{"id":621732,"date":"2026-03-13T13:12:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T13:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/621732\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T13:12:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T13:12:23","slug":"world-baseball-classic-olympic-hero-jack-hughes-gives-pep-talk-to-team-usa-ahead-of-quarterfinal-vs-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/621732\/","title":{"rendered":"World Baseball Classic: Olympic hero Jack Hughes gives pep talk to Team USA ahead of quarterfinal vs. Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

Team USA is lucky to still be around in the 2026 World Baseball Classic. After nearly being eliminated<\/a> from the tournament early, the Americans will hit the field again Friday for their quarterfinal matchup against Canada.<\/p>\n

Following the team\u2019s disappointing loss to Italy<\/a> on Tuesday, however, the Americans could certainly use a pep talk entering their next matchup. Thankfully, 2026 Olympics hero Jack Hughes was able to deliver.<\/p>\n

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Hughes \u201csent the boys a nice little fire-up message<\/a>\u201d ahead of Friday\u2019s game, Team USA manager Mark DeRosa said Thursday, per ESPN. The New Jersey Devils\u2019 center is the perfect person to deliver that message, as he\u2019s just weeks removed from scoring the game-winning goal in the gold-medal game hockey game vs. Canada.<\/p>\n

DeRosa hinted that the Team USA baseball and Team USA hockey connection might extend beyond that message, telling ESPN players might take batting practice in USA Hockey jerseys Friday.<\/p>\n

“I know there’s talk of some hockey jerseys being sent in tomorrow for the guys to wear during [batting practice] or around the clubhouse,” DeRosa said.<\/p>\n

Hughes\u2019 message should make quite an impact, as Team USA hockey\u2019s success at the Winter Olympics made a big impact on the Americans taking part in the 2026 World Baseball Classic. During an appearance on the \u201cPat McAfee Show\u201d in March, New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge said the team was \u201cso fired up\u201d after Hughes clinched the gold-medal win for Team USA.<\/p>\n

Shortstop Bobby Witt was also inspired by Team USA\u2019s success at the Olympics, telling Yahoo Sports that the amount of gold medals won by the country gave Team USA baseball more motivation to do the same<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Shrugging off Tuesday\u2019s loss will be key. The Americans were shocked by Italy on Tuesday setting up a scenario where the U.S. could be eliminated if Mexico defeated Italy on Wednesday. Italy picked up the win, saving the Americans in the process.<\/p>\n

Now, it\u2019s up to Team USA to prove it deserves that second chance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Team USA is lucky to still be around in the 2026 World Baseball Classic. After nearly being eliminated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[10264,106,5,33834,66159,24759,16898,62,4819,77609,80169],"class_list":["post-621732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-2026-world-baseball-classic","tag-aaron-judge","tag-baseball","tag-italy","tag-jack-hughes","tag-mark-derosa","tag-new-jersey-devils","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-team-usa","tag-team-usa-baseball","tag-team-usa-hockey"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116222043636660828","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621732","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=621732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}