Mexico entered Sunday night's heavily anticipated game against USA with an 0-1 record in pool play thanks to an upset loss to Colombia. It wasn't necessarily a must-win game for Mexico, but the team sure played like it in dominating Team USA, 11-5. Sometimes a lopsided score can be misleading and we'll say something like "it was closer than it looked." That wasn't the case here. Mexico dominated USA in every facet, and, if anything, USA's late, last-gasp rally made it look much closer than it was through the rest of the game.
It was nearly a mercy rule situation, with Mexico running its lead to nine in the eighth inning and having two more runners on base before the inning ended.
Let's take a look at how it went down.
Chase Field was full and rocking
The game was played in Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, in Phoenix, AZ. It was a capacity crowd of 47,534 as most of the crowd was pulling for Mexico. On the big moments for Mexico, of which there were many, the crowd was very loud. We'll call it raucous.
Meneses plays star
Joey Meneses of the Nationals debuted last season in the majors at age 30 after 10 seasons in the minors. In 56 games, he hit .324/.367/.563 (165 OPS+) with 14 doubles and 13 home runs in 222 at-bats. He was one of the more fun stories of the season, especially in a lost year for the Nationals.
Sunday, he announced his presence with authority to an international audience. Meneses hit a two-run homer in the first inning:
He then hit a three-run homer in the fourth inning to totally break the game open:
He also singled and scored in between the homers. Meneses wasn't the only offensive star for Mexico, as Rowdy Tellez was 3 for 5 with two RBI and Randy Arozarena was 3 for 5 with three runs and two RBI. Still, Meneses was hearing "MVP" chants from the pro-Mexico fans on hand in Chase Field. It was quite a performance.
Overall, Mexico outhit USA 15 to 8. Mexico had six hits with runners in scoring position while USA only had six at-bats with runners in scoring position and four of those came in the eighth inning after it was 11-2.
Mexico pitchers stifle USA offense for seven
USA managed just two runs on four hits through seven innings. Kyle Tucker tripled and then scored on a Tim Anderson single in the second, Mike Trout's leadoff single was wasted in the sixth and Will Smith hit a solo home run in the seventh. Those were the four USA hits through seven innings. By the time USA hit in the eighth, it was trailing by nine runs.
Credit the Mexico pitching staff. Starter Patrick Sandoval allowed just two hits in his three innings of work, but the star on the mound was Javier Assad. The 25-year-old righty appeared in nine games for the Cubs last season, pitching to a 3.11 ERA (133 ERA+). He was brilliant in this one, pumping his velocity to the 97 range. He allowed just one hit in three scoreless innings, striking out two without issuing a walk.
Now, USA did mount a rally in the eighth inning, getting three runs to make the game look much closer than it should have. Bobby Witt had an RBI double and then Anderson drove home two with a double of his own before the thread was ended.
The USA defense was shaky
There weren't any charged errors to USA, but there were several plays where a tightened-up USA defense would have made a difference. Arozarena led off the game with an infield single, but Anderson bobbled the ball at shortstop before making the throw to first base. Mexico scored on three straight singles in the third inning, but every single one touched a US glove. Nolan Arenado got handcuffed on a hard grounder, Jeff McNeil couldn't haul in a blooper, and then Paul Goldschmidt couldn't handle McNeil's rushed and bounced throw to first base that could have ended the inning without a run scoring.
There was also some catcher-on-catcher (and teammate-on-teammate) crime. Austin Barnes, Smith's backup on the Dodgers, stole second for Mexico with Smith behind the plate for USA.
This loss could cost USA
If USA ends in a tiebreaker situation after pool play, the tiebreakers are heavy on runs allowed and earned runs allowed. USA pitching giving up so many runs has the chance to haunt USA in the coming days. The culprits:
- Starter Nick Martinez allowed three runs in 2 2/3 innings.
- Brady Singer coughed up four runs in two innings.
- Daniel Bard gave up four runs in just 2/3 of an inning.
USA has never been eliminated in the pool-play round of the World Baseball Classic. Right now, USA and Mexico are both 1-1 while Colombia and Canada are 1-0 and Great Britain is 0-2.