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Brad Keller walks off the mound from a 3-run sixth inning for Italy that was sparked by his throwing error on a double-play ball.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
USA Baseball entered Tuesday's World Baseball Classic against Italy knowing that a win would clinch a spot in the tournament's knockout round.
Instead, Italy delivered USA a stunning 8-6 loss, and a U.S. team that entered Tuesday's game at 3-0 in pool play is forced to await its fate for the knockout round, which is now out of its hands.
The loss drops Team USA to 3-1, while Italy improves to 3-0. Italy will face 2-1 Mexico on Wednesday in a game that will determine who advances out of Pool B. Only two teams can advance.
If Italy wins and drops Mexico to 2-2, USA will advance alongside 4-0 Italy at 3-1. If Mexico wins and all three teams finish at 3-1, a multi-layered tiebreaker comes into play. And USA didn't do itself any favors in that tiebreaker by allowing 8 runs Tuesday night.
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How the tiebreaker works
Here's how the tiebreaker works, with the steps in order. If teams remain tied after the top line, the tiebreaker moves on to the next.
Record among tied teams
Runs allowed per defensive outs
Earned runs allowed per defensive outs
Highest batting average among tied teams
Random draw
If Mexico wins Tuesday, the three tied teams will each be 2-1 against each other, and the tiebreaker will move on to Step 2. And the final margin of Wednesday's game would impact the next two steps of the tiebreaker concerning runs allowed.
Team USA can take solace knowing that it could have been in worse shape. Italy jumped out to an 8-0 lead through the top of the sixth inning, a margin that would have made it difficult for USA to compete in a tiebreaker scenario.
USA added some important runs at the end that give it a better chance in the event that Mexico wins on Wednesday. USA, of course, would rather not be in this position to begin with.
Italy takes control early
Neither team scored in the first inning, but Italy set the tone for the game in the second.
Kyle Teel led off the top of the second with a solo home run off of USA starter Nolan McLean, a 24-year-old prospect for the New York Mets.
McLean then hit Jac Caglianone with a pitch, setting up Sam Antonacci for more Italian fireworks.
Antonacci hit a two-run blast off of McLean in the next at-bat, and Italy ultimately left the second inning with a 3-0 lead.
In the fourth inning, it was Caglianone's turn to strike.
Michael Lorenzen, in relief of McLean, allowed a leadoff walk to Teel. Caglianone then deposited a Lorenzen sweeper into the right-field bleachers for a 5-0 Italy lead, and the pressure on Team USA ramped up a notch.
USA yielded to that pressure in the sixth.
Italy put runners on first and second with one out, and U.S reliever Brad Keller induced a potential double-play ground ball out of Sam Antonacci. But Keller's throw to second was low, and the ball caromed off Bobby Witt Jr.'s glove and into centerfield.
Instead of an inning-ending double play, Italy scored a run.
Italy tacked on two more runs before the inning was over and left the frame with an 8-0 lead.
USA adds potentially important runs
Team USA didn't quit.
Gunnar Henderson hit a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth inning to get USA on the board. Then, in the seventh, Pete Crow-Armstong delivered a mammoth 3-run home run into the right-field bleachers to cut Italy's lead to 8-4.
USA then added another in the the eighth, and Bryce Harper took the plate as the tying run with two outs and runners on the corners. But he hit into an inning-ending fly ball, and Italy maintained an 8-5 lead through eight.
Crow-Armstrong added a solo shot for his second home run of the game to lead off the ninth. But USA didn't score again. Italian closer and Red Sox pitcher Greg Weissert struck Aaron Judge out for the final out with a man on first base.
USA is now left to sweat Wednesday's game between Mexico and Italy.
If Italy wins, USA advances. If Mexico wins, USA is left to hope that its late-inning runs Tuesday night were enough to get the job done.
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