Team USA Survives Awful Mistake To Advance To Quarter Finals

Team USA's World Baseball Classic almost came to an early end, and for the dumbest possible reason. They simply did not understand how the iebreaker in the Group Stage works.

After beating Mexico on Monday night, Team USA celebrated like they had clinched their place in the Quarter Finals. Manager Mark DeRosa even went on MLB Network and said that the USA had "punched their ticket."

The problem is that they had not done that. They still needed to beat Italy to guarantee they advanced. That did not happen. After partying all night, Team USA played like a hungover team, and Italy took advantage. They jumped out to a huge lead quickly. Team USA roared back, but did not have enough to complete the comeback and lost.

DeRosa later tried to pull back his comments, claiming he misspoke and USA knew they had not clinched. But if that was the case, why did they party so hard after beating Mexico? Also, why did DeRosa empty his bench vs Italy?

It left the USA in a precarious spot. They went into Wednesday night relying on 1 of 2 results in the game between Italy and Mexico. Either Italy had to win, or Mexico needed to win with at least 5 runs scored, which would give USA the tiebreaker over Italy in the case of all 3 teams being 3-1.

Luckily, Team USA got to breathe a sigh of relief early on. Italy roared out to a 6-0 lead. Making it a lock that either they would win, or Mexico would score 5 or more runs. The only thing left up in the air would be if the game went to extra innings, which would change the Math for the tiebreaker. But as Italy continued to pile on, it became clear Team USA was going to get away with their arrogance.

A lucky break. USA won its 3 games, and mostly fairly easily. But they took their foot off the gas, and it nearly cost them. The team has been criticized for not having the same passion as some other teams in the tournament. There seems for afar to be far more energy on theam like Domican Republic and Japan.

Them callously assuming they had clinched, only to lose, and nealry lose their spot in the Quarter Finals, contributes to that narrative. Team USA will need to take the tournament a bit more seriously if they are going to get through the elimination stage and win. The teams left in, including Italy, clearly take the event very seriously.

Team USA will now face Canada on Friday. The game will take place at 8pm, and air on Fox. Canada shockingly came out of Group A as the 1 seed, beating out teams like Puerto Rico, who took the 2 seed, as well as Cuba, Columbia, and Panama.