{"id":627629,"date":"2026-03-17T06:17:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T06:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/627629\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T06:17:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T06:17:23","slug":"usa-manager-praises-paul-skenes-after-world-baseball-classic-masterpiece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/627629\/","title":{"rendered":"USA Manager Praises Paul Skenes After World Baseball Classic Masterpiece"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>During Sunday\u2019s World Baseball Classic semifinal game, Team USA ran into a juggernaut in the Dominican Republic, which featured one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnetpittsburgh.com\/2026\/03\/15\/pirates-ace-paul-skenes-shares-thoughts-on-dominican-republics-loaded-lineup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">best lineups anyone\u2019s ever seen<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately for Team USA, it had arguably the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnetpittsburgh.com\/2026\/03\/14\/pirates-paul-skenes-will-start-epic-world-baseball-classic-matchup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">best starting pitcher in the world<\/a> on the mound in Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes.<\/p>\n<p>Skenes did his job, limiting the DR to one run on six hits over 4 1\/3 innings. Between his outing, some good defense behind him, a pair of solo homers and a lights-out performance by USA\u2019s bullpen, <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnetpittsburgh.com\/2026\/03\/16\/pirates-ace-paul-skenes-stifles-dr-propels-usa-to-world-baseball-classic-final\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">that was enough for the win<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The reigning NL Cy Young winner lived up to the hype in his first WBC, going 2-0 with a 1.08 ERA in his two outings. USA\u2019s manager, Mark DeRosa, was certainly impressed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShowed up in an electric blue suit, white collar, ready to go,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PatMcAfeeShow\/status\/2033585496425656332\" rel=\"nofollow\">DeRosa said on Monday\u2019s episode<\/a> of \u201cThe Pat McAfee Show.\u201d \u201cYou talk about robot umps, this guy\u2019s a robot. He is process-oriented, he wanted the moment\u2026Paul was dialed in from pitch one. He wasn\u2019t overthrowing, he was making pitches\u2026right man, right time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Skenes\u2019 only mistake was a high, hanging sweeper that Junior Caminero somehow turned on for a solo homer, but other than that, Skenes was masterful.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, he won\u2019t be available for Tuesday\u2019s final, but he\u2019s already done his part. Now it\u2019s up to his teammates to finish what he started and secure USA\u2019s first WBC championship in nine years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>More Pirates: <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnetpittsburgh.com\/2026\/03\/16\/pirates-teammate-reacts-to-paul-skenes-world-baseball-classic-gem\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pirates Teammate Reacts To Paul Skenes\u2019 World Baseball Classic Gem<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During Sunday\u2019s World Baseball Classic semifinal game, Team USA ran into a juggernaut in the Dominican Republic, which&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2402],"tags":[5,4,877,10,776,64,4297],"class_list":{"0":"post-627629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-pirates","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-paul-skenes","11":"tag-pirates","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-pirates","14":"tag-pittsburghpirates"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116243060891626478","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627629","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=627629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}