MIAMI, FLA — Al Michaels once said “when you write the story of this game, where do you begin?”. The World Baseball Classic has not disappointed to this point. Team USA took the battle of the titans with Team Dominican Republic 2-1 to advance to the WBC finals.
The game ended on one of the worst calls to end a big game, with Diamondbacks shortstop Geraldo Perdomo getting called out on strikes on a clearly low pitch.
“I don’t want to focus on the last pitch … I’m not going to criticize any of that.” Team DR Manager Albert Pujols said. “It wasn’t meant to be.”
Pujols does have a point. Team DR had nine innings to score two, or more, runs to top the USA.
The story for USA was pitching. Paul Skenes was sharp today. He put himself in some trouble at times and got help from his defense in Aaron Judge in right (twice), but he give 4.1 innings of work.
Skenes gets out of the bases loaded jam! 👏
📺: FS1 and @watchfoxone» https://t.co/oWmvjycsCi pic.twitter.com/MXAF8F2F17
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) March 16, 2026
USA’s bullpen was lockdown today. DeRosa was aggressive going to his battalion of relievers in this game and it payed off. Tyler Rogers, Griffin Jax, David Bednar, Garret Whitlock and Mason Miller all provided solid relief. There was traffic on base in the seventh and ninth inning, but that’s part of the fun sometimes.
The United States bullpen tonight:
Rogers: 0.2 IP | 0 R
Jax: 1.0 IP | 0 R
Bednar: 1.0 IP | 0 R | 2 K
Whitlock: 1.0 IP | 0 R | 2 K
Miller: 1.0 IP | 0 R | 2 KLIGHTS. OUT. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/q5mawL0z3H
— Just Baseball (@JustBB_Media) March 16, 2026
USA Offense and Next Game
The USA’s offense was stymied throughout the game by the powerful pitching of team DR. They got both of their runs in the fourth inning on solo home runs from Gunnar Henderson and Roman Anthony. After that, team USA’s offense was silent, recording just one hit.
“I blacked out” Anthony, the 21 year-old outfielder said of his go-ahead home run.
“It’s a game we’ll never forget.” DeRosa said. “The Dominican Republic always had runners on base and thanks to our pitching. The Dominican Republic’s lineup was very dangerous”
As mentioned above, Team USA’s offense has struggled so far. In this game, they set a WBC record with 15 strikeouts.
“I’m still waiting for our offense to wake up,” Said DeRosa “but it’s very difficult to do so against pitching like that [Dominican Republic].”
Team USA will be watching closely tomorrow night to the Venezuela vs. Italy matchup to see who they have a date with for Tuesday. Going into the matchup, Team USA should have an advantage with the day off giving them a chance to rest the bullpen. Mets rookie Nolan McLean will get the start for Team USA.