Team USA just can’t handle Mexico in international play. For the third time in four meetings since the World Baseball Classic was inaugurated in 2006, the Mexican team had their way with the U.S. And again, they’ve pushed them to the brink of elimination from the WBC with Sunday night’s 11-5 thumping at a sold-out Chase Field in Phoenix.
Both teams are 1-1 in Pool C with two games each left to play. If the U.S. defeats Canada and Colombia, and Mexico beats Great Britain and Canada, both teams would finish 3-1. Both would then likely move on to the single-elimination quarterfinals at Miami’s Loan Depot Park, beginning Friday.
“I’m still trying to process what happened in this game,” rookie manager Mark DeRosa said after his team was demolished by Mexico in front of a raucous crowd of 47,534. “We’ll get together and discuss that as a coaching staff and figure that out. I expect us to play a hell of a game Monday night [against Canada], I really do.”
When it comes to advancing, there are numerous other permutations at this point, including a scenario in which all five teams in Pool C would finish 2-2 and face a number of tiebreakers.
The tournament’s tiebreaker rules showed up in the strangest way this weekend in Taiwan, where every team in Pool A finished 2-2. Cuba and Italy moved on to the single-elimination quarterfinals at the Tokyo Dome by virtue of having allowed the fewest runs per defensive outs recorded: Cuba 15 runs per 108 outs, Italy 17 runs per 108 outs.
But for the U.S., the path to the elimination round is more straightforward—if the team defeats Canada Monday night and Colombia Wednesday night, they’re probably in.
Before Sunday’s game, Mexico’s biggest win over the U.S. in international play came at the end of the second round of the first WBC in 2006— a team with Roger Clemens on the mound and Derek Jeter, Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez in the lineup lost 2-1 and had to go home.
And let’s not forget the single-elimination Olympic qualifier loss to Mexico at Panama in 2003 that ultimately sent Canada on to the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.
The Mexicans have Team USA’s number. Mexico’s first baseman Joey Meneses hit two homers and drove in five runs. Mexico held the vaunted U.S. offense, including Mookie Betts and Mike Trout at the top of the lineup, to three hits over the first six innings.
Betts and Trout went 1-for-8 against Mexico, with Betts going hitless. They are a combined 2-for-17 in the first two games of the tournament.
In Team USA’s first WBC game on Saturday night, the U.S defeated the British primarily because Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado produced behind Betts and Trout. Six years ago, Goldschmidt was benched on the U.S. team that won the tournament over Puerto Rico. He hit .077—1-for-13—and was so ineffective that manager Jim Leyland replaced him at first base during the single elimination round in favor of Eric Hosmer, who hit .385, 10-for-26.
Goldschmidt and Arenado, teammates with the St. Louis Cardinals, have both contributed in pool play and in the exhibition games against Cactus League teams that led up to it.
“We’ve had good at-bats. And in 2017 we didn’t have to have good at-bats; the other guys picked us up. It’s one of those things,” Arenado said.
That can be chalked up to experience.
“I definitely feel more comfortable [in the WBC] this time around being more of a veteran player, having gone through it before,” Goldschmidt, the reigning National League MVP, said.
Adam Wainwright, the veteran Cardinals pitcher, who pitched the first four innings in the 6-2 U.S. victory over Great Britain on Saturday night, has seen the metamorphosis into a leader since Goldschmidt was traded to St. Louis in 2018 by Arizona after a protracted contract dispute.
“The first day we got here as a team, Goldy spoke up in front of the group,” Wainwright said. “And he never ever would have done that four years ago. He’s just really comfortable in his own skin right now, and it’s infectious.”
Addressing the team? For Goldschmidt that’s highly unusual.
“Now I try to talk to the guys and share anything I have,” he said. “I just relayed some of my previous experiences from 2017. Knowing that Nolan and I were the only ones who played ,there was some stuff that could be shared that would be helpful to our team.”
Kyle Schwarber, whose three-run homer helped defeat the British, knows this talented lineup still has time in this tournament to produce.
“That’s a pretty cool thing, to sit there and be a part of,” Schwarber said. “The baseball fan kind of comes out in you. You’re playing with these guys, who are some of the best hitters in the league and some of the best players in the league overall.”
Despite all that talent, the U.S. is at risk of elimination. It may take some tough love from Goldschmidt before the U.S. takes on Canada Monday night.
