Baseball still being baseball, even a stacked roster like Team USA can lose a game in the World Baseball Classic. Plus, Team Italy’s roster is pretty well-stocked, too. So you can’t take any game for granted if you want to win, and, in Team USA’s case, clinch a spot in the quarterfinals.
That’s what was on the line last night as Team USA tried, and ultimately failed, to come back against Team Italy. Pete Crow-Armstrong did his part, homering twice, but Italy held on for the 8-6 win.
That means each of Italy, USA, and Mexico are still alive for the two spots coming out of their pool, with everything coming down to tonight’s game between Italy and Mexico. If Italy wins, they and USA move on. If Mexico wins, they will move on, and the tiebreaker between Italy and USA will come down to how many runs Italy allows in the game (five or more runs, and USA moves on; under five, Italy moves on (this assumes a nine-inning game)).
USA helped themselves last night by scoring six runs, but obviously their destiny is no longer in their hands thanks to the loss.
Which … was apparently not what Team USA manager Mark DeRosa thought earlier in the day:
“It’s weird. We want to win this game even though our ticket’s punched to the quarterfinals.” -Team USA manager Mark DeRosa earlier todayTeam USA’s ticket was not, in fact, punched to the quarterfinals, and now they’re in danger of missing out pic.twitter.com/xMPAdLODTY
— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) March 11, 2026So, before the game against Team Italy – which very much still mattered, and could have ACTUALLY punched Team USA’s ticket to the quarterfinals – Mark DeRosa thought it was just a freebie game. Yikes.
DeRosa was asked about his comments after the loss:
“I misspoke… Completely misread the calculations.”Manager Mark DeRosa confirms he did not know Team USA could still be eliminated during pool play pic.twitter.com/n5Gbo3SxcB
— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) March 11, 2026Although DeRosa says twice there that he “misspoke,” he also says that he “misread the calculations,” and talks about how he and others were looking through the tiebreaker scenarios. That sure sounds like a guy who had a misunderstanding as opposed to a slip of the tongue. I won’t pin it entirely on DeRosa, because there’s a whole coaching staff there for Team USA and others who could’ve caught the mistake, but still. That’s your team, and your responsibility to ensure with 100% certainty that you’re right about what matters and what doesn’t.
The question obviously then is did DeRosa still not know the reality of the situation when he and the staff were prepping for the game against Italy? When they were making strategic plans about the pitching usage and the lineup? At what point did he know his earlier understanding was mistaken? Would it have mattered or changed anything if he’d known the night before?
Well, you certainly wonder:
“There’s some guys dragging today,” Team USA manager Mark DeRosa said after his coaching staff and players stayed up telling stories and celebrating after the 5-3 victory over Mexico. The team bus didn’t leave Daikin Park until 12:30 a.m.Italy leads 5-0.#WorldBaseballClassic pic.twitter.com/HzvEIAhcFR
— Jose de Jesus Ortiz (@OrtizKicks) March 11, 2026The win over Mexico – Team USA’s first in 20 years – was a big deal. I get that. But, um, this doesn’t sound great. And now Mexico knows that if they can win against Italy while scoring four or fewer runs, they bounce USA from the whole tournament. While I doubt they take the foot off the gas in terms of trying to score runs in the game, you better believe they will be deploying their best pitching plan to try to hold down Italy’s runs as much as possible so that Mexico scoring extra runs late in the game won’t be required.
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