{"id":618631,"date":"2026-03-11T14:27:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T14:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/618631\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T14:27:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T14:27:35","slug":"us-stunning-loss-to-italy-leaves-world-baseball-classic-fate-hanging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/618631\/","title":{"rendered":"US’ stunning loss to Italy leaves World Baseball Classic fate hanging"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON \u2014 The surprising loss by the United States to Italy in the World Baseball Classic<\/a> Tuesday night means that the Americans need help to advance to the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

The 8-6 defeat left the team<\/a> with a 3-1 record at the end of its pool schedule. Mexico and Italy wrap up Pool B play Wednesday night where a win by the Italians will give the U.S. second place and a spot in the next round.<\/p>\n

If Mexico wins then all three teams will move to 3-1 and 1-1 against each other and send it to a tiebreaker.<\/p>\n

Can a loaded US roster dethrone Japan at the World Baseball Classic?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The tiebreaker is the number of runs allowed in games between the tied teams. So, the U.S. could also advance even if Mexico wins if it scores at least five runs.<\/p>\n

Aaron Judge, who struck out in the ninth to end it Tuesday night, is disappointed that the team failed to take care of business against Italy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the toughest thing,\u201d he said. \u201cYou always like having your destiny in your own hands and we had it right in front of us and Italy came out swinging.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Italians hit three home runs in the first four innings to build a five-run lead and were up 8-0 before the U.S. got on the board.<\/p>\n

After the game, U.S. manager Mark DeRosa fielded questions about whether he thought his team had already secured a spot in the quarterfinals with Monday night\u2019s win over Mexico because of his comments on a television appearance Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

In that interview, he said: \u201cTon of respect for Italy \u2014 it\u2019s weird \u2014 we want to win this game even though our ticket\u2019s punched to the quarterfinals because Mexico plays Italy actually tomorrow. So, the way the schedule lines up this is an important game for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the interview room he said he \u201cmisspoke\u201d in that segment and in a later interview outside the clubhouse he reiterated that he did not think they had already clinched a spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne hundred percent\u2026 I misspoke,\u201d he said. \u201cBottom line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge said the players didn\u2019t think that they had already secured a spot in the quarterfinals and that he didn\u2019t know about DeRosa\u2019s television interview.<\/p>\n

Judge added that the team will probably gather at the hotel to watch Wednesday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s out of our control now,\u201d he said. \u201cWe just need a little luck and we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2014 The surprising loss by the United States to Italy in the World Baseball Classic Tuesday night…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[5,138,49,2561,33834,79942,4,4657,396,2562,4820,79943,79941],"class_list":{"0":"post-618631","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-white-sox","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-white-sox","11":"tag-chicagowhitesox","12":"tag-italy","13":"tag-italy-world-baseball-classic","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-white-sox","17":"tag-whitesox","18":"tag-world-baseball-classic","19":"tag-world-baseball-classic-pool-play","20":"tag-world-baseball-classic-score"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116211013760451230","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}