Well, that was absolutely not a showcase for the WBC, or baseball as a whole. Woof. A whole dog park, or pet hotel, full of woof.
USA 2, Dominican Republic 1. Paul Skenes and Luis Severino got the start for their respective teams in a semifinal match. Severino wriggled out of trouble first, as Gunnar Henderson grounded out with two on and two out. But, the D.R. drew first blood, as Junior Caminero whacked a hanging Skenes sweeper into left-center for a solo no-doubter.
Severino was again threatened
in the third, as a single and double with one out brought Aaron Judge and Kyle Schwarber to the plate with a chance to tie or go ahead. But, Severino beat Judge on a sweeper in the zone, and then froze Schwarber on the same. The bottom of the third ended as Judge threw out Fernando Tatis Jr. trying to take third on a single by Ketel Marte.
Henderson led off the fourth with a game-tying solo shot off Severino. The Dominican pitcher had gotten away with a few secondaries in deep counts just hanging out in the heart of the zone, but not so much for this cutter. After a hard lineout by Will Smith, the D.R. swapped Severino for Gregory Soto, but that move did the opposite of pay off when Roman Anthony crushed a full-count, challenge sinker over the boards in center to put the U.S. ahead, 2-1.
After that, the game basically took on the same tenor in inning after inning: the D.R. threatened, but the score didn’t change. In the fourth, there was a double, a single, and a hit-by-pitch, but Austin Wells chased a pitch outside and hit a routine flyout to end the threat. There were two singles in the fifth, but Juan Soto hit into a double play against Tyler Rogers. (Skenes went 4 1/3 but had just a 2/0 K/BB ratio. Severino went 3 1/3, with a 6/0 K/BB ratio.)
David Bednar seemed like he might end up being the goat when Wells doubled and Geraldo Perdomo singled with one out, but the former ended up striking out both Tatis and Marte.
That eventually led to the ninth, with Mason Miller trying to lock it down, where the woofing occurred. Julio Rodriguez walked with one out, and moved into scoring position on a wild pitch. He later scampered to third on a groundout, which brought up Perdomo as the D.R.’s last hope. Perdomo took five straight pitches, working himself into a full count without taking the bat off his shoulder. He then fouled off a high fastball at 101 mph, and did the same on a much meatier one down the middle. On the eighth pitch, Miller unleashed a slider well below the zone (not even questionably so), Perdomo took it, and…
…the umpire ruled that it was a strike and the game was over.
So, one of the tensest games in this year’s WBC ended on a bad call, as MLB prepares to implement some degree of bad ball/strike call reversal in the regular season. Not the showcase MLB was looking for.
Both bullpens had a dominant showing: after Soto, the D.R. used five pitchers who combined for an 8/1 K/BB ratio; the U.S. lineup collected just one hit off this quintet. Meanwhile, Team USA’s own quintet had a 6/1 K/BB ratio, with the two hits coming off Bednar as noted… but Miller should’ve had at least another walk, and who knows what would’ve happened then.
Tonight, there’s a Venezuela-Italy slugfest on tap. The victor will go on to play the U.S. in a game that hopefully won’t also be decided by a bad call.
