MIAMI (AP) — Team USA’s celebration after beating the Dominican Republic on Sunday night in the World Baseball Classic semifinals was electric and brief.
NL Cy Young award winner Paul Skenes roared “Let’s go!” after the final out. Closer Mason Miller let out a yell and pointed toward the sky. Players and coaches embraced on the field.
Moments later, the smiles were gone and the message was clear: They’ve got more work to do.
“Got the job done. That’s it,” Miller said. “That’s all we’re here to do is do our job.”
The loaded U.S. team — led by Skenes and featuring stars Bryce Harper and Aaron Judge — outdueled the Dominican Republic 2-1 to reach its third straight WBC title game. The Americans won in 2017 and fell to Shohei Ohtani and Japan in 2023. They will face the winner the second semifinal Monday night between Italy and Venezuela in the title game Tuesday night.
Even though the Americans were favored to get back to the final, the run hasn’t been quite as dominant as expected.
A shocking loss to Italy in pool play left the Americans needing help to advance to the quarterfinals, where they beat Canada, but manager Mark DeRosa still believes his lineup has another gear to reach.
“I’m still waiting for our offense to explode,” he said. “But it’s tough to explode against a pitching staff like that”
The U.S. didn’t need an offensive outburst to beat a talented Dominican squad.
Junior Caminero gave the Dominicans a 1-0 lead in the second with the country’s tournament-record 15th home run, driving Skenes’ 1-2 sweeper 401 feet to left.
Gunnar Henderson, starting at third base over Alex Bregman, answered in the fourth with a tying solo shot off Luis Severino. Roman Anthony followed later with the go-ahead homer against loser Gregory Soto.
“I feel like we haven’t played our complete game yet,” Henderson said, “but we came through and battled each and every game, and I feel like that’s just a testament to the guys in this room.”
The Dominicans cruised through the early rounds and reached the semis for the first time since winning the WBC title in 2013.
They faced their biggest test of the tournament against Skenes (2-0), who gave up one run on six hits through 4 1/3 innings, and the U.S. bullpen, which combined for 4 2/3 innings of two-hit ball.
The Dominicans threatened in the ninth when Julio Rodríguez drew a walk and advanced to third against Miller. The closer secured a controversial final out against Geraldo Perdomo for his second save.
“I’m disappointed about the way the game (ended),” Dominican manager Albert Pujols said, “but I don’t want to criticize any of that. It just wasn’t meant to be for us.”
The matchup between the two star-studded lineups delivered plenty of big moments.
In the third, Judge fired a 95.7 mph laser from right field that allowed Henderson to tag out Fernando Tatis Jr. at third. After taking one of Skenes’ fastballs to the wrist, Rodríguez scaled the center-field wall to rob Judge of a home run in the top of the fifth. In the bottom half, shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. turned an impressive double play to get the Americans out of a jam.
“The WBC has this magnetic way of just growing the game of baseball,” DeRosa said. “I go back to the last time when Ohtani struck out Mike Trout, and baseball won that night. Whether we won or didn’t win, baseball won. I think baseball won again tonight.”
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