Author: rincon

DAIKIN PARK (Houston) – Months before he was distributing espresso shots and cheek-kisses to home-run hitters in the dugout and handing out bottles of wine to the players on the best team in Italy’s baseball history, Vinnie Pasquantino was bored on Thanksgiving. 

So, the country’s best baseball recruiter used the holiday to reach out to prospective players, as he had done for much of the year after committing to the team for the World Baseball Classic in early 2025. 

“It was kind of messed up thinking about it, but… I didn’t have a whole lot going on, and I was like, ‘Oh, this would be a good day to hit everybody’s Instagram DMs,’” Pasquantino recalled to reporters.  “So, there was a lot of DM’ing that day. That’s when the WhatsApp was created for the group. It’s been a lot of fun trying to help create this team.”

The seeds were being planted for what would become the WBC’s improbable juggernaut, a group consisting primarily of prospects and novice MLB players who quickly blossomed into the tournament’s success story by stunning much more experienced and decorated rosters along the way with their own distinctive panache. 

The Italians left the best U.S. roster ever assembled dumbfounded in an upset victory on Tuesday. One night later, they bulldozed a Mexico squad that nearly made it to the WBC finals three years ago. That capped the Azzurri’s perfect 4-0 start to the competition to win Pool B and advance to the quarterfinals. 

“I’m, like, weirdly emotional tonight, to the point I’m thinking about crying,” Pasquantino said in his postgame press conference after his three-homer performance over Mexico helped send Italy through to the next round, “which is funny for a tournament in March.”

Really, though, this represented so much more than normal March baseball for the team’s captain, who was so moved by his experience playing for Italy in 2023 — and his trip to the country before that WBC — that he spent the better part of the last year doing whatever he could to help the Italian Baseball Federation field the best roster imaginable for this tournament. The near-catharsis was the culmination of all the effort that led into Wednesday night. 

“I committed in what would have been spring of last year, right at the beginning of spring training, letting them know that I was in,” Pasquantino told me before Italy’s win over Mexico. “From there, it was, ‘All right, who do we need to go get? Send me phone numbers. I’ll make cold calls, whatever I need to do.”

After receiving a target list of players to call from Italy’s coaches and staff, the Royals’ gregarious first baseman hit the recruiting trail. 

“I think they know I have a bigger personality, so it was more from their end, ‘If we really need a guy, will you call him?'” Pasquantino explained. “And I think from my end, it was like, ‘Why don’t I just call everybody?’”

“I think he reached out to everyone,” Italy infielder Andrew Fischer confirmed. “He took this team by the reins, brought us together.”

“You’ve got to find out who’s eligible and things like that,” Pasquantino added, “but once we were able to find out different things about guys, that’s when the phone calls really started.” 

Some pitches, like the one to Pasquantino’s Royals teammate Jac Caglianone, were easier than others. Others fell short, like the one to Red Sox standout Roman Anthony. Pasquantino had a conversation with the 21-year-old talent, but it never got far. Anthony told me he had no plans to participate for any team in the World Baseball Classic, and was set on staying in Boston’s camp, until USA manager Mark DeRosa called. His Red Sox manager, Alex Cora, thought that was an opportunity he wouldn’t want to miss.

In other cases, Pasquantino’s perseverance paid off. He pestered veteran pitcher Michael Lorenzen about joining the squad for years.  

“When Vinnie asked me if I wanted to play, I did tell him I would only do it if I was a two-way player,” Lorenzen said.

That hasn’t happened, at least yet. For now, Italy is just happy to see Lorenzen thriving on the mound, where the veteran MLB pitcher blanked USA’s star-studded lineup for 4.2 scoreless innings in the upset victory that Italy manager Francisco Cervelli described as one of the best days of his life. 

“Everybody in Italy should see this,” Cervelli said. “We’re doing it for them, for the kids. It can happen. It’s possible.”

Anthony was in the losing dugout of that Italy win, one that threatened to end USA’s run before it could ever really get going. Maybe it ends up being a catalyst for Team USA, which is still fully capable of avenging its 2023 finals defeat and going all the way, thanks to Italy’s win against Mexico on Wednesday. 

To this point, though, it’s been Italy having all the fun. 

“It’s unbelievable how close this group has gotten in such a quick timeframe,” said MLB veteran Jon Berti, who played for the Cubs last season. “Vinnie gets a huge credit for that. He set the tone early for us. He’s an awesome leader, very fun to be around and kind of drew everybody in and together.”

Pasquantino was also responsible for the professional manner in which Italy handled the biggest baseball win in its country’s history. 

In the aftermath of avenging a 2023 loss to Mexico, Team USA stayed back hours after the win sharing stories and sipping drinks together in the clubhouse. 

“There’s some guys dragging today,” DeRosa explained to reporters the following day, hours before suffering one of the most surprising defeats in WBC history against an unafraid, unyielding, undefeated Italy squad. 

Pasquantino knew that a 3-0 start wouldn’t mean much if Italy turned around and had a similar letdown the next day against Mexico. So after the win against Team USA, he told his group that once midnight hit, it was time to turn the page. 

“We had a good time in there,” Pasquantino told me, “but nobody’s dragging over here today.” 

The results of a 9-1 win against Mexico backed that up. 

‘This Team Might Be Different’

Three years ago, Pasquantino was part of an Italy roster that advanced out of WBC pool play without hitting a single home run. This time — an example of the strides the country has taken since then — it has already launched 12. 

Italy’s offense ranks second in the tournament in both home runs and OPS, despite lacking the established MLB talent that other rosters possess. It does, however, have the best arms it has ever taken to the tournament in Lorenzen and Aaron Nola, a plethora of intriguing young MLB talents in Pasquantino, Caglianone, White Sox catcher Kyle Teel, Marlins outfielder Jakob Marsee and Mariners outfielder Dominic Canzone and promising prospects in Fischer, Aldegheri, Dante Nori and Sam Antonacci. 

Pasquantino knew for Italy to succeed, he had to foster the right environment for the youthful group to feel comfortable. 

Quickly, he noticed the unusual confidence the team’s recent draft picks already possessed. 

“The first day we had a workout, Andrew Fischer talked a bunch of crap about the music I was playing,” Pasquantino said, “and I was like, ‘All right, you take it.’ I was just playing simple EDM music. But that’s when I kind of knew, all right, this team might be kind of different.

“These guys just aren’t scared, and that’s the coolest part, and that’s where I feel like it’s my job to let them know, like, yeah you shouldn’t be scared, this is what you should be doing, having a good time, having a blast, playing with your chest out.”

Their fearlessness has been evident throughout the tournament. 

Aldeghiri, a 24-year-old Angels prospect, threw 4.2 scoreless innings in his lone start. Nori, a 2024 first-round pick of the Phillies, is 6-for-12 with two homers. Antonacci, one of the top position player prospects for the White Sox, has two extra-base hits. And Fischer, a first-round pick of the Brewers last year and the Energizer bunny personified, is 3-for-8 with a home run. 

“My personality, sometimes, is not really easy to work with,” Fischer told me. “I’m an extrovert. I’m from Jersey. I don’t really care a lot of the time what some guys think of me…but I just come in with a very loud personality, and fortunately enough, they took me in with open arms. 

“Vinnie’s done a great job kind of taming me back but also letting me be myself,” Fischer continued. “There’s been times I wasn’t sure how he’d react, and I see he has my back, and I feel very good about it, and other times that I’m not sure how he would react and he puts me in my place, and I respect him because he’s been in the game a long time. So, he’s a great leader, great captain.”

‘I Wish My Grandfather Was Still Around’ 

Even when Pasquantino started the tournament 0-for-12, Antonacci described the captain as the team MVP because of the way he made his teammates feel so comfortable. 

The slow start offensively did bother Pasquantino, who told Cervelli he would understand if he got dropped from the clean-up spot in the order, but he also knew the value he was providing outside the batter’s box. 

“I’ve been dog s— at the plate,” he said Wednesday afternoon, before his breakout performance. “I’m not hiding from that. It doesn’t feel the best right now. But… what I see the captaincy being, it’s not about performance in my opinion, it’s about what you can bring to the team. I know these guys are looking to me for mostly offense, which I haven’t been able to provide, but showing them, like, ‘Look, guys, it’s not going well for me right now, that doesn’t mean it can’t go well for the team. That’s what this game’s all about. 

“I’m not going to have it every night, and I haven’t had it the first three games. It doesn’t mean I won’t have it tonight.”

On Wednesday against Mexico, he found it. 

In his first at-bat, he snapped his skid with a solo homer to start the scoring. Then came another in the sixth, and another in the eighth, all pulled out to right field at Daikin Park. Three homers meant three espresso shots awaiting in the dugout. Finally, he was downing the coffee and not just handing it out. It was the first time at any level of baseball that Pasquantino could remember homering three times in a game. 

“The Hall of Fame reached out,” Pasquantino said. “It’s the first time they’ve ever reached out for something of mine. … They liked the bat. I said, ‘I need the bat for a few more days.’” 

One day, Pasquantino’s goal is for Italy’s roster to be composed of actual Italy natives. There are only three on the roster in pitchers Aldegheri, Gabriele Quattrini and Claudio Scotti. 

For now, though, the focus is on growing the game in the country and showing kids in Italy what is possible. And the best way to do that is by winning games with this group of primarily Italian-Americans. 

It seems to be working. 

“Someone sent me a clip. [Italy’s] prime minister gave us a little bit of a shout-out this morning,” said Berti, an eight-year MLB veteran who grew up in Michigan. “I wish my grandfather was still around. He would be loving this.”
 

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George M. Steinbrenner Field (Tampa) – Brian Cashman walked into his office at the spring training facility for the New York Yankees and pulled up a TikTok video on his iPad. He had already seen this video but thought it was funny enough to watch it again.

The team’s general manager laughed as the clip showed two men arguing with each other, before one of them threw his Big Gulp cup at a car. The liquid from the cup smothered the car windows, the men continued yelling, and the video ended.

Watching inherently silly TikTok videos is “a nice diversion from the noise,” Cashman told me when we sat down in his office to discuss what it’s like being the longest-tenured GM in Major League Baseball. 

When he’s not scrolling, he’s busy building a championship-caliber roster, modernizing the organization with wide-ranging changes, and fine-tuning his baseball operations department.

The noise, in this case, is a relentless stream of criticism and title expectations. Cashman, too, said he has a ticking clock in his head, reminding him that the Yankees haven’t won a championship since 2009. Due to that drought, criticism of Cashman has become as predictable as October in the Bronx. Every roster decision by the Yankees GM is dissected. Every postseason exit is used as evidence that the architect of baseball’s most successful and scrutinized franchise has lost his touch.

Debate around Cashman has played out forcefully in New York. He’s anatomized on talk radio, across social media, and in the stands at Yankee Stadium. The argument is familiar: the Yankees should win more and spend more, and they should think differently. Cashman hears it all, even when he’s no longer trying to, even if he barely responds anymore. What the public sees, though, is only part of the story.

“I’m pretty simple,” Cashman said. “The reason we’re able to adjust and change is because I am very open-minded, and I challenge our staff to be the same way. If someone’s doing something better than we are, we have to figure that out as fast as we possibly can, and then adapt and adjust and grow because of it.”

Inside the organization’s walls and across major-league front offices, Cashman is revered as a brilliant executive who has survived multiple baseball eras and worked under two different ownership styles with aplomb.

“It is next to impossible to have the longevity he’s had for any team,” Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said. “To do it in New York makes it kind of unthinkable in this day and age. I think it speaks to his talent. I think it speaks to his leadership capabilities. It has to speak to his ability to compartmentalize and focus on what is important to do his job, and he’s done it incredibly successfully. Whenever he decides he’s had enough, we’ll all be celebrating in Cooperstown shortly thereafter.”

Cashman started as a Yankees intern in 1986 in the minor-league scouting department. After he graduated from college, the team offered him a full-time job as a baseball operations assistant. Back then, analytics departments were tiny, sports science barely existed, and the game’s most famous franchise operated largely on instinct and tradition. Cashman took over as general manager in 1998 and has overseen four World Series titles and 23 postseason appearances.

Since then, the Yankees have produced a winning record for 33 consecutive seasons, second longest in MLB history behind the team’s 39-season streak from 1926-1964. Cashman believes everything from the aesthetics of the Yankees clubhouse to the recent renovations inside the spring training facilities to the tireless work of his staff has played a significant part in making the organization a well-oiled winning machine. Plus, he’s constantly drawing inspiration from other marquee sport franchises.

​”It’s not like I can intimately get behind the scenes of the Cincinnati Reds and see what they’re doing,” Cashman said. “But I can do that with the University of Kentucky. I can do that with the New York Giants or the Brooklyn Nets or Alabama football or, the New Zealand All Blacks or Manchester City or Arsenal or what have you. We can do that with a lot of different other environments or even businesses that aren’t sports related, and we try to engage and find out what drives their culture.

“How do they manage their processes and why? And if they’re successful, why? Is it just because they have great leadership? Is it because they got lucky? Is it because they rely on certain core principles?”

Cashman’s Constant Change: Key To Success?

Twenty or thirty years ago, Cashman struck up a conversation with a bartender at a Ritz-Carlton during a Yankees road trip and learned about their official Code of Conduct, a sheet of paper that every employee had to carry in their pocket at all times. It outlined ethical and behavioral guidelines for all employees of the luxury hotel brand, including management. Cashman doesn’t remember if he took a picture of the sheet or the bartender gave him a copy of one, but he took it home to study it. He found ways to embody those guidelines as a part of his own leadership styles.

Through the years, Cashman has developed relationships with various sports executives, everyone from the Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Julien Brisebois to the Philadelphia Eagles GM Howie Roseman. They send each other articles on leadership and exchange ideas on how to improve. Cashman is still curious about outside ideas and finds ways to incorporate them into his baseball operations. Sometimes, that inspiration arrives in unusual ways.

Recently, he went down an escalator at the newly renovated LaGuardia Airport and snapped photos of a design he liked. He shared it with his staff and Yankee Stadium operations, and they worked to incorporate the design into the ballpark.

“Brian has tried to keep the Yankees more relevant and more current and modern,” former Yankees manager Buck Showalter told me. “And, all the while, he doesn’t take himself too seriously. I got a lot of respect for him, he started on the ground level and worked his way up.”

Cashman learned from Showalter that altering the atmosphere in little and big ways prevents the environment from becoming stale. He believes part of the reason the Yankees went to the World Series in 2024 is because of the renovations he helped initiate at their Tampa facility that year.

Cashman said that those multimillion-dollar upgrades, including a health and wellness center, extended batting cages, and a player lounge, compelled players to spend more time at the ballpark. His incessant hunt for fresh changes and ideas are all designed to help the on-field product produce more wins and have fun doing it. Netflix recently shared its company values with the public, and Cashman absorbed it like a sponge.

“Constantly trying to change and remake yourself is important,” Cashman said. “I just want to find out what’s underneath the hood and what makes somebody or some company or some sports entity tick. And if they’re having success, there are reasons behind it.”

Micro-Manager? ‘I’m The Opposite’

The public perception is that Cashman is stubborn. The fanbase’s disapproval of him reached an all-time intensity after the 2023 season, when the Yankees missed the playoffs and came under fire for their analytical approach. Cashman was on way to the annual GM Meetings that offseason when Yankees media relations tried to warn him about the brutal line of questioning headed his way. The heat was going to be turned all the way up, but Cashman wasn’t interested in mincing his words.

In a lengthy scrum with the media, Cashman defended his front office in a curse-laden rebuttal of the perception that the Yankees should clean house because their baseball ops had become ineffective. The GM, criticized for protecting manager Aaron Boone and the rest of his coaches, analytics and player development staff, believes the negative public perception and the internal success of his baseball ops is worlds apart. The following season, the Yankees went to the World Series. He doesn’t regret a single word he said in that infamous scrum.

“I’m definitely not a micro-manager,” Cashman told me. “I’m the opposite. I am someone that will hire people I consider smarter than me and that have expertise in that area. And then I empower you to do your job. I will support you every step of the way, including in that scrum, defending you to the hilt, because you still might not be on top. But if you’ve done everything you possibly could do, and you’re really good at what you do, then I’m gonna have your back no matter what.”

Part of the reason that eruption from Cashman went viral was because he doesn’t say much these days. He also doesn’t read or listen to what people are saying about him. He doesn’t have social media on his phone anymore, besides TikTok. It’s a complete reversal of how he used to start his days, by returning calls from reporters and appearing on the field pregame to answer any questions and divulge his processes. In recent years, the GM has learned that explaining decisions rarely quiets criticism. It only fuels it.

“The media coverage is completely different,” Cashman said. “To the point where now, I’m very reclusive.”

While the debate about the Yankees’ direction continues outside, Cashman has increasingly stepped back from the conversation, focusing instead on the work inside the organization he has spent nearly three decades shaping. That’s not to say he’s at peace with the fan base’s perception of him. He knows a large segment of Yankees fans are frustrated that Cashman is running back the same roster this year as the one they ended with last season.

“Stuff like that bothers me,” he said. After all, last year’s team tied the Toronto Blue Jays for the best record in the American League East before it lost to the Blue Jays in the AL Division Series. Plus, ace Gerrit Cole will return from injury this year. So it won’t be the same team as last season, he said. People are getting that wrong.

Why, then, doesn’t he speak up more?

“I’ve learned over the course of time, it doesn’t matter what you say,” Cashman said. “What do you do? I can try to fight like Don Quixote with the windmills out there and all those battles all the time. But is that a really efficient use of my time?

“Like at the end of the day, I know all that’s going to matter is if we’re winning games. And even when we are winning games, it still won’t matter. Because there’s a lot of narratives out there that just aren’t the case. Like, to this day, I’m definitely frustrated with the one narrative that the manager is the puppet and we’re dictating his moves. None of it’s true.”

Cashman has tried to refute a long-believed narrative that Boone doesn’t make any decisions, including lineup construction and in-game bullpen management, and that the GM maps out a game plan for the manager ahead of time. For years, he’s seen his comments get pulled apart, misinterpreted and weaponized. Cashman realized it was unhealthy for him to spend time fighting battles against false narratives. So he stopped, for the most part.

“I’d rather people be right,” he said. “But I’ve gotten to a level, too, where it’s almost like I accept it. I can’t change people’s minds. They want to believe what they want to believe no matter what. It’s like politics and conspiracy theories. You can try to prove it scientifically, prove it with people testifying under oath or like, I can roll out former managers, you can ask those guys. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t mean anything. People still say it. So it’s like, well, then what am I going to do?”

Boone On His Admiration for Cashman

Boone, sitting in his desk chair in his office at George M. Steinbrenner Field, leaned back and smiled as he recounted day-to-day instances of Cashman being a “practical joker.”

One time, Boone was upset about something, and Cashman called the manager’s office phone and disguised his voice. Other times, he’s carried in his pocket some paper snappers, which produce a loud exploding pop when thrown, to mess with people.

“​​He takes something that happens in our day-to-day, something serious, and he’ll lean into it and make it humorous,” Boone said.

“But what I really admire about him is his consistency. He’s funny, but ​​he’s willing to have any difficult conversation and hold people to the fire. To do it with the excellence he’s done, for as long as he’s done it, it’s remarkable. It takes a very special talent, evaluator, and vision to have that sustained excellence. Even though we haven’t won, he’s putting together a championship-caliber program all the time. I think he’s a Hall of Famer.”

There is no job in baseball where success is defined so narrowly as the one Cashman holds with the Yankees. In most cities, consistent playoff appearances would be celebrated. In the Bronx, trips to October are treated as disappointments without, at the very least, a World Series appearance. That dynamic has made Cashman one of the most criticized executives in the sport — and one of the longest tenured.

Cashman’s tenure is defined by a remarkable absence of losing seasons, a high level of sustained success, a lengthy championship drought and a heavy dose of frustration. It’s complicated. He finds it excruciatingly difficult to reflect on his career, particularly because he’s not done. He wants to change the narrative, and he knows the only way to do that is by winning.

“Reggie Jackson was one of the most prolific home run hitters of all time,” Cashman said. “But he was also one of the most prolific strikeout leaders of all time. As the game is playing out, he might’ve had three strikeouts his first three at-bats. But he could always change the narrative with one swing.

“So, I’m still swinging.”

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HOUSTON — Buongiorno, buon pomeriggio, buonanotte.

One night after upsetting Team USA for the biggest victory in Italy baseball history, there was no letdown Wednesday for Italy (4-0) as it finished off a remarkable undefeated run to win Pool B and — finally, officially — help punch USA’s (3-1) ticket to the quarterfinals by beating and eliminating Mexico. 

Here are my takeaway’s from Italy’s 9-1 win over Mexico.

1. Undefeated Italy is the story of this tournament

Italy made noise in the last World Baseball Classic, securing wins against Cuba and the Netherlands in pool play to get to the quarterfinals for the second time in the nation’s history. The Italians advanced that year despite not hitting a single home run until the quarterfinals. 

This time, an entirely different, more superior, more complete, more overpowering version of Italian baseball has taken the WBC by storm, following wins against Brazil and Great Britain by upsetting USA’s best roster ever on Tuesday and annihilating a Mexico team that nearly made it to the WBC finals three years ago on Wednesday. 

A youthful, exuberant, confident Team Italy lineup launched 12 home runs during pool play, the second-most of any team in the tournament, trailing only a Dominican Republic roster teeming with MLB superstars, and looked unintimidated by some of the sport’s best arms. The rotation, featuring MLB veterans Aaron Nola and Michael Lorenzen at the top, combined to tally a 1.00 ERA over four games. 

The end result: a spectacular juggernaut that outscored its pool-play opponents by 21 runs and deservedly captured a pool that most thought unconquerable. 

2. Italy saves USA’s pancetta

All Team USA had to do on Tuesday was beat Italy to secure its spot in the WBC quarterfinals. Instead, the Italy offense teed off to take an early 8-0 lead and held on late, putting USA’s dream team in a precarious position. 

If Italy didn’t beat Mexico, or if Mexico won while scoring four runs or fewer, the U.S. would have been eliminated. It would have been an embarrassing catastrophe. 

Instead, thanks to Italy’s work on Wednesday, USA’s shocking pool-play defeat might now just be a footnote in its 2026 WBC journey. 

3. Pasquantino breaks out to make WBC homer history

Vinnie Pasquantino, who participated in the 2023 WBC and has spent much of the last year helping recruit players to the 2026 squad, is the captain, heart and soul of Team Italy. Even when he wasn’t producing offensively — he was hitless through the first three games of the tournament — teammates gushed about his defense, his leadership and his ability to make players around him feel comfortable. 

“That’s what I see the captaincy being,” Pasquantino told me before Wednesday’s game. “It’s not about performance, in my opinion, it’s about what you can bring to the team. And I know these guys are looking to me for mostly offense, which I haven’t been able to provide, but showing them, like, ‘Look, guys, it’s not going well for me right now, that doesn’t mean it can’t go well for the team.’ That’s what this game’s all about.”

On Wednesday, though, he brought more than good vibes.

After an 0-for-12 start to the tournament, Pasquantino started the scoring Wednesday with a solo shot off Javier Assad on his first at-bat of the game. Two at-bats later, the Royals slugger added his second home run of the night, a positive sign going forward for an Italy team that had gotten to this point without its best hitter producing. 

And he still wasn’t done. 

In the eighth, Pasquantino launched his third home run of the game, becoming the first player in WBC history to accomplish the feat. 

4. Nola helps out his Phillies sluggers 

Aaron Nola’s Phillies teammates, USA sluggers Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber, might need to send him a gift basket. 

Beyond the young talent throughout the lineup, what separated this Italy team from past iterations — and what made it such an interesting sleeper in the tournament — was the presence of the best arm it had ever taken into the WBC. 

On Wednesday, Nola lived up to the billing as the team’s ace, following Michael Lorenzen’s 4.2 scoreless innings of work against Team USA by delivering five scoreless frames against Mexico. 

4 ½. What’s next? 

The stage is now set for the quarterfinals in Houston, with the USA and Canada playing Friday at 7 p.m. CT and Italy facing Puerto Rico on Saturday at 2 p.m. CT.

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It came down to the wire, but Team USA is moving on.

With Italy‘s 9-1 win over Mexico in the final game of Pool B play, the United States has advanced to the quarterfinal round of the 2026 World Baseball Classic as the group’s runner-up. Italy will take on Puerto Rico, runners-up of Pool A, on Friday in Houston (8 p.m. on FOX).

Team USA will now play Pool A winners Canada on Saturday in the quarterfinals in Houston (3 p.m. on FS1). 

The United States went 3-1 in pool play, defeating Brazil (15-5), Great Britain (9-1) and Mexico (5-3) but losing to Italy (8-6).

Mexico finishes in third place in Pool B at 2-2, followed by Great Britain (1-3) and Brazil (0-4).

As for individual USA pool play standouts, Boston Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony drove in six runs, while posting a .333/.474/.533 slash line; Chicago Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong hit two home runs against Italy on Tuesday night; Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber had a USA-high six hits, one of them being a home run, while posting a .375/.500/.563 slash line; Baltimore Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson hit .500.

Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Paul Skenes pitched four scoreless innings, while striking out seven batters and surrendering just two baserunners against Mexico; San Francisco Giants right-hander Logan Webb surrendered just one run and one baserunner across four innings against Brazil, while striking out six batters.

Team USA lost to Japan in the 2023 WBC Championship and last won the World Baseball Classic in 2017.

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