On Monday, Team USA faced Mexico in the third game of pool play in the 2026 World Baseball Classic in a contest that will be crucial towards determining which two teams make it out of Pool B. What's not fair, in Team USA's favor, is that they started Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes, who as expected, mowed down Mexico's lineup in four innings of work — catching the eye of Houston Rockets star Kevin Durant in the process.
Skenes, in four innings of work, allowed just one hit and sat down seven Mexico hitters via strikeout, walking just one. The Pirates star appears to be in midseason form, and Durant just wrote on his official account on X (formerly Twitter) what every American is thinking whenever they see Skenes take the mound.
“Paul skenes is a dawg,” Durant wrote.
A “dawg” is exactly what Skenes is, and him playing for Team USA in the WBC is a dream that is unlikely to be realized in MLB if he stays with the Pirates: him pitching for a stacked team and helping lead them to glory. Once he plays for a winning ballclub, it becomes even more apparent just how much of a “dawg” and competitor Skenes truly is.
Team USA tries to hold off Mexico in World Baseball Classic pool play action
Team USA got out to a 5-0 lead over Mexico in the early goings of their Monday night clash, thanks to a two-run shot from Aaron Judge to get the scoring going and a three-run dinger from Roman Anthony, both of which came in the third inning of play.
But since then, Mexico has bounced back, scoring three runs in return at the time of writing. Jarren Duran pulled one back with a homer in the sixth, which was then followed up by a Joey Meneses RBI single. And then in the top of the eighth, Duran hit another one out of the park to make it a two-run ballgame.
