Mark DeRosa, at least for now, is off the hook.
An elimination that would have been humiliating has been avoided. If Team USA did not play like a juggernaut, it at least played well enough to advance without any external help this time.
All the Americans needed to get back on track was a matchup with a nation that shares a land border and has recently doubled as a punching bag.
The United States — a country that boasts 29 major league clubs — faced off against Canada — a country that has one — and survived a scare from its northern neighbors, 5-3, in the World Baseball Classic quarterfinals Friday night in Houston.
“The crowd really got into it. … It was absolutely electric,” Yankees reliever David Bednar told Fox Sports after escaping a seventh-inning jam, the back of the USA bullpen proving to be the difference.
It’s a clean sweep for the U.S., whose men’s and women’s hockey teams beat Canada in the gold medal games at the Winter Olympics last month. The Los Angeles Dodgers, too, triumphed over the Toronto Blue Jays in the World Series last year. In the WBC, the Americans have won five straight times against the Canadians, including a 12-1 beatdown in 2023.
Team USA moves on to what arguably is the showdown of the tournament: a semifinal Sunday against the Dominican Republic, which knocked off South Korea in its quarterfinal that ended in a mercy rule-inducing homer from the Yankees’ Austin Wells.
The Dominican lineup owns the muscle and star power to keep up with the Americans, an onslaught of Fernando Tatis Jr., Ketel Marte, Juan Soto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Manny Machado, Junior Caminero and Julio Rodríguez, just to name a few.
Awaiting on the mound will be Paul Skenes, first of the Air Force Academy and now the best arm the Americans have to throw.
The game will take place in the international melting pot that is Miami, which will be far more fired up than during Marlins games.
“I expect it to be, like, one of the greatest games of all time,” DeRosa told reporters of a matchup that will pit a businesslike Team USA club against a bat-flipping group of Dominican players.
“It’s fun. It’s exciting,” Aaron Judge (1-for-3 with a double and walk) told reporters of the flashier Dominican style of play. “I know the fans definitely love it. But I try not to look at what other teams are doing, what other people are doing. I focus on what we got here. We got a special group of guys that love to play this game.”
As a reminder: This stage is single elimination, so another Game 7 awaits. A loss to the Dominican Republic would be disappointing, sure, but not shameful or mortifying. The Americans had earlier flirted with both.
Just about forgotten now is the heated debate around DeRosa, who claimed he misspoke in stating that his club already had clinched a spot in the knockout stage prior to its fourth game in group play. Team USA then fielded a lineup without several of its best players and lost to Italy, requiring (and then receiving) some help to advance.
Friday, the Americans received yet another gift. A country known for its politeness delivered with a, well, favour that cracked the game open.
In the third inning of a game Team USA led by one, Bryce Harper, Judge and Kyle Schwarber reached to load the bases with two outs. Alex Bregman hit a ground ball to the left side that a diving Abraham Toro stabbed. A good throw would have cut down Bregman, ended the frame and kept the contest close, but the Royals infielder airmailed the throw to give the Americans a three-run cushion.
That cushion ballooned to five runs, but Canada scored three times (including a two-run homer from Guardians standout Bo Naylor in the sixth) and put the tying run in scoring position without an out against Bednar in the seventh.
The gutsy Yankees reliever, though, bore down. He went down, 3-1, to Josh Naylor before fighting back and inducing a pop-up. He used a big-time curveball to punch out Tyler O’Neill then a splitter to escape against Owen Caissie. Bednar hopped and smacked his right hand into his glove as he walked to the dugout after throwing 26 of the most pressurized pitches you can throw on March 13.
Former Yankees prospect and current Red Sox weapon Garrett Whitlock pitched a scoreless eighth and Mason Miller was dominant for the ninth in a game the Americans survived because of their defense — which did not make the mistake that the Canadians did — and their pitching and not a lineup that has yet to be overwhelming.
“I don’t think this entire time in Houston has been all that pretty,” Pete Crow-Armstrong told Fox Sports. “But I think we know what we have in this clubhouse. … I think it’s just most important that when it’s not always the easiest or the cleanest, we’re still getting the job done, some way, somehow.
“We’re looking to really wake up one of these days soon.”
