Team USA's second game of the World Baseball Classic did not go at all how Mark DeRosa and the squad wanted on Sunday night; the USA stunningly lost 11-5 to Mexico in Round 1 of the tournament, the second-worst loss by a U.S. team in WBC history, according to ESPN.
DeRosa spoke afterwards about the difficulties of managing the needs of his pitching staff while giving consideration to each player's parent team.
“It's tough,” DeRosa said about the poorly pitched game, per ESPN. “You're trying to massage innings. You're trying to protect these guys. You're trying to honor their parent clubs…A lot of these guys are restricted from cleaning up a dirty inning and going back out.”
The pitching puzzle was difficult to piece together for Mark DeRosa; he may have used Brady Singer too much, and Kendall Graveman and Devin Williams not enough. But he was limited by giving consideration to their major league clubs.
“There's a lot of honoring parent clubs' wishes to get these guys ready for the regular season,” DeRosa explained. “You're kind of limited in the number of arms you have down there. You have to push some guys.”
USA was outplayed by Mexico on Sunday night in front of a 47,534-spectator crowd at Chase Field. It's the third straight win for Mexico over the U.S. in World Baseball Classic play.
“We're a really good baseball team,” Singer said after the game, in which he gave up four runs on four hits. “I'm not too worried about it. We have to come back fighting tomorrow.”
Team USA crushed Great Britain 18-8 by mercy rule in their opening WBC game, but after Sunday's loss, they'll need to be much better against Canada on Monday. USA falls to 1-1 in pool play with two games remaining, and only the top two teams in the five pool team advancing.
“It's win or go home,” catcher Will Smith said, per ESPN. “That's how we're treating it.”
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