USA thrash Cuba to reach World Baseball Classic final as protesters invade field

Trea Turner homered twice to give himself a tournament-leading four, and the defending champion United States romped past Cuba 14-2 on Sunday night to reach their second straight World Baseball Classic final.

Paul Goldschmidt and Cedric Mullins also homered for the Americans, who scored in seven of eight innings – putting up crooked numbers in five of them. Turner and Goldschmidt had four RBIs each.

The Americans will play Japan or Mexico in Tuesday night’s championship game, trying to join the Samurai Warriors as the only nations to win the title twice.

Turner, hitting No 9 in the batting order, has a tournament-leading 10 RBIs. He followed his go-ahead, eighth-inning grand slam a night earlier against Venezuela with a solo homer in the second inning off Roenis Elias, and a three-run drive in the sixth against Elian Leyva.

Cuba went ahead when their first four batters reached off Adam Wainwright without getting a ball out of the infield. The 41-year-old right-hander recovered to end the inning without conceding any further runs. The American offense went on to pummel the Cuban pitchers for 14 hits, including eight for extra bases. The US were also gifted seven walks.

Goldschmidt hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the first on a 112mph rocket high over the left-field wall. He added a two-run single in the fifth.

St Louis third baseman Nolan Arenado left the game after he was hit on a hand by a pitch in the fifth inning, briefly raising another injury concern before X-rays came back as negative. Mets closer Edwin Díaz sustained a season-ending knee injury during the celebration that followed Puerto Rico’s win on Wednesday and Houston second baseman Jose Altuve broke a thumb when hit by a pitch while playing for Venezuela on