DeRosa clears air on handling of Team USA's loss to Italy

HOUSTON -- Leave it to Team Italy to come through for a guy named DeRosa.

Team USA manager Mark DeRosa returned to Daikin Park for his club’s World Baseball Classic workout Thursday afternoon, having survived the public backlash over comments he made on MLB Network earlier in the week that indicated he thought his club had clinched a quarterfinals berth before they actually had. He had also survived the potential math that could have ousted his inordinately talented team well ahead of schedule.

Thankfully for both DeRosa and the Americans, The Boot made it all moot.

“Fortunate to be in,” DeRosa said. “Italy played 4-0 in pool play. Very underestimated coming into this thing, certainly not anymore. Hat’s off to them. They bailed us out.”

Italy’s 9-1 thumping of Mexico in the Pool B finale gave the Italians the pool’s top seed and the U.S. the second seed with a 3-1 mark. Now the U.S. is on to Friday night’s quarterfinals date with its Canadian neighbors to the north (8 p.m. ET, FOX).

But what of DeRosa’s remarks that the U.S. had “punched our ticket” before they had?

DeRosa was adamant that he and his players entered the Americans’ loss to Italy on Tuesday aware that they had not clinched.

“Overly confident statement on ‘Hot Stove,’” he said. “Period, the end. And it’s my fault. I felt good about where we were after Mexico.

"I was well aware that we had to win that game based on all the scenarios that could take place. ... We knew there were tiebreaker rules involved."

DeRosa also addressed public commentary about his club bonding deep into the night after the win over Mexico and how that might have affected the game against Italy.

“Listen, us hanging out in a clubhouse is everything I ever dreamed of creating,” he said. “You've got to buy into this thing super quick and try and create a team. For those players to invite the coaches in and for us to spend time together and enjoy a huge win that we hadn't had in 20 years was something that… I looked around the room and it was super special to me.

“We did not lose sight of the fact that we had to go out and play well against Italy. They played a hell of a game. They smacked us in the mouth early. They got up big. We went into that game prepared to win it. I think there's a couple false narratives out there.”

Team USA is ultimately no worse for the mental wear and tear and still on its charted course to come out of the Classic with the intended gold.

First, though, it must take down a talented Team Canada that won its pool outright.

“New lease on life for the boys, certainly,” DeRosa said. “Tip our hat to Vinnie Pasquantino and Italy, truly. Went into that game a little overly confident and got a huge wake-up call. And we turned the page and go to Canada. Bottom line, the guys are fired up to be in that room and get rolling.”