Team USA Manager Mark DeRosa Actually Thought They Had Advanced To The WBC Quarterfinals Prior To Tuesday Night, But Now After Losing To Italy They Find Themselves On The Brink Of Elimination, Without Control Of Their Own Destiny

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Team USA entered Tuesday night's WBC game against Italy with a perfect 3-0 record in the tournament. A win would guarantee them the top spot in their pool and an all-important place in the quarterfinals. A loss? Well, it makes things tricky depending on the tiebreaker and many runs each team would surrender in the next 24 hours. What was known for sure was that USA had not clinched a spot in the next round before playing this game. 

But then you saw the lineup manager Mark Derosa put out there and it made you scratch your head. 

Yes there were stars in there, but then you see names like Ernie Clement and Paul Goldschmidt. Where's Cal Raleigh? Against a formidable Italy squad, this isn't the time to play rec manager and get everyone in there. When you're facing Brazil and Great Britain go nuts. Fuck it, start Kershaw for all I care. Against Italy? What are you thinking? 

Then the game started and Italy jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead against Mets ace Nolan McLean. First out of the bullpen to replace him was Ryan Yarbrough, a slow-throwing lefty who is only on the roster as a replacement. Before you knew it, Team USA was down 8-0 in the 6th. The lack of urgency and questionable moves by DeRosa honestly made me wonder if he thought we had already booked a spot in the quarterfinals. And then this clip from MLB Hot Stove began to surface online where DeRosa clearly stated Tuesday morning that he believed Team USA had advanced. 

Team USA Baseball wants you to believe they're taking this shit seriously and you've got this talk show host clown of a manager not knowing the rules of the tournament. What the fuck man? I thought I had it bad with Aaron Boone, but DeRosa makes him look like Joe Torre. How do you fuck this up? 

USA rallied late, but fell to Italy 8-6. DeRosa spoke after the game, admitting he misspoke and "completely misread the calculations." He didn't elaborate on any of this and quickly got out of there. 

This guy had a retired Clayton Kershaw warming up in the pen in the 8th inning when it became very clear any additional runs scored by Italy would further doom USA's chances of winning a tiebreaker if it came down to it. You're not doing that if run prevention is your highest priority and you have Mason Miller sitting in the pen ready to get hot. DeRosa actually thought we advanced and managed like it. Unfuckingbelievable. Now we could very well be out of this tournament before the knockout stage. It doesn't get more embarrassing than this, especially when the team makes it their mission to tell us how much this means to them. 

So with USA out of games to play in the group stage, here are the two scenarios they have to advance with Italy playing Mexico tomorrow night. 

- Italy beats Mexico (Italy and USA advance) 

-Mexico beats Italy + scores 5+ runs (Mexico and USA advance) 

If Mexico wins a low scoring game USA will be out of this event in improbable fashion. You might get both of those teams up there bunting every at bat, with a handshake agreement to let Mexico win tight just so we're knocked out. 

Now could the players in the game Tuesday night have taken care of business? Sure, Michael Lorenzen blanked this offense into the 5th inning. But managing like you've already advanced and taking your foot off the gas pedal is just asking for trouble. 

Italy better win on Wednesday and bail them out otherwise this is going to be brutal. If we do advance I'm good with DeRosa going away and letting someone else manage the rest of the way. Can't trust this idiot with anything moving forward. 

P.S. MLB has taken down the clip on YouTube of DeRosa saying they advanced already. Glad that solves it. 

P.P.S. The Italy Mexico game on Wednesday can be found on Tubi, whatever the fuck that is