The crowd at Santo Domingo was already loud, but when Juan Soto launched that first bomb? When Manny Machado followed immediately with another? When Junior Caminero went yard to complete the trifecta? The place absolutely erupted.
Back-to-back-to-back home runs in the fourth inning. Three of the Dominican Republic's biggest stars. One unforgettable sequence that announced to the world: this team is here to win it all.
I'm telling you, folks - the energy at the World Baseball Classic is something else. This isn't just baseball. This is national pride. This is passion. This is what the sport looks like when it means everything to the players wearing the uniform.
Soto stepped up first and crushed a pitch that probably hasn't landed yet. Then Machado - who's as locked in as I've ever seen him - got a pitch to hit and didn't miss. And Caminero, the young phenom, put the exclamation point on the sequence with his own moonshot. The video doesn't do justice to how electric the stadium was.
Look at this Dominican lineup. It's basically an All-Star team: Soto, Machado, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Rafael Devers, Caminero. This isn't a roster - it's a murderers' row. Every single hitter can change the game with one swing.
The DR has always been a baseball powerhouse, producing more MLB talent per capita than anywhere else in the world. But this year's team has something extra. You can see it in how they celebrate together. You can hear it in the crowd. You can feel it in the way they're playing loose and confident.
Team USA and Japan - the traditional WBC favorites - better take notice. This Dominican squad is stacked, they're hot, and they're playing in front of crowds that would run through a wall for them.
The World Baseball Classic is giving us exactly what it promised: the best players in the world representing their countries with everything they've got. And right now, the Dominican Republic looks like the team to beat.
