Gonzalez, questioned whether his team's partial inning against Italy - it gave up five ninth-inning runs, but failed to record an out in the 10-9 walk-off loss - should count in the computations.

His brother, Los Angeles Dodgers star and Mexico first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, was even more pointed, claiming the Mexicans were told before the game that a two-run victory would be sufficient for the team to reach the tiebreaker. He later told reporters the conclusion would make him think harder before participating in future WBCs.

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Gonzalez seemed to endure a sleepless night, taking screenshots of MLB.com that showed perhaps a glimmer of hope that the result was still in doubt, and documenting Mexico's protest, an effort apparently fueled by potato chips and french fries.

Should the result hold, the teams will look back on Sunday's seventh inning, when Venezuela rallied for three runs - including a Victor Martinez homer - to bring Venezuela within two runs and slip past Mexico in the tiebreaker.

The winner of tonight's tiebreaker game will join Pool D winner Puerto Rico - which went 3-0 in Guadalajara - in the second round at San Diego's Petco Park, beginning Tuesday.

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