Team USA’s win certainly stirred up some debate.
On Sunday night at Lawn Depot Park, the U.S. edged out the Dominican Republic with a score of 2-1, securing a place in the World Baseball Classic championship. However, tensions flared when a controversial strike was called during the final moments of the game.
As American pitcher Mason Miller delivered a critical 3-2 pitch, it was clearly outside the strike zone, but home plate umpire Corey Blazer surprisingly called it strike three, thus ending the game. Dominican batter Gerardo Perdomo was visibly upset, throwing his hands up in confusion as he learned of the ruling while a teammate was at third base.
It’s worth noting that the MLB’s automated ball-strike (ABS) system, which allows for challenges on such calls, is not in use for the World Baseball Classic.
Broadcasts from Fox Sports indicated that the pitch was indeed outside, corroborated by MLB’s Statcast, which showed it well below the strike zone.
Former major league pitcher John Schmaltz commented during the broadcast, saying, “That slider was down in the zone. One team reacted; the other team was just stunned.”
Commentator Joe Davis added his thoughts: “I’m thinking, ‘We don’t have ABS yet? We can’t really try that?'” He also pondered what might have happened had Fernando Tatis Jr. been positioned to bat next.
But this wasn’t the only contentious call. In the eighth inning, three strikes were called on Juan Soto that were also outside the strike zone, as highlighted by Statcast.
Alex Rodriguez expressed his thoughts on FOX’s postgame show, stating, “You don’t want a game this big to end with a pitch that wasn’t a strike.”
Derek Jeter echoed this sentiment, suggesting likely changes regarding the ABS system for future WBC events by remarking, “Well, you can almost guarantee they’ll have an ABS challenge system in the next WBC, right?”
Looking ahead, the United States is set to face the winner of the upcoming matchup between Italy and Venezuela in Tuesday’s championship game.
In this semifinal bout, the U.S. had to rally after initially falling behind 1-0, scoring two runs in the fourth inning to turn things around.
Gunnar Henderson started the comeback with a solo home run, leveling the score at 1-1, followed shortly by Roman Anthony, who added another solo shot to give the Americans the lead.
