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HOUSTON — They all wear suits to the games,.
They chug espresso shots after home runs.
They have parmesan cheese and olive oil in the dugouts for snacks.
And this Italy team may have singlehandedly destroyed USA’s Dream Team.
In one of the greatest upsets in World Baseball Classic history, Italy shocked USA, 8-6, on Tuesday night, leaving Team USA sitting around awaiting the Mexico-Italy result to confirm or deny it a spot in the quarterfinals.
USA can still qualify for the quarterfinals if Italy beats Mexico on Wednesday night, but if Mexico wins, it leaves Mexico, Italy and USA with 3-1 records, requiring a tie-breaker to determine the two qualifying teams for the quarterfinals.
The first tiebreaker is runs allowed divided by defensive outs.
If Mexico wins Wednesday and Italy allows four or fewer runs, Mexico and Italy are going to the quarterfinals.
And USA is going home.
Oh, what a difference 24 hours can make.
It was just Monday night when USA knocked off powerful Mexico, 5-3, and spent a couple of hours after the game in their clubhouse, celebrating the accomplishment, with USA manager Mark DeRosa joking that a few of the fellas could have fully enjoyed themselves.
“There’s some guys dragging today," DeRosa said.
This night, they were dragging themselves off the field at Daikin Park, wondering if there will be a need to return.
Team USA is off Wednesday, but most may be glued to the TV sets, rooting hard for Italy to beat Mexico, guaranteeing a quarterfinal berth against Canada, Puerto Rico or Cuba. If Mexico wins, they’ll be breaking out their calculators.
The most stunning aspect of Italy’s victory is that they didn’t produce a single hit from the top five hitters in the lineup, relying instead of the lethal damage by the bottom of the order, with homers by Kyle Teel, Jac Caglianone and Sam Antonacci.
Italy was had an 8-0 lead before USA knew what hit them, but ever so slowly, the USA power show came to life. It started with a solo homer by Gunnar Henderson in the sixth inning, and then with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, USA started the rally trying to save their gold medal dreams.
Paul Goldschmidt, becoming the first USA player to start in three consecutive WBCs, singled to center field. Alek Jacob came in for Italy, and pinch-hitter Ernie Clement greeted im with a double to right field. Jacob got ahead of No. 9 hitter Pete Crow-Armstrong, 1-and-2, but left a changeup over the plate, and Crow-Armstrong lifted it 377 feet, just over the right-field wall.
And USA suddenly was in business, trailing 8-4.
They staged another two-out rally in the eighth on singles by Kyle Schwarber, Will Smith and Roman Anthony, scoring one run, and bringing pinch-hitter Bryce Harper to the plate. Harper, working the count to 3-and-2, hit a changeup to left field off Ron Marinaccio for the inning-ending out.
Crow-Armstrong then homered again with one out in the ninth, knocking out Marinaccio, with Greg Weissert coming in to close out the game.
And just like that, Italy was chugging their espressos and ready to uncork the wine.
While USA can still stay alive, and wind up in the championship game, certainly a worry would be New York Mets starter Nolan McLean, scheduled to pitch. He looked like Nolan Ryan in the first inning, needing just 11 pitches to strike out the side, and then looked like an inexperienced rookie.
“Just like I've said in the past," Italy manager Francisco Cervelli said, “anything can happen on paper. People can think so many things. The U.S. is a very strong team. But we're here to play ball."
It was a night that Italian baseball fans will never forget.
“Well, it's going to impact in a lot of different ways," Cervelli said. “For us, we're trying to change the mentality in Italy. And playing against USA, it's a dream for a lot of my guys. It's good for the guys in Italy. Back in Italy, they get to see that we're playing, we're facing the best players in the world. And some of the Italian guys are here, born and raised Italians, and they get to say that.
“So I want to change the culture. We called it last year the Italian Way. Create an identity, it's not just participate, create an than identity every time we show up, people know how we play baseball in our way with respect to others.
“What we're doing is real."
Yet, as long as Italy is dreaming, whatever they accomplish in the WBC, Cervelli says, he must be realistic. Baseball will never be the No. 1 sport in Italy with soccer around, no matter its struggles in recent World Cups.
“Soccer in Italy is a religion, you know?,’’ Cervelli said. “We're going to bring a different kind of joy. It can be amazing to win the whole thing. I dream about that.
“But soccer is something very serious, man. You're talking about Italy, four-time world champions.’’
Follow Nightengale on X: @Bnightengale
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: USA baseball facing WBC elimination, tiebreaker and an Italy favor
Continue reading...
They chug espresso shots after home runs.
They have parmesan cheese and olive oil in the dugouts for snacks.
And this Italy team may have singlehandedly destroyed USA’s Dream Team.
In one of the greatest upsets in World Baseball Classic history, Italy shocked USA, 8-6, on Tuesday night, leaving Team USA sitting around awaiting the Mexico-Italy result to confirm or deny it a spot in the quarterfinals.
USA can still qualify for the quarterfinals if Italy beats Mexico on Wednesday night, but if Mexico wins, it leaves Mexico, Italy and USA with 3-1 records, requiring a tie-breaker to determine the two qualifying teams for the quarterfinals.
The first tiebreaker is runs allowed divided by defensive outs.
If Mexico wins Wednesday and Italy allows four or fewer runs, Mexico and Italy are going to the quarterfinals.
And USA is going home.
Oh, what a difference 24 hours can make.
It was just Monday night when USA knocked off powerful Mexico, 5-3, and spent a couple of hours after the game in their clubhouse, celebrating the accomplishment, with USA manager Mark DeRosa joking that a few of the fellas could have fully enjoyed themselves.
“There’s some guys dragging today," DeRosa said.
This night, they were dragging themselves off the field at Daikin Park, wondering if there will be a need to return.
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Team USA is off Wednesday, but most may be glued to the TV sets, rooting hard for Italy to beat Mexico, guaranteeing a quarterfinal berth against Canada, Puerto Rico or Cuba. If Mexico wins, they’ll be breaking out their calculators.
The most stunning aspect of Italy’s victory is that they didn’t produce a single hit from the top five hitters in the lineup, relying instead of the lethal damage by the bottom of the order, with homers by Kyle Teel, Jac Caglianone and Sam Antonacci.
Italy was had an 8-0 lead before USA knew what hit them, but ever so slowly, the USA power show came to life. It started with a solo homer by Gunnar Henderson in the sixth inning, and then with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, USA started the rally trying to save their gold medal dreams.
Paul Goldschmidt, becoming the first USA player to start in three consecutive WBCs, singled to center field. Alek Jacob came in for Italy, and pinch-hitter Ernie Clement greeted im with a double to right field. Jacob got ahead of No. 9 hitter Pete Crow-Armstrong, 1-and-2, but left a changeup over the plate, and Crow-Armstrong lifted it 377 feet, just over the right-field wall.
And USA suddenly was in business, trailing 8-4.
They staged another two-out rally in the eighth on singles by Kyle Schwarber, Will Smith and Roman Anthony, scoring one run, and bringing pinch-hitter Bryce Harper to the plate. Harper, working the count to 3-and-2, hit a changeup to left field off Ron Marinaccio for the inning-ending out.
Crow-Armstrong then homered again with one out in the ninth, knocking out Marinaccio, with Greg Weissert coming in to close out the game.
And just like that, Italy was chugging their espressos and ready to uncork the wine.
While USA can still stay alive, and wind up in the championship game, certainly a worry would be New York Mets starter Nolan McLean, scheduled to pitch. He looked like Nolan Ryan in the first inning, needing just 11 pitches to strike out the side, and then looked like an inexperienced rookie.
“Just like I've said in the past," Italy manager Francisco Cervelli said, “anything can happen on paper. People can think so many things. The U.S. is a very strong team. But we're here to play ball."
It was a night that Italian baseball fans will never forget.
“Well, it's going to impact in a lot of different ways," Cervelli said. “For us, we're trying to change the mentality in Italy. And playing against USA, it's a dream for a lot of my guys. It's good for the guys in Italy. Back in Italy, they get to see that we're playing, we're facing the best players in the world. And some of the Italian guys are here, born and raised Italians, and they get to say that.
“So I want to change the culture. We called it last year the Italian Way. Create an identity, it's not just participate, create an than identity every time we show up, people know how we play baseball in our way with respect to others.
“What we're doing is real."
Yet, as long as Italy is dreaming, whatever they accomplish in the WBC, Cervelli says, he must be realistic. Baseball will never be the No. 1 sport in Italy with soccer around, no matter its struggles in recent World Cups.
“Soccer in Italy is a religion, you know?,’’ Cervelli said. “We're going to bring a different kind of joy. It can be amazing to win the whole thing. I dream about that.
“But soccer is something very serious, man. You're talking about Italy, four-time world champions.’’
Follow Nightengale on X: @Bnightengale
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: USA baseball facing WBC elimination, tiebreaker and an Italy favor
Continue reading...
