Team USA Facing Elimination After Embarrassing Coaching Error
- Dominic Konareski
- 9 minutes ago
- 1 min read
Team USA might very well be eliminated come later on this Wednesday night.
For one member of the team…the head coach…thought his team already advanced prior to last night's embarrassing loss. Team USA head coach Mark DeRosa said that the Americans already had their quarterfinal spot in the World Baseball Classic.
He was and still is wrong.
Team USA does not have a secured spot in the final eight.
DeRosa said prior to Tuesday’s game vs Italy while on MLB Network, “It’s weird. We want to win this game even though our ticket’s punched to the quarterfinals.” This may very well be a top five most embarrassing moment in U.S. sporting history if Team USA does not advance.
DeRosa later said post-game he misspoke, but seeing how he managed throughout the game with little-to-no urgency seems like he was trying to cover himself from the blatant error. Bryce Harper sat as Goldschmidt started and he had both Nolan McLean and Ryan Yarbrough pitch in the early stages of the game.
No offense to the Mets rookie phenom that McLean is or seasoned vet in Yarbrough, but those just are not moves that scream urgency.
With Tuesday night’s shocking 8-6 loss to Italy (which has more American-born players on it than actual Italian-borns), the United States needs to rely on Italy beating Mexico or Mexico taking down Italy and scoring 5 or more runs. These scenarios though are only factored with the assumption that the game does not go into extra innings.
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