There was no helmet or modern technology to pounce in the bottom of the ninth inning and keep the Dominican Republic’s hopes alive.
It’s a good old fashioned blown call that the most passionate team in this World Baseball Classic may have been stewing over for years.
As Team USA closer Mason Miller held on for a 2-1 lead with a game-tying single to third base in the World Baseball Classic semifinals, No. 9 batter Gerardo Perdomo squeezed eight pitches from the All-Star closer, and his 162 mph fastball started to slow down a bit.
There, Miller threw a slider on his eighth pitch, but he missed it multiple times early in the inning. And this batted ball also landed well below the strike zone, according to the pitch tracking system.
Perdomo threw his bat and prepared to jog to first base. The batting lineup changed, leadoff man Fernando Tatis Jr. got two runners, and Miller’s pitch count jumped to 22 pitches.
Home plate umpire Corey Blazer had a different outcome in mind: the game was over.
When he called Perdomo, Team USA was elated and the Dominican Republic, which entered the semifinals averaging 10 points per game, wondered what might have been if the game had continued.
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It was the second time in three innings that the Blazers struck out a Dominican batter with a slider well below the zone. Juan Soto, one of the most disciplined hitters in the game, was caught staring down Garrett Whitlock’s slider at the top of the eighth inning. Replays showed it below the knee. Pitch tracking technology confirms that.
Blazer is usually one of the more reliable home base umpires. His 94% accuracy in 2025 was one level below elite, but in the top half of all umpires. And if this were a Major League Baseball game in 2026, the Dominican could have challenged the call with a simple tap on the helmet, assuming there was still work to be done.
That was of little consolation to them.
“I don’t want to focus on the last pitch,” Dominican Republic coach Albert Pujols said in the postgame press conference. “I don’t mean to criticize it. I didn’t mean to criticize it.”
Granted, Team USA’s pitching had a lot to do with it. The Dominican averaged 10.3 RBI in five games and hit a WBC-leading 14 home runs, double Team USA’s seven home runs. Still, Soto grounded into a bases-loaded double play in the fifth inning against reliever Tyler Rodgers, and the only score came on Junior Caminero’s solo home run against typically strong Paul Skeens.
The Dominicans ran out of Skeens pitches by the fifth inning, then threatened David Bednar in the seventh and Miller in the ninth. That made the suspicious calls even more disturbing.
