USA Baseball Manager Thought Team Already Advanced to Next Round of WBC After Losing Crucial Game to Italy

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USA Baseball manager Mark DeRosa admitted Tuesday that he mistakenly thought the team had already clinched a spot in the next round of the World Baseball Classic.

The U.S. team went into Tuesday’s game against Italy with a perfect 3-0 record in pool play. That record led Pool B, with Italy right behind at 2-0. The Americans were heavy favorites going into the game, but Italy stunned the baseball world by jumping out to an 8-0 lead. The U.S. slowly chipped away at that lead before ultimately losing 8-6. It was one of the biggest upsets in the history of the tournament.

As a result of that loss, the U.S. needed help to get to the quarterfinals. Italy’s final game of pool play was against Mexico on Wednesday, and if Italy won, the U.S. would advance.

If Mexico won, the U.S. could still advance due to the tiebreaker involving total runs scored. Basically, Mexico would have to win while also scoring more than four runs. If Mexico won and scored less than five, they would advance to the quarterfinals with Italy, and the Americans would be eliminated.

All of that information, however, was unknown to DeRosa. Speaking after the loss, he admitted that he “misread the calculations” on the potential tournament scenarios.

“Yeah, I misspoke,” DeRosa told the media. “I was on Hot Stove with a couple of buddies today and completely misread the calculations. We knew that Mexico was gonna play Italy, and then running all the numbers with if we lost tonight, with the runs allowed and runs scored, and outs — so I just misspoke.”

DeRosa was referencing an earlier appearance on the MLB Network show Hot Stove. During that appearance, he claimed the U.S. had already secured a spot in the next round.

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