USA shuts down DR stars in thriller to return to 3rd straight Classic final

MIAMI – The game met the hype. And the Americans met the moment.

In a semifinals matchup rife with many of baseball’s biggest names and a game rife with the kind of tension that makes the sport great, Team USA outlasted the Dominican Republic, 2-1, on Sunday night at loanDepot park to advance to the World Baseball Classic finals for the third straight time.

The U.S. will have a day off before facing the winner of Italy vs. Venezuela in the final clash of this Classic on Tuesday night (8 p.m. ET, FOX).

And it will need a day to digest all that just went down against the D.R.

“That,” said U.S. skipper Mark DeRosa, “was high-level baseball at its finest.”

• 3 moments that decided USA-Dominican Republic Classic semifinal

High-level… but low-scoring. So perhaps not what one would have expected of two of the most loaded lineups to ever take the field at the same time.

But then again, there was quite an assemblage of arms, too, and the most anticipated matchup of all -- the power arm of Paul Skenes against the power bats of the deep Dominican lineup -- proved as interesting as advertised, with Skenes gutting through 4 1/3 innings in which he allowed a solo home run among six hits with no walks and two strikeouts.

“The D.R. is the toughest lineup I've ever faced, for sure,” said Skenes. “I think they would probably say the same thing about facing us.”

Solo home runs from Gunnar Henderson and Roman Anthony, who as a Minor Leaguer had bought a ticket in the stands at last WBC finals in this building in 2023, built a lead for Skenes. Great defense and a bullish bullpen helped protect it, as a loud and raucous sell-out crowd of 36,337 amplified the intensity of every anxious instance.

And there were plenty of them.

“It was a huge game,” said D.R. manager Albert Pujols, “between two huge teams.”

The D.R. got on the board first in the second inning when Junior Caminero continued his Classic clout with his third home run of the tournament – a solo shot on Skenes’ elevated sweeper that he pounded out to left-center, igniting the home dugout and the loanDepot volume.

It was also the WBC record-setting 15th homer of the tournament for the deep Dominican lineup.

And the next inning, when Luis Severino protected that 1-0 lead by completing the enormous task of striking out Team USA captain Aaron Judge and Kyle Schwarber in succession to strand two runners in scoring position, he let out a roar and pounded his chest.

But the funny thing about putting two lineups loaded with MVP candidates against each other is that momentum can shift quickly.

It began to shift the United States’ way when Henderson led off the fourth with a 400-foot blast off Severino. One out later, with reliever Gregory Soto brought into the ballgame, it was the continuation of Anthony’s Classic coming-out party with his solo shot to center, giving the Americans a 2-1 edge.

“I was here the last time around watching the championship game heading into my first Spring Training and heading into my first full year of Minor League baseball,” Anthony said. “So a bit of a full-circle moment, but a dream of mine since as long as I can remember watching this amazing event. You couldn't ask for a better atmosphere this early in the year.”

That it remained 2-1 was a credit to Skenes pitching his way out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth, though the taxing inning chipped away at his pitch count on a night in which every out was precious.

Speaking of outs, there was none more electric than when Julio Rodríguez went airborne at the wall to bring back Judge’s would-be solo shot in the top of the fifth.

Judge himself had made some excellent defensive plays, with a sensational throw from right to nab Fernando Tatis Jr. at third for the final out of the third and by laying out to take a hit away from former Yankee teammate Soto in the fourth.

Still, it was Julio’s homer robbery that stood out as the night’s most world-class defensive gem, which kept the D.R. within a run.

“Hit it to a guy like J-Rod, who's the best center fielder in the game, and he's gonna make exciting plays like that in big moments, and he did,” Judge said. “I wasn't too happy when he caught it, but just a tip of the cap to him.”

Skenes was in danger of losing that 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth. Tatis and Ketel Marte singled in succession, pushing Skenes’ pitch count to 71. With Skenes nearing his prescribed limit, DeRosa went to go get him and brought in the extreme submarine stylings of right-hander Tyler Rogers to face the left-handed Soto.

It worked. Rogers needed just two pitches to get Soto to bounce a chopper up the middle. Bobby Witt Jr. fielded it right of the second-base bag, hustled to the bag and fired to first for the huge inning-ending double play.

David Bednar was in a similar jam in the seventh. Austin Wells’ long double to the gap in right and Geraldo Perdomo’s single and stolen base had two runners in scoring position with one out. Bednar calmly got Tatis to go down swinging on a splitter and Marte on a cutter to again send the Americans soaring back to the dugout with their slim edge intact.

Garrett Whitlock’s 1-2-3 eighth against the middle of the D.R. order (as if the whole thing wasn’t giving off middle-of-the-order vibes) sent it to the ninth, where Team USA closer Mason Miller finished off a Classic battle by stranding the tying run at third. The final pitch of the game was a slider to Perdomo that was below the zone but called for strike three. The ABS Challenge System coming to MLB in 2026 is not in use for this tournament. It would have helped the D.R. there, but if and only if they had a challenge available in that spot.

In any event, Pujols did not bemoan the way the game ended.

“I'm disappointed about the way that the game ends,” he said, “but I don't want to criticize any of that. It just wasn't meant to be for us.”

Team USA built a roster that it felt was meant to be in the final. And though the bats have not exploded as planned and the standings in pool play got a bit too-close-for-comfort, here the American are again.

But getting to the final meant taking down an absolutely frightening team from the D.R. In a game that carried all the drama this marquee matchup deserved.