HOUSTON — The surprising loss by the United States to Italy in the World Baseball Classic on Tuesday night means that the Americans need help to advance to the quarterfinals.
The 8-6 defeat left the team with a 3-1 record at the end of its pool schedule. Mexico and Italy wrap up Pool B play Wednesday night, when a win by the Italians would give the U.S. second place and a spot in the next round.
If Mexico wins, then all three teams move to 3-1 and 1-1 against each other and send it to a tiebreaker.
The tiebreaker is the number of runs allowed in games between the tied teams. So, the U.S. could advance even if Mexico wins, if Mexico scores at least five runs in a nine-inning game.
Aaron Judge, who struck out in the ninth inning to end it Tuesday night, is disappointed that the team failed to take care of business against Italy.
“It’s the toughest thing,” he said. “You always like having your destiny in your own hands, and we had it right in front of us and Italy came out swinging.”
The Italians hit three home runs in the first four innings to build a five-run lead and were up 8-0 before the U.S. got on the board.
After the game, U.S. manager Mark DeRosa fielded questions about whether he thought his team already secured a spot in the quarterfinals with Monday night’s win over Mexico because of his comments on a television appearance the next morning.
In that interview he said: “Ton of respect for Italy — it’s weird — we want to win this game even though our ticket’s punched to the quarterfinals because Mexico plays Italy actually tomorrow. So, the way the schedule lines up this is an important game for us.”
In the interview room, he said he misspoke during that segment, and in a later interview outside the clubhouse, he reiterated that he did not think his team already had clinched a spot.
“One-hundred percent … I misspoke,” he said. “Bottom line.”
Judge said the players didn’t think that they already had secured a spot in the quarterfinals and that he didn’t know about DeRosa’s television interview.
Judge added that the team probably will gather at the hotel to watch Wednesday’s game.
“It’s out of our control now,” he said. “We just need a little luck and we’ll see what happens.”
Canada moves on to next round
Canada advanced past the first round of the World Baseball Classic for the first time, beating Cuba 7-2 Wednesday in a winner-take-all game in San Juan, Puerto Rico, behind Abraham Toro’s homer and Otto Lopez’s two-run single.
Brothers Bo Naylor and Josh Naylor drove in runs, Owen Caissie had two RBIs and reliever James Paxton struck out six over 2 2/3 scoreless innings for Canada (3-1), which eliminated the Cubans (2-2) and won Group A over Puerto Rico (3-1). Cuba was knocked out in the first round for the first time.
Canada and Puerto Rico will play quarterfinals in Houston this weekend.
Cuba finished with three errors, and left fielder Ariel Martinez allowed Toro’s catchable fly starting the seventh to fall for a double. The Canadians broke open the game with a three-run sixth inning that included a dropped popup, a foul pop that fell, a wild pickoff throw and a catcher’s interference call on Andrys Perez, whose passed ball led to Canada’s first run.
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