SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Carlos Santana homered, Robinson Cano had three hits and the Dominican Republic beat Spain 6-3 on Saturday at the World Baseball Classic.
The Dominican team improved to 2-0 in Group C and advanced to the second round in Miami when Puerto Rico beat Venezuela 6-3 later Saturday.
Santana and Nelson Cruz each drove in two runs for the Dominican Republic. Edwin Encarnacion scored twice.
After 15 scoreless innings, Spain scored its first run of the tournament in the seventh and then added two in the ninth before Fernando Rodney shut the door.
"They never gave up," Cruz said. "There are no weak opponents in this Classic and we have to be on top of them all nine innings."
Samuel Deduno pitched four scoreless innings and struck out five for the win. Alfredo Simon, Pedro Strop, Jose Veras and Rodney closed it out for the Dominican Republic.
Spain (0-2) was beaten for the second time in a row after losing to Puerto Rico 3-0 on Friday night.
Yoanner Negrin, one of seven Cubans on Spain's team, took the loss. He allowed five runs, four walks and three hits in 2 1-3 innings.
Encarnacion drew a leadoff walk in the second and scored on Cruz's single. Ricardo Nanita added an RBI single to make it 2-0.
A leadoff walk to Jose Reyes started the Dominican Republic's three-run third. Reyes went to third on a wild pickoff attempt by Negrin and scored on Cano's third double of the tournament. Cruz added an RBI single and Santana drove in a run with a bases-loaded groundout.
Santana hit a solo homer to right to make it 6-1 in the eighth.
Spain scored once in the ninth against Veras and had the bases loaded with two outs when the Houston Astros reliever was lifted for Rodney. He walked in a run before striking out Rafael Alvarez for the save.
"You could feel a bit of tension at the end, but we have a great closer and that's what we saw," Dominican Republic manager Tony Pena said.
The Dominican team concludes the first round Sunday against host Puerto Rico, while Spain faces Venezuela.
