Why Tariq Skubal doesn’t appear in more WBC matches for the United States
Tariq Skubal explained to the media why he decided not to pitch in a future World Baseball Classic game, despite the camaraderie between him and his American teammates.
HOUSTON — They all wear suits to the game.
They chug espresso shots after home runs.
There is parmesan cheese and olive oil in the dugout for snacks.
And this Italian team may have single-handedly defeated the American Dream Team.
In one of the biggest upsets in World Baseball Classic history, Italy shocked the United States 8-6 on Tuesday night, leaving Team USA to wait and see if the result between Mexico and Italy would clinch a spot in the quarterfinals.
If Italy beats Mexico on Wednesday night, the U.S. would advance to the quarterfinals, but a win for Mexico would move Mexico, Italy and the U.S. to 3-1, and a tiebreaker would be needed to determine the two quarterfinalists.
The first tiebreaker is goals allowed divided by defensive outs.
If Mexico wins on Wednesday and Italy keeps them within four goals, Mexico and Italy will advance to the quarterfinals.
And America will return home.
Oh, what a difference 24 hours can make!
It was just Monday night, when the Americans defeated powerhouse Mexico 5-3, and as they celebrated in the clubhouse for hours after the game, U.S. national team manager Mark DeRosa joked that “some of the players might have had a lot of fun.”
“We have some guys dragging us today,” DeRosa said.
On this night, they dragged themselves off the field at Daikin Park, wondering if they needed to go back.
The U.S. team will have Wednesday off, but most will be glued to their TVs, eagerly rooting for Italy to beat Mexico and potentially secure a spot in the quarterfinals against Canada, Puerto Rico and Cuba. If Mexico wins, they will be using the calculator.
The most surprising aspect of Italy’s victory was that they didn’t get a single hit from their top five batters, relying instead on damage from down the order, including home runs by Kyle Thiel, Jack Carianone and Sam Antonacci.
Italy had an 8-0 lead before America knew what hit them, and yet slowly America’s power show came to life. It started with a solo home run by Gunnar Henderson in the 6th inning, and with two outs in the bottom of the 7th inning, the USA started fighting back to save their gold medal dreams.
Paul Goldschmidt became the first American player to start three consecutive WBC tournaments, hitting a single to center field. For Italy, Alek Jacob was a pinch hitter, and pinch hitter Ernie Clement greeted him with a double into the right field seats. Jacob was led off by No. 9 batter Pete Crowe Armstrong with one out and second base, but he left his changeup above the plate, and Crowe sent it 377 feet up, just over the right-field wall.
Then, America fell behind 8-4 and suddenly regained momentum.
In the 8th inning, singles by Kyle Schwarber, Will Smith, and Roman Anthony led to a two-out rally, scoring one run and bringing pinch hitter Bryce Harper to the plate. Harper advanced the count to 3-and-2 and hit a changeup to left field from Ron Marinacio to end the inning.
Then, with one out in the ninth inning, Crowe Armstrong hit another homer, knocking out Marinaccio, and Greg Weissert came on to end the game.
And just like that, Italy finished his espresso and prepared to pop the wine cork.
The U.S. still has a chance to survive and make it to the championship game, but the real concern is that New York Mets starting pitcher Nolan McLean is scheduled to pitch. He looked like Nolan Ryan in the first inning, striking out after just 11 pitches, but then looked like an inexperienced rookie.
“As I said before, on paper anything can happen. People can think of so many things. The United States is a very strong team. But we are here to play ball,” Italy manager Francisco Cervelli said.
It was a night Italian baseball fans will never forget.
“Well, it’s going to affect us in a lot of different ways,” Cervelli said. “For us, we’re trying to change the mentality in Italy. And playing against America is a dream for a lot of players. It’s good for the Italian players. When they go back to Italy, they can see us playing and know that they are playing against the best players in the world. And some of the Italian players who are here, who are Italian-born, can say that.”
“So I want to change the culture. We called it the Italian Way last year. Let’s create an identity. Let’s not just show up. Let’s create an identity every time we show up so people know how we respect others and play baseball our way.”
“What we’re doing is real.”
But as long as Italy dreams, Cervelli says it must be realistic no matter what it achieves with the WBC. Baseball will never be the number one sport in Italy, even with soccer, even if it struggled in the recent World Cup.
“Italian football is a religion. We intend to bring a different kind of joy,” Cervelli said. Winning it all can be great. I dream of it.
“But soccer is a very serious thing. You’re talking about Italy, the four-time world champions.”
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