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Team USA suffered a massive upset at the hands of Italy on Tuesday night at the World Baseball Classic, putting their hopes of moving to the quarterfinal round in jeopardy.
Italy’s Kyle Teel, Sam Antonacci and Jac Caglianone homered as Italy defeated the U.S., 8-6, in the Americans’ final game in pool play.
Italian starter Michael Lorenzen allowed two hits in 4.2 scoreless innings. The U.S. got homers from Pete Crow-Armstrong twice and Gunnar Henderson, but their rally fell short.
Aaron Judge had a chance to extend the game for the U.S. in the ninth inning, but struck out.
“It’s the toughest thing,” he said. “You always like having your destiny in your own hands and we had it right in front of us and Italy came out swinging.”
The Americans were down 8-1 in the seventh inning before Crow-Armstrong’s home run.
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The U.S. appeared to be dealt a confusing situation, possibly thinking they had already clinched a spot in the next round. Manager Mark DeRosa seemed to think that when he said in a TV appearance they the team wanted to win the game “even though our ticket’s punched to the quarterfinals …”
DeRosa said he “misspoke” and Judge added that he didn’t think players had already thought their spot was secured.
“It’s out of our control now,” he said. “We just need a little luck and we’ll see what happens.”
Now, the U.S. will need to hope for an Italy win over Mexico. If Mexico wins, then all three teams will move to 3-1 and 1-1 against each other and send it to a tiebreaker.
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The tiebreaker is the number of runs allowed in games between the tied teams. The U.S. could advance even if Mexico wins if it scores at least five runs.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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