Team USA Advances To WBC Championship After Controversial Strike Call

Team USA will advance to the championship round of the World Baseball Classic after defeating Team Dominican Republic.

This is the third straight WBC in which Team USA will advance to the championship round. They won the 2017 WBC and lost in the 2023 championship round to Team Japan. 

Team USA got an excellent start from Paul Skenes, who pitched 4.1 innings and only gave up one run. That run was a solo home run from Junior Caminero in the second inning. 

In the fourth inning, Gunnar Henderson tied the game with a solo home run for Team USA. Just two batters later, Roman Anthony hit a home run that gave Team USA a lead. 

After Skenes was taken out of the game, Tyler Rogers, Griffin Jax, David Bednar and Garrett Whitlock combined to give up no runs out of the bullpen. Bednar was the only one who allowed runners on base.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Mason Miller came on to close the game. Julio Rodriguez worked a walk with one out. Rodriguez advanced after a wild pitch and a Oneil Cruz groundball to Bobby Witt Jr. This brought up Geraldo Perdomo with two outs and a runner on third.

Perdomo worked the count to 3-2 after taking three pitches far from the strike zone. The first strike call was borderline. After fouling off a couple of pitches, the count was still 3-2. Perdomo took a pitch low, but it was called a strike to end the game.

If this pitch was called a ball, it would’ve put Perdomo on first base with Fernando Tatis Jr. due up next. Team Dominican Republic needed one run to tie and two to win. 

Team USA will play in the WBC championship on March 17. The game will take place in Loan Depot Park in Miami.