San Juan, PR
Twins minor-leaguer Samuel Deduno threw four scoreless innings and Nelson Cruz stroked a pair of run-scoring singles to lift the Dominican Republic to a 6-3 win over Spain in the World Baseball Classic.
Deduno is in the Twins camp as a non-rostered player after pitching in Minnesota for the second half of last season.
Robinson Cano went 3-for-5 with an RBI double and Carlos Santana homered for the Dominicans, who also beat Venezuela in their Pool C opener on Thursday and will close round-robin play Sunday against Puerto Rico.
Deduno (1-0) scattered four hits, did not walk a batter and struck out five.
Fernando Rodney cleaned up for Jose Veras and got the final out in the ninth after Spain had scored twice. The Spaniards made it interesting in the ninth against Veras, who yielded an RBI single to Yasser Gomez with two outs and hit a batter to load the bases. Rodney issued a walk to Barbaro Canizares to make it 6-3 before fanning Rafael Alvarez to end the game.
Cruz singled home the first run in the second inning and scored on a base hit by Ricardo Nanita. Cano doubled in a run in the third and scored on a single by Cruz before Santana knocked in the third run of the inning with a ground out. Spain got one back in the seventh on an error by Cano, but Santana homered in the eighth for a 6-1 advantage.
Yoanner Negrin (0-1) was tagged for five runs on three hits and four walks over the first 2 1/3 innings for Spain, which dropped a 3-0 decision to Puerto Rico in its opener on Friday.
