Suffice to say, New York Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns is not a fan of the way Dominican Republic bowed out of the 2026 World Baseball Classic.
The Dominican Republic appeared to be shortchanged by the home plate umpire, who proceeded to call two questionable third strikes on Juan Soto and Geraldo Perdomo — with Perdomo's at-bat being the last of the game — en route to a 2-1 win for Team USA, who are now headed to the WBC final.
After the game, the Knicks star, who has represented Dominican Republic in FIBA competition, expressed his disagreement over the way his home country was knocked out of the WBC in animated fashion
“Hell yeah, that was a ball, man! That was some bulls**t. They should have had a chance. They had Tatis Jr. coming up. Come on, man,” Towns told reporters, via Knicks Videos on SNY on X (formerly Twitter).
The pitch data on MLB Gameday says it all. Joey Mistretta, lead MLB reporter for ClutchPoints, made note of this by showing how far down the strike zone the strike three call against Perdomo was.
I am happy Team USA got the win, but this is a horrible way to end the game pic.twitter.com/YNDI8ITHCc
— Joey Mistretta (@JoeyMistretta_) March 16, 2026
It's difficult for a neutral observer to say that the Knicks star isn't justified in his view of what happened to Dominican Republic in the semifinal of the 2026 World Baseball Classic.
Dominican Republic's stacked lineup gets shut down by Team USA
While the questionable strike three calls will be the lasting legacy of this semifinal clash, Dominican Republic had a few other opportunities to put runs on the board against Team USA, but they weren't able to. Team USA deserves credit for shutting down a stacked DR lineup and holding them to just one run.
It definitely would have been exciting, however, if Perdomo reached base and Tatis got a chance to tie or even win the game. The top of the DR lineup was coming up, and the home plate umpire robbed them of that opportunity.
