Hours before Tuesday’s stunning and potentially damning upset to Team Italy, in which he did not start some of his key players, Team USA manager Mark DeRosa said in a television interview that he believed his team had already advanced to the World Baseball Classic quarterfinals.
The American team, in fact, had not secured a spot in the next round and now needs help if it’s going to advance. DeRosa said after Tuesday’s 8-6 loss to Italy that he went into the game knowing his team needed to win and “misspoke” during his earlier interview with MLB Network, where he is also employed as a morning show host.
“I was on Hot Stove with a couple of buddies today and completely misread the calculations,” DeRosa said. “We knew that Mexico was going to play Italy, and then running all the numbers, if we lost tonight with the runs allowed and runs scored and outs — so, I just misspoke.”
DeRosa’s Tuesday morning interview began to go viral in the middle innings of Tuesday’s game as it became clear Team USA was in danger of a stunning upset that could be costly.
On Hot Stove, DeRosa said, “we want to win this game, even though our ticket’s punched to the quarterfinals.” He also said he planned to use the Italy game to rest some of his hitters.
“I’m going to get some guys off their feet, no question about it,” DeRosa said.
The league appears to have taken down video that included DeRosa’s mistaken comments from MLB.com, with attempts by The Athletic to access it yielding error messages early Wednesday morning. A version of the interview that remained on MLB Network’s Facebook page appeared to be condensed and did not include the now-scrutinized remarks.
The Athletic has reached out to MLB for comment.
DeRosa had chosen to sit many of his top hitters, with Cal Raleigh, Bryce Harper, Alex Bregman, Byron Buxton and Brice Turang all on the bench to start the game. Team USA was shut out through the first five innings. A late-inning comeback was too little, too late.
Falling behind early proved costly and put Team USA in an uncertain spot heading into Wednesday’s Pool B finale between Italy and Mexico.
If Italy wins on Wednesday, it will be the top seed out of Pool B and Team USA will advance as the runner up. But, if Mexico wins, there will be a three-way tie between Mexico, Italy and the USA. Only two teams advance from each pool, so if Italy doesn’t beat Mexico on Wednesday, Team USA would be at the mercy of a tiebreaker based on runs allowed to determine whether its celebrated roster moves on.
“It’s tough,” DeRosa said. “It’s super tough. I mean, guys in there are frustrated. It is what it is, though. We have to own it.”