Team USA holds off Mexico in clash of unbeatens

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Get over.

U.S. hangs on 5-3.

From MLB.com.

This is the Morning Line of Podcast.

I'm your host, Will Leach.

This Tuesday March 10th and it is my job

on this year's podcast.

I tell you everything going on in baseball.

Ain't to do so in under 10 minutes.

We had ourselves a heck of a big game

involving Team USA and the World Baseball Classic last night.

But we had six other games happen as well.

I gotta tell you, I'm having so much fun with this tournament.

I think we need to maybe figure out a way to keep it going.

Maybe I don't know, have ever wins.

Take on the best team from Mars.

Mars probably has some good baseball players.

Let's go do some scouting.

As advertised, put not his nation's colors for the first time.

Seven Ks for Paul Schienes.

Schienes making his first appearance

for the U.S. team was predictably brilliant.

Striking out seven and giving up just one hit,

one walk in no runs,

and giving the United States just enough time

to start hitting.

Because after the first three of those shutout innings

in the bottom of the third,

little guy you might have heard of named Aaron Judge

walked to the plate with one on.

Guess what he did?

Storks on the other way.

Back towards the wall.

There it goes.

Aaron Judge strikes first for Team USA.

Opposite field power.

His second home run of this World Baseball Classic

in three games.

Two to nothing, USA.

Later in the inning, Roman Anthony,

who was literally two years old

the last time the United States beat Mexico

in the World Baseball Classic,

decided that two runs was just not enough for him.

He was going to give Schien some more support

for cried out loud.

This is Team USA.

Not Pittsburgh.

Took the game in.

Sense this ball on mile.

How forward it fly for Roman Anthony

off the face into the second deck.

Five to nothing, USA.

Americans holding on ultimately to beat Mexico.

Five to three to run the record.

The three and O in the World Baseball Classic

and all but assured their spot in the knockout round.

It was a particularly exciting game in large part

because the crowd in Houston was so split.

There were a lot of Mexico fans there.

I mean, listen to the sound the crowd makes

when Mexico's Jaren Durán

hit his second Homer of the game

in the eighth inning to cut the score to five to three.

Sense a fly ball deep to right field.

Durán's got his second bomb of the ball game.

Whew, it's pretty loud.

But in the end, they were no match

for the defensive Bobby Whit Jr.

who made two absolutely ridiculous plays

at shortstop for Team USA.

And definitely no match for Schienz.

Yeah, it makes it really easy to pitch.

You know, we're not running from contact.

The guys behind us can make,

can make, you know, really good plays.

Yeah, those were, I mean, Bobby's play.

That was one of the best plays I've ever seen.

After the break, we're going to break down

all the other pulls because we're kind of

in the home stretch of this thing.

America leads the world in medicine development.

It matters.

We get new medicines first nearly three years faster.

Five million Americans go to work

because we make medicines here at home

and not relying on other countries keeps us safe.

But China is racing to overtake us.

Will we let them?

Or will we choose to stay ahead?

When America leads, America cures.

Let's tell Washington to keep us in the lead.

Learn how at americacures.com.

Pay for by Farma.

All right, so after all that USA

Mexico business, you are now caught up

to speed on what's going on in pool B.

But there are three other pools.

And with four pivotal games on Tuesday

and three more on Wednesday before we take a day off

before the knockout stage,

let's take a look at where each pool stands.

Let's start with pool A.

It's fair to say Monday night was a pretty big one

for pool A, one that was roiled

by the surprise win by Panama over Canada on Sunday night.

The biggest game Monday thus featured

the two undefeated teams in the pool,

Puerto Rico, which beat Colombian Panama

and Cuba, which also beat Colombian Panama.

The winner was set to clinch a spot

in the quarterfinals.

Puerto Rico is famous for its catchers,

not least which their current manager, Yadier Molina.

So it's fitting that the big hit in their big game Monday night

came from one of their best catchers ever.

Martin Maldonado, who actually announced his retirement

from professional ball last October and is just back

for this World Baseball Classic,

came to the plate with the bases loaded

in the second inning.

The base line and fair, down into the quarter, it goes.

Rosario is in.

Rivera is in.

Here comes Melendez.

He will score.

That would end up being all the Puerto Rico

would need holding on for a four to one win.

It went over Canada on Tuesday.

It would make them 4-0 in the World Baseball Classic

and clinch them first place in pool A.

You gotta love those old catchers.

That leaves only Canada who despite that loss to Panama

has its destiny in front of itself, eh?

They'll play Puerto Rico Tuesday night on 2B, 7PM Eastern Time,

and Cuba on Wednesday afternoon, 3PM Eastern Time on FS2.

Win them both.

The cat is in good shape.

Lose them both.

They're done.

Win one, maybe.

You'll have to watch those games to find out.

All time.

12-1-5-D and go on again.

Because they won their first three games,

Japan has already advanced,

and in fact has won the pool outright before they presumably

cross-check you this morning.

Do I know for sure?

You haven't yelled in my face yet.

That admit that the pivotal game was Monday morning

between South Korea and Australia,

both of whom were jockeying along with Taipei

for that second spot.

Drives one.

Cross to deep right field,

and Mon has locked the building again.

So South Korea actually won,

but that's not really what mattered.

Bo Young-moon hit a two-run homer,

which gave South Korea a lead that they would not relinquish,

but it turned out the biggest hit was a sacrifice fly.

In the top of the ninth,

Jungmin on, with runners-on first and third

after Jared Dale Error, did this.

Junghuliet first, first pitch,

fly ball, right center field,

right field, has the catch.

Here's the thrill, park and fly.

He say, 7-2 Korea.

I gotta tell ya, that is just about as exciting

as a sacrifice fly in the ninth inning

of a 7-2 game can possibly be.

Why?

Because that 7-2 margin, a five-run win,

was the score that South Korea needed

to advance out of a three-way tie

with Australia and Taipei as the second team

to advance from pool C.

Had that sack fly not happen,

Australia would have advanced.

But it did happen.

You just heard it.

So Australia's world baseball classic

is over, and South Korea moves on.

Along with Japan, congrats,

and that last pool D.

You know what, we actually already know

who's advancing out of pool D too.

That's kind of handy.

First off, you know how you thought

heading into the world baseball classic

that the Dominican lineup was really, really awesome?

You know, you were right.

One and two.

And that's it deep to left,

and it's gonna blow the roof right off!

Brand slam to the tee!

That was Fernando Tatee's junior

hitting the first grand slam

in the Dominican Republic's history

of the world baseball classic.

And Brian Bios struck out seven

and gave up just one hit in five innings

as the Dominican Republic stomped Israel into one.

The win secured the DR's trip to the quarter-finals.

They round you may remember,

they did not reach in the 2023 world baseball classic.

They're back now, and they're back dominantly.

They won their first three games

by a combined score of 34 to 5.

Mandra Albert Pools, he knows his team is stacked.

Of course he would, he's Albert Pools!

Everybody, our country is waiting for us

to win this tournament.

It's not gonna be easy, you know.

This is just giving us the pass to the next round,

but still, you know, we're gonna be ready

and we're gonna stay focused,

and that's how we've been doing it

for the last week or so that we've been together.

And, you know, our mission is not over.

But the Dominican still has one more game to go,

and it's a big one.

They'll play Venezuela,

which beat Nicaragua forwarded nothing on Monday night,

and has also already qualified for the quarters,

on Wednesday at 8 p.m. Eastern time on FS1 in Miami.

Shout out to Dusty Baker, by the way,

Nicaragua's manager, they're eliminated,

and he may have just managed his last game.

I love you Dusty.

Anyway, the winner between Villa's Whalen and Dominican

wins the pool and will play South Korea,

the loser will finish second,

and has to face the Fending Champion Japan.

Remember the game Wednesday is in Miami,

it is fair to say,

should be a pretty raucous atmosphere.

Oh, I almost forgot.

I can't wrap up this podcast without shouting out

a great Britain victory.

The Brits knocked around Brazil 8-1 on Monday afternoon,

and even though that was not in fact enough

to advance them to the quarterfinals of this year's tournament,

it does automatically qualify them for the next World Baseball Classic.

Way to go, great Britain.

You were cheeky blighters on those bases.

You've earned a proper knees up.

So yeah, we only have two more days of pool play left.

We are almost at the end of this.

It makes me really sad.

That's all for today's Morning Wine of Podcast.

Thank you for listening.

Please be sure to give us a rating and a view

until everyone you know about this podcast.

AJ Casabell will be with you on Wednesday morning.

I will, Leach, will be back with you on Thursday morning,

roughly 48 hours from now.

This World Baseball Classic is a blast,

and I'm just realizing that's what they're referring to

when they say March Madness, right?

This is the March Madness business that they're always talking about,

but this is what they're always talking about, right?

It's gotta be.

Two teams, one cup.

The Primetime Stage is set for the TGL presented by SoFi Finals,

Los Angeles Golf Club versus Tigers Jupiter Links.

Keep up, it's playoffs.

Tune in Monday, March 23rd, 9pm Eastern on ESPN2,

and Tuesday, March 24th, 7pm Eastern on ESPN,

and on the ESPN app.