The most celebrated roster in baseball history is going to need some help to advance out of pool play in the World Baseball Classic.
A stunning 8-6 loss to Team Italy at Daikin Park in Houston on Tuesday night left the Americans facing a potential tiebreaker to move on in the tournament. The pitching staff faltered, and the offense stalled early with many of its top hitters on the bench. Rather than bully its way into the quarterfinals, Team USA (3-1) is going to have to watch the scoreboard and hope for a blowout Wednesday.
Team Italy is now 3-0 in Pool B and faces Team Mexico (2-1) in the finale at 7 p.m. (ET) Wednesday. Here are the two scenarios at play:
If Italy wins, it will be the top seed out of Pool B, and Team USA will advance as the second-place finisher.
If Mexico beats Italy, all three teams will finish 3-1 with room for only two to advance to the quarterfinals. The first tiebreaker is head-to-head record, but that won’t matter (each team will be 1-1 head-to-head). According to the WBC website, the second tiebreaker is: “the lowest quotient of fewest runs allowed divided by the number of defensive outs recorded in the games in that round between the teams tied.” Basically, the fewest runs per out in head-to-head games.
Team USA recorded 54 outs and allowed 11 runs against Italy and Mexico (.2037 runs
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