In a World Baseball Classic semifinal that looked more like an All‑Star Game than an international tournament matchup, Team USA edged the Dominican Republic 2-1 on Sunday night in Miami, punching a ticket to the WBC final on the strength of two solo homers and one very controversial called third strike. From first pitch to final out, it felt less like a typical international matchup and more like a late‑October showdown with everything on the line.
From the moment the lineups were posted, the talent level jumped off the page. Every player who started the game for both sides was a current major leaguer, drawing straight from the star‑studded 2026 Team USA roster and an equally loaded Dominican squad packed with MLB regulars. This wasn’t a Cinderella story — it was a collision of big‑league stars, with the WBC serving as a global stage for the best talent in the world.mlb+2
The Dominican Republic struck first in classic slugger fashion. Junior Caminero turned on a Paul Skenes pitch in the bottom of the second and launched a solo shot to left, giving the Dominican a 1-0 lead and briefly sending the pro‑DR crowd into a frenzy. Skenes, who came into the tournament as the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, bent but didn’t break, grinding through 4.1 innings and limiting the damage to that lone run against a lineup that reads like an All‑Star ballot.
Team USA’s answer came quickly and decisively in the top of the fourth when Gunnar Henderson opened the inning by drilling a solo homer to tie it, and a few batters later Roman Anthony followed with a solo blast of his own, instantly flipping a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 U.S. lead that would hold the rest of the night. What was billed as a slugfest between two loaded lineups ultimately came down to those three swings — Caminero’s early shot for the Dominican, and the back‑to‑back U.S. haymakers from two of the game’s brightest young hitters.
From there, the bullpens and gloves took over. The Dominican threatened multiple times, including a tense, bases‑loaded jam Skenes wriggled out of in the fourth before handing things over to a parade of U.S. relievers who lived on the edge but never broke. On the American side, a deep group of big‑league arms — capped by flamethrowing closer Mason Miller — kept the 2-1 margin intact, turning every baserunner into a full‑on event in the late innings.sports.
All of that set the stage for the at‑bat everyone will remember. In the bottom of the ninth, down 2-1 with two outs and a runner aboard, Dominican shortstop Geraldo Perdomo took a 3-2 pitch from Miller that multiple replay angles and plate‑zone graphics later showed was clearly below the strike zone, only to have it called strike three to end the game.
The last pitch instantly became another flashpoint in the debate over the human element versus technology. The WBC does not use an automated ball‑strike (ABS) system even though MLB is set to debut some form of ABS this season, leaving the Dominican side wondering how a tournament run could end on a pitch that replay made look so obviously low. Now the United States waits to see who they’ll face in the championship game Tuesday night: Italy or Venezuela, who meet tonight in the second semifinal at loanDepot park.
Italy brings with it one of the tournament’s defining results. An 8-6 shocker over Team USA in pool play that briefly had the Americans staring at an early exit. Venezuela counters with a deep, power‑heavy lineup that just bounced defending champion Japan 8-5, a result highlighted in multiple previews as a turning‑point win that showed Venezuela is more than capable of trading blows with anyone left in the field.
If Italy wins Monday night, the championship game becomes a made‑for‑TV redemption arc for Mark DeRosa. Last week, spoke as if Team USA had already clinched a quarterfinal spot before that pool game against Italy, a mistake that has been documented in detail by many sources. Hours later, Italy jumped out to that 8-0 lead and went on to win 8-6, forcing the U.S. to sweat tiebreaker scenarios and raising questions about whether DeRosa had truly treated that matchup like the must‑win it actually was. Since then, DeRosa has tried to clean it up publicly. In one interview, he said he misspoke and insisted he had a full grasp of the qualification rules despite how his comments sounded in the moment That’s why an Italy–USA final would be such a compelling stage.
Here’s the thing, folks: Beating Italy with the trophy on the line would give DeRosa a chance to prove that last week’s misstep was exactly what he says it was — an honest mistake, not disrespect or complacency — and that, when it truly is win‑or‑go‑home, his group of major leaguers can handle their business. However, if Venezuela wins against Italy, the narrative shifts to a different kind of heavyweight matchup: Team USA’s deep MLB roster against a Venezuelan team headlined by Ronald Acuña Jr. and fresh off knocking out the defending champs, the kind of finale that fits the way this entire tournament has gone so far.
With that.. Either way, after a tense, star‑studded 2-1 win over the Dominican that ended on a pitch the whole world is still debating, the United States has guaranteed that the last act of this WBC will be must‑watch baseball.
If you cannot play with them, then root for them.