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As always, multiple things can be true.
Team Italy played a whale of a game on Tuesday, upsetting Team USA by a deceptively close final score of 8-6. Michael Lorenzen, starting for the Azzurri, shut down one of the greatest lineups ever assembled, tossing 4 2/3 scoreless innings. A pair of early homers from Kyle Teel and Sam Antonacci off USA starter Nolan McLean gave the Italians a hot start. They tacked on a few more in the middle innings, then held on for dear life. Red Sox reliever Greg Weissert struck out Aaron Judge, the tying run in the ninth, to end the proceedings and conclude one of the biggest upsets in international baseball history.
The Italians deserve all the credit in the world.
And still, Tuesday’s result was an utter embarrassment for Team USA and manager Mark DeRosa. Yes, anything can happen in a baseball game. The Los Angeles Dodgers lose 60 games per year. Nothing is more powerful than random chance. The Americans still have a good opportunity to advance to the quarterfinals — an Italy win over Mexico or a high-scoring Mexico victory on Wednesday would put the U.S. through.
But the problem here is not that Team USA lost. It’s how and why.
For all the patriotic fervor billowing around the Americans, this club simply hasn’t taken the World Baseball Classic as seriously as some other contenders. DeRosa has been open about “getting players off their feet” and getting everyone into the lineup. That dynamic was front and center Wednesday with DeRosa starting Paul Goldschmidt over Bryce Harper and Ernie Clement over Brice Turang and Alex Bregman.
In terms of bullpen decisions, DeRosa was somewhat handcuffed. He’s beholden to usage restrictions from big-league clubs, as is the case with other teams. That’s no excuse, but it is a reality. Still, opting to “get some length” from Ryan Yarbrough, as DeRosa admitted to Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal on the broadcast, was a baffling call that might have cost the U.S. this game.
Yarbrough — a likable, heroic, everyman hurler capable of pitching in a number of roles — was a late addition to the USA roster after Twins hurler Joe Ryan withdrew due to injury. Besides the Cooperstown-bound relic that is Clayton Kershaw, Yarbrough is probably at the bottom of the U.S. pitching depth chart. Yet DeRosa leaned on him to cover the middle innings, during which Italy stretched out its lead.
[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league for the 2026 MLB season]
Worst of all, DeRosa just lost the benefit of the doubt.
As a gaggle of joyful Italian-Americans were pummeling Team USA into dust and drinking espresso in the dugout, a video began to circulate on social media that showed DeRosa on an MLB Network show on Tuesday morning proclaiming that his squad had clinched a quarterfinal berth.
“We wanna win this game,” the 16-year big leaguer turned TV host turned WBC manager said on “Hot Stove,” “even though our ticket is punched to the quarterfinals."
Asked after Tuesday’s loss about that factually incorrect statement, DeRosa was imprecise, his answer unfortunately blurry.
“Yeah, I misspoke. I was on ‘Hot Stove’ with a couple buddies today and completely misread the calculations. We knew that Mexico was gonna play Italy. And running all the numbers, if we lost tonight, with the runs allowed and runs scored and outs. So I just misspoke.”
“Misspoke” and “misread the calculations” are two very different things. So there are two explanations here, neither of which makes DeRosa look good.
The more gracious interpretation is that the skipper actually misspoke and knew all along that Team USA needed a win against Italy to guarantee its spot in the quarterfinals. Even if that’s what happened, and DeRosa and his staff knew the state of play before first pitch, it’s still a bad look that he was bombastic enough to use the phrase “punched our ticket” and tell “Hot Stove” that he was purposefully resting a few players. That’s the epitome of overlooking an opponent.
The worse interpretation is completely damning: DeRosa didn’t know Team USA wasn’t through until some point during or after the game. He and his staff “misread the calculations,” misunderstanding the ins and outs of the complicated WBC tiebreaker system, and assumed they were safe. With that in mind, they opted to rest Harper, Bregman and Turang and adopt a more passive pitching plan.
If that’s how it really went down ... oof.
It only looks uglier in the context of DeRosa’s pregame implication that some of the USA coaches and players were up late together downing suds and sharing stories.
“There's some guys dragging today,” he admitted.
Well, if Mexico wins on Wednesday while scoring four runs or fewer, there will be 20-some American superstars dragging their asses back to spring training.
Continue reading...
Team Italy played a whale of a game on Tuesday, upsetting Team USA by a deceptively close final score of 8-6. Michael Lorenzen, starting for the Azzurri, shut down one of the greatest lineups ever assembled, tossing 4 2/3 scoreless innings. A pair of early homers from Kyle Teel and Sam Antonacci off USA starter Nolan McLean gave the Italians a hot start. They tacked on a few more in the middle innings, then held on for dear life. Red Sox reliever Greg Weissert struck out Aaron Judge, the tying run in the ninth, to end the proceedings and conclude one of the biggest upsets in international baseball history.
The Italians deserve all the credit in the world.
And still, Tuesday’s result was an utter embarrassment for Team USA and manager Mark DeRosa. Yes, anything can happen in a baseball game. The Los Angeles Dodgers lose 60 games per year. Nothing is more powerful than random chance. The Americans still have a good opportunity to advance to the quarterfinals — an Italy win over Mexico or a high-scoring Mexico victory on Wednesday would put the U.S. through.
But the problem here is not that Team USA lost. It’s how and why.
For all the patriotic fervor billowing around the Americans, this club simply hasn’t taken the World Baseball Classic as seriously as some other contenders. DeRosa has been open about “getting players off their feet” and getting everyone into the lineup. That dynamic was front and center Wednesday with DeRosa starting Paul Goldschmidt over Bryce Harper and Ernie Clement over Brice Turang and Alex Bregman.
In terms of bullpen decisions, DeRosa was somewhat handcuffed. He’s beholden to usage restrictions from big-league clubs, as is the case with other teams. That’s no excuse, but it is a reality. Still, opting to “get some length” from Ryan Yarbrough, as DeRosa admitted to Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal on the broadcast, was a baffling call that might have cost the U.S. this game.
Yarbrough — a likable, heroic, everyman hurler capable of pitching in a number of roles — was a late addition to the USA roster after Twins hurler Joe Ryan withdrew due to injury. Besides the Cooperstown-bound relic that is Clayton Kershaw, Yarbrough is probably at the bottom of the U.S. pitching depth chart. Yet DeRosa leaned on him to cover the middle innings, during which Italy stretched out its lead.
[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league for the 2026 MLB season]
Worst of all, DeRosa just lost the benefit of the doubt.
As a gaggle of joyful Italian-Americans were pummeling Team USA into dust and drinking espresso in the dugout, a video began to circulate on social media that showed DeRosa on an MLB Network show on Tuesday morning proclaiming that his squad had clinched a quarterfinal berth.
“We wanna win this game,” the 16-year big leaguer turned TV host turned WBC manager said on “Hot Stove,” “even though our ticket is punched to the quarterfinals."
Asked after Tuesday’s loss about that factually incorrect statement, DeRosa was imprecise, his answer unfortunately blurry.
“Yeah, I misspoke. I was on ‘Hot Stove’ with a couple buddies today and completely misread the calculations. We knew that Mexico was gonna play Italy. And running all the numbers, if we lost tonight, with the runs allowed and runs scored and outs. So I just misspoke.”
“Misspoke” and “misread the calculations” are two very different things. So there are two explanations here, neither of which makes DeRosa look good.
The more gracious interpretation is that the skipper actually misspoke and knew all along that Team USA needed a win against Italy to guarantee its spot in the quarterfinals. Even if that’s what happened, and DeRosa and his staff knew the state of play before first pitch, it’s still a bad look that he was bombastic enough to use the phrase “punched our ticket” and tell “Hot Stove” that he was purposefully resting a few players. That’s the epitome of overlooking an opponent.
The worse interpretation is completely damning: DeRosa didn’t know Team USA wasn’t through until some point during or after the game. He and his staff “misread the calculations,” misunderstanding the ins and outs of the complicated WBC tiebreaker system, and assumed they were safe. With that in mind, they opted to rest Harper, Bregman and Turang and adopt a more passive pitching plan.
If that’s how it really went down ... oof.
It only looks uglier in the context of DeRosa’s pregame implication that some of the USA coaches and players were up late together downing suds and sharing stories.
“There's some guys dragging today,” he admitted.
Well, if Mexico wins on Wednesday while scoring four runs or fewer, there will be 20-some American superstars dragging their asses back to spring training.
Continue reading...
