HOUSTON – A day later than its manager originally proclaimed, the United States punched its ticket to the quarterfinals of the World Baseball Classic.
The Americans got the help they needed from Italy and could start to relax by the middle innings as Italy routed Mexico 9-1 on Wednesday night, giving the Azzurri the top spot in Group B and assuring the Americans advancement as the second-place team.
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After Vinnie Pasquantino had the WBC’s first three-homer game to lead the Italians to victory, the Kansas City Royals player had a message for the Americans.
“You’re welcome, U.S.A.,” he said. “We were thinking of you guys over at your hotel. We were thinking of you guys. So I’m glad you could join us in the party.”
Italy beat the U.S. 8-6 a night earlier, turning the Americans into spectators as they hoped to avoid elimination. The Italians — fielding a roster stacked with Americans of Italian heritage — finished 4-0 while the U.S. went 3-1.
Mexico (2-2), which lost to the U.S., was eliminated from the WBC and from qualifying for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The Americans will stay in Houston to meet Canada, which advanced past first round for the first time, on Friday night. Italy will play Puerto Rico in the other quarterfinal at Daikin Park on Saturday.
The U.S., with an All-Star-filled roster, also beat Britain and Brazil in group play.
After the loss to Italy, U.S. manager Mark DeRosa fielded questions about whether he thought his team had already secured a spot in the quarterfinals with Monday night’s win over Mexico because of his comments on a television appearance the next morning.
In that interview, he said: “Ton of respect for Italy — it’s weird — we want to win this game even though our ticket’s punched to the quarterfinals because Mexico plays Italy actually tomorrow. So, the way the schedule lines up this is an important game for us.”
DeRosa said he “misspoke” in that interview and did not believe the team had already clinched a spot.
Now that the Americans are in the quarterfinals, they know they need to win to move on to Miami.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb