Team USA Just Got Their Asses Handed To Them By Mexico And Now Find Themselves In a Must-Win Situation In The World Baseball Classic

Daniel Shirey. Getty Images.

No other way to say it, that was straight up embarrassing from Team USA. It's one thing to lose a group stage game. It's baseball anything can happen, but to get your dicks kicked in by Mexico like that was brutal to watch. For a second there I thought they were about to get mercy ruled in the 8th. The most lop-sided USA loss in the WBC since 2009. 

People are pointing to the pitching and that's definitely part of the problem. Look, you'd love to be able to start a real ace in this game rather than Nick Martinez. No offense to Martinez he's a solid pitcher, but he's not the guy we need out there. I would LOVE to have any of Cole, McClanahan, Scherzer, Verlander, Degrom, Burnes, Woodruff, Nola out there, but for various reasons they're not. I'd prefer to not watch Brady Singer in there to get crucial outs for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic. DeRosa cannot manage a bullpen to save his life. 

Advertisement

Well, this is what we got and it needs to be good enough. On Sunday night Mexico, led by Joey Meneses, pounced on us early and often. Guy is a monster. 

Yeah not great, gotta get him out, but you know what? Where's our offense? If Mexico wants a slug-fest I feel pretty confident when I say we got the lineup to entertain that song and dance. 

5 runs on 8 hits from these guys? Completely unacceptable. Yes, I get that it's mid-March and hitters' timing are all off right now. You always hear how big boppers around this time feel like they've never picked up a bat before. Falls on deaf ears when Mexico is slugging like that. You aren't facing premier big league pitching, with some of these guys never sniffing the majors. Can't have two runs entering the 8th inning against these fellas. 

Advertisement

What's bad is even if USA beats both Canada and Colombia they're not a lock to move on with how many runs Mexico just scored off them. If there's a three way tie at 3-1 they might find themselves out of the tournament. 

(the second tiebreaker after h2h is the fewest earned runs allowed divided by the number of defensive outs recorded in games between the teams that are tied).

The plan moving forward is to mash. Throttle Canada and put up a number on Colombia. Sounds simple with the lineup they got, but only scratching five across Great Britain and five against Mexico leads you to believe it won't be a small task. Canada scored 18 runs on Sunday for Christ's sake. That what a squad with Mookie, Trout, Goldy, Arenado, Alonso, and plenty other All-Stars should be doing. 

I need some fucking energy on Monday night. Look at Venezuela in a seven run ball game. It's March and you got Acuña scoring from first, flying around the bases with old man Salvy getting into third. We don't have this fire right now. 

Hopefully a loss like that wakes up everyone and they come to the park tomorrow ready to rip. Needs runs, all the runs, especially with the second tie breaker relying heavy on runs allowed. Acknowledge our pitching isn't all that great and pick em' up. Bats started to cook a little bit at the end, but too little too late. Maybe it gets them going though and they start to mash against Canada. 10:00 EST Monday night we've got ourselves a must win game. 

Closing out the blog I gotta shout out the fans behind home plate umpiring the game. Didn't miss a call. Tremendous work. Whole stadium was jumping from the first pitch.