The Dominican Republic's Fernando Rodney (56) celebrates after the last out of a semifinal game of the World Baseball Classic on Monday. Rodney also closed out the final victory against Puerto Rico.

The Dominican Republic blanked Puerto Rico 3-0 in the World Baseball Classic final on Tuesday night to win its first WBC title.

• The win completed a perfect WBC for the Dominicans, who won all eight games and became the first team to go undefeated in the tournament.

• There's no question that the champion was the best team at the WBC. The Dominicans more than doubled their opponents' run total (36-14) and outhit them 76-42.

• Relief pitching keyed the Dominican Republic's run. The bullpen allowed seven runs in 39 1/3 innings, for an ERA of 1.60. That included 20 2/3 shutout innings over the final five games.

• In the final against Puerto Rico, five pitchers combined for the three-hit shutout, and each one threw more strikes than balls. They combined to throw strikes on 85 of 135 pitches (63 percent) and whiff 10 batters.

• Perhaps the win shouldn't be surprising, because the Dominican had more than 100 players on major league rosters, the most of any country outside of the United States. The Dominican Republic adds this World Baseball Classic to its record 19 Caribbean Series titles.