With a full count and the tying run on third, United States closer Mason Miller dropped a slider in for a strike Sunday night to give Team USA a 2-1 win over the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic semifinal.
The problem?
The strike, called by home-plate umpire Cory Blaser, was well below the strike zone.
The World Baseball Classic did not adopt the ABS Challenge System for the 2026 tournament. Derek Jeter, who was part of the FOX Sports broadcast crew for Sunday night’s game, said that will probably change by the time the next World Baseball Classic takes place.
“You can pretty much guarantee they’re going to have the challenge system in place for the next WBC, right?,” Jeter said during FOX Sports’ postgame show with Kevin Burkhardt, Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz.
“You hate to end the game that way, but you have to give credit to the U.S.”
Jeter went on to praise the United States’ pitching, the home runs from Gunnar Henderson and Roman Anthony and the strong defense shown by the team throughout the game.
-
Related: Roman Anthony is living a life that we can’t even imagine — and carrying his team to the WBC final | Sean McAdam
Ortiz, who — along with Rodriguez — predicted the Dominican Republic would win during the pregame show, was a little more direct with his criticism toward Blaser.
“I gotta tell you, if you’re calling 101, 102 miles per hour on top of the zone, you cannot go down there and call that pitch a strike,” the Red Sox legend said. “You’re expanding the strike zone against this batter facing a really good pitcher.”
The United States will move on to face the winner of Monday’s semifinal between Venezuela and Italy in the championship Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Miami.
Read the original article on MassLive. Add MassLive as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
