San Francisco Giants: Posey, Crawford & Melancon Help Team USA Win WBC

Here we take a look at how San Francisco Giants players Brandon Crawford, Buster Posey and Mark Melancon helped team USA win the 2017 World Baseball Classic.

It’s not going to trump the World Series rings that Posey and Crawford currently own, but helping team USA win it’s first World Baseball Classic is pretty sweet.

Even though this was an exciting series, there wasn’t much drama in the finale as as team USA beat Puerto Rico 8-0.

Crawford was the only Giant to play in the final game. He helped break the game open in the seventh with a 2-run single, which was his only hit of the game. He was very busy at shortstop and made every play with ease.

For the tournament, Posey was 4-15 with 2 home runs and 4 RBIs, while Crawford was 10-26 with 3 runs scored and 6 RBIs.

Melancon didn’t join team USA until the final round and pitched just 0.2 scoreless innings with a strikeout.

Marcus Stroman was absolutely dominant in this game pitching six no-hit innings. Personally, I couldn’t be happier for the kid as he and his family received some harsh criticism for playing for team USA when he could have played for team Puerto Rico.

Ian Kinsler got team USA on the board with a 2-run home run in the third, and then Christian Yelich and Andrew McCutchen added a couple of RBI singles in the fifth.

After Crawford’s 2-run single, Giancarlo Stanton and Andrew McCutchen drove in a single run each.

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Former San Francisco Giants outfielder Angel Pagan started and batted leadoff for team Puerto Rico,and he broke up the no-hit bid with a leadoff single in the seventh.

I have to admit that this was a highly entertaining World Baseball Classic and I’m glad so many San Francisco Giants players were a part of the action.

I still wish there was more of a commitment from the best players in the world to play for their respective countries, but let’s not fool ourselves, the most important prize is the World Series.

Now that the World Baseball Classic is over, Posey, Crawford and Melancon can rejoin the San Francisco Giants in spring training to work on winning that ultimate prize.

Next: San Francisco Giants: Players in San Jose to Keep an Eye on in 2017

I think the intensity of the World Baseball Classic will certainly help players like Crawford and Posey gear up for the regular season. Let’s hope that’s the case as we’re less than two weeks away from opening day!