Good morning Birdland,
The baseball world is looking at Team USA manager Mark DeRosa with a raised eyebrow right now. His club lost to Italy on Tuesday night, 8-6, in their final game of pool play. Italy now leads Pool B with a 3-0 record, USA is second at 3-1, and Mexico is in third at 2-1. Italy and Mexico will play each other tonight at 7 p.m. ET with a berth in the knockout rounds on the line. Team USA needs some help if they are going to advance.
The top two teams advance from each pool. If Italy
beats Mexico, then Italy would advance as the winners of the pool, and USA would advance as the runner up, regardless of the score. If Mexico wins, it all comes down to the tiebreaker, which is a calculation of number of runs allowed divided by number of outs recorded. You can read the exact tiebreaker rules on the WBC website. But in short, USA is going to be rooting for an Italy win outright OR a relatively high-scoring game in which Mexico plates at least five runs.
DeRosa is under the microscope because earlier in the day he seemed to be treating the game against Italy as an opportunity to rest some players.
Appearing on MLB Network, DeRosa said “It’s weird. We want to win this game even though our ticket’s punched to the quarterfinals.”
Obviously, that was not true. What’s worse, it doesn’t sound like DeRosa was alone in his interpretation because he went on to say that “there’s some guys dragging today” due to the team’s prolonged celebration after beating Mexico on Monday. Clearly, the entire team thought that beating Mexico clinched them a spot in the next round, and they did not take Italy seriously.
It makes the entire team look incompetent, and it’s a stain on the World Baseball Classic as a whole. It will be made even worse if Mexico pulls off an entirely possible win over Italy while scoring four or fewer runs.
On the Orioles front, they lost 7-6 to the Astros. but Coby Mayo had himself a day! The third baseman went 4-for-4 with a home run and five RBI. He is going to be the team’s Opening Day third baseman, and it is well deserved. The pitching side of things was not as enjoyable, but none of the pitchers used are expected to part of the big league picture to begin 2026, so let’s not fret.
The O’s will host the Pirates today. First pitch is at 1 p.m. ET.
Links
Chris Davis among 2026 inductees into Orioles Hall of Fame | The Baltimore Banner
Chris Davis will be joined by pitcher Storm Davis and former front office executive and scout Jim Russo as inductees to the Orioles Hall of Fame this summer. Man, I am getting old!
How this O’s prospect went from pro infielder to collegian to lights-out pitcher | Orioles.com
Anthony Nunez is a name to watch this year. The Orioles acquired him at the deadline last year, and he is expected to be a long-term fixture in their bullpen once he is deemed ready. That could honestly happen at at point this summer.
Moving around Beavers could make it easier to write out daily lineups | Roch Kubatko
It’s tough to nail down exactly what the Orioles lineup will look like day in and day out, but that is a problem that new manager Craig Albernaz seems excited to have.
Orioles 1st base coach Jason Bourgeois on his experience: ‘I can relate’ | Baltimore Baseball
We have a whole new coaching staff to get to know this year, well almost. Some of the old guard remained in place as Albernaz stepped in, but many others are fresh. That includes Bourgeois, who is hoping to connect with players that are standing right where he did a decade or so earlier.
Orioles birthdays
Is it your birthday? Happy birthday!
- Frank Mata turns 42 today. He pitched in 15 games for the 2010 Orioles, his only big league experience.
- Rich Hill is 46 years old. The journeyman southpaw played for 14 different teams during his career. That included 14 games with the O’s way back in 2009.
- Steve Reed is 61 today. A longtime reliever in MLB, Reed wrapped up his 14-season career in 2005 as a member of the Orioles bullpen.
- Phil Bradley turns 67. He spent parts of two seasons with the Orioles from 1989-90, accumulating 3.6 bWAR and a 116 OPS+ in that time. The Orioles dealt him to the White Sox at the 1990 trade deadline in exchange for Ron Kittle
This day in O’s history
1991 – Baseball Hall of Famer Jim Palmer, attempting to make a comeback as a non-roster player in Orioles camp, gives up five hits and two runs over two innings against the Red Sox. The very next day he retires for the second time (he had originally retired in 1984), citing a hamstring injury.
