HOUSTON — For the first four innings of Saturday’s World Baseball Classic game, Team USA struggled to consistently generate offense while trailing Great Britain 1-0. It looked like an upset was brewing, until an unlikely hero stepped up.
The catalyst was infielder Ernie Clement, one of just two players in Saturday’s USA starting lineup who has never been named an MLB All-Star. At the plate with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning, Clement connected on a two-strike pitch and put it into play. Great Britain third baseman Ivan Johnson overthrew first base. Clement hustled and was safe at first, cracking the door open just wide enough for the Americans to start a rally.
Clement moved to third base on a Pete Crow-Armstrong double, then scored the USA’s tying run with gutsy baserunning when he slid home on a wild pitch. The door blasted off its hinges.
The USA scored five runs that inning, grabbing a lead it never relinquished in a 9-1 win against Great Britain at Daikin Park.
“To have that little spark – it started with Ernie there, a big hustle play to get to first base,” said Kyle Schwarber, who hit the USA’s go-ahead home run.
Clement, the Toronto Blue Jays utility man, scored three runs and hit 1-for-3 in the win. He took five plate appearances, saw 18 pitches and reached base four times courtesy of an error, a single, and two walks.
A team’s ceiling is often defined by its depth, which is exactly what Team USA manager Mark DeRosa had in mind when he recruited Clement as a plug-and-play infielder to join a roster that constitutes an embarrassment of riches.
“He’s deserving of being in that room,” DeRosa said. “(I) wanted to get Gunnar (Henderson) and him in the lineup. I felt like coming out of Arizona, I felt like everybody was worthy of a start. And wanted to get these guys rolling, and they deserve it.”
Saturday night’s gutsy performance further underscored Clement’s dramatic career transformation – from underproducing fringe player in danger of falling out of the majors to heroic playoff performer to Team USA contributor.
Following a miserable 2022 season in which he batted .184 in 69 games, Clement was not even in consideration for Team USA’s roster for the 2023 WBC. In fact, during the tournament, he was released by the A’s and two days later signed a minor-league contract with the Blue Jays.
“If you told me back then that I would be doing this, I would be pretty surprised,” Clement said. “But I’ve always believed in myself and I’ve always put the work in, and it’s nice to see it rewarded.”
Clement’s resume looks much different these days. He made his WBC debut coming off a record-setting 30-hit postseason for the 2025 American League champion Blue Jays, a season in which he was also nominated for Gold Glove awards at third base and the utility position.
And yet on paper, Clement was hardly the biggest threat on a USA team littered with league MVPs, Gold Glovers and Cy Young winners.
“You kind of run into, what All-Star is going to be in the lineup?” Great Britain manager Brad Marcelino said before Saturday’s game.
The USA started seven All-Stars. The two exceptions were outfielder Roman Anthony, the former top prospect who made his big-league debut in 2025, and Clement, the veteran two weeks shy of his 30th birthday.
Saturday was Clement’s first start of the WBC. He entered as a defensive replacement in the ninth inning and did not take a plate appearance in the USA’s opening win over Brazil on Friday. Against Great Britain, he started at second base and batted eighth in the lineup.
After grounding out his first time up, Clement took advantage of Great Britain’s throwing error.
“I’m trying to hustle as much as I can,” he said. “I saw the first baseman jump up and as soon as I see that, usually I try to slide, but it was so bang-bang. I’d already made up my mind.”
He was just as aggressive sliding headfirst to score on Andre Scrubb’s wild pitch that same inning. Leading off the bottom of the sixth, Clement lined a two-strike slider into left field for a single and later came home on Alex Bregman’s sacrifice fly. In the seventh inning, after getting on base with a walk, he scored again on another Bregman sacrifice fly – the final run of the game.
Team USA, and in particular clubhouse leaders Schwarber and captain Aaron Judge, have attempted to create a camaraderie absent of a hierarchy. The goal is to relieve the burden felt by the more experienced (and accomplished) players on the team and simultaneously empower everybody else.
“We don’t want to feel like anyone needs to do something extraordinary because this is a lineup of extraordinary people and a bullpen and a starting staff of extraordinary people,” Schwarber said. “We play for our country and play for our team and that’s all we care about.”
Clement’s background as a utility player who in his MLB career has played at seven different positions – including four games at pitcher, allowing six earned runs across four innings – demanded that he be prepared for a variety of scenarios.
“I’m just kind of going in with an open mind and being ready for anything because in these kinds of tournaments, really anything can happen,” Clement said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ernie Clement unlikely WBC hero for USA vs Great Britain
