{"id":516577,"date":"2026-03-11T07:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T07:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/516577\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T07:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T07:18:14","slug":"world-baseball-classic-2026-italy-stuns-united-states-japan-takes-down-czechia-with-late-rally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/516577\/","title":{"rendered":"World Baseball Classic 2026: Italy stuns United States, Japan takes down Czechia with late rally"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday at the 2026 World Baseball Classic<\/a> saw a handful of teams punch their tickets to the quarterfinals. But Team USA wasn\u2019t among them.<\/p>\n

The U.S. won Monday vs. Mexico, improving to 3-0 in the tournament. The United States then had a crucial matchup against Italy on Tuesday, but it did not go as well.<\/p>\n

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Also Tuesday, Canada beat Puerto Rico to set up a win-or-go-home Pool A finale vs. Cuba on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league for the 2026 MLB season<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Italy 8, United States 6<\/p>\n

Team USA entered Tuesday’s World Baseball Classic game against Italy knowing that a win would clinch its spot in the knockout round. Instead, Italy delivered USA a stunning 8-6 loss<\/a>, and a U.S. team that entered Tuesday 3-0 in pool play will be forced to await its fate for the knockout round, which is now out of its hands.<\/p>\n

Italy built an 8-0 lead through the first five innings, shutting down the USA lineup and proving undaunted by Nolan McLean and the other American arms. The U.S. bats mounted a comeback in the later innings, led by Pete Crow-Armstrong\u2019s two home runs. But ultimately, it wasn\u2019t enough, as Aaron Judge struck out to conclude the 8-6 loss.<\/p>\n

The result drops Team USA to 3-1 in Pool B, and Italy improves to 3-0. Italy will face Mexico (2-1) on Wednesday in a game that will determine who advances out of Pool B. Among the U.S., Mexico and Italy, only two teams can move on.<\/p>\n

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If Italy wins and drops Mexico to 2-2, USA will advance alongside 4-0 Italy as the Pool B runner-up. If Mexico wins and all three teams finish 3-1, a multi-layered tiebreaker comes into play. And Team USA didn’t do itself any favors in that scenario by allowing eight runs Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Japan 9, Czechia 0<\/p>\n

For seven innings, Team Japan couldn\u2019t seem to get the big hit it was seeking. But the team wouldn\u2019t be held down for long. In the eighth inning, it finally broke the game open.<\/p>\n

After a clutch, run-scoring double from Kenya Wakatsuki made it 1-0. Then Ukyo Shuto put the game out of reach with a three-run homer later in the inning.<\/p>\n

To that point, the contest proved to be a pitchers\u2019 duel, with both squads posting zeroes. Japan had a few chances to score earlier in the game but couldn\u2019t get the hits it needed. It finally broke through in the eighth in a major way. Following Shuto\u2019s three-run blast, Munetaka Murakami added a grand slam to make it 9-0.<\/p>\n

Japan went on to win the contest 9-0.<\/p>\n

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With the victory, Japan \u2014 the defending WBC champion \u2014 moved to 4-0 in the tournament. Czechia fell to 0-4, though it did get a pretty great moment Tuesday when starting pitcher Ondrej Satoria got a standing ovation<\/a> after holding Japan scoreless over 4 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n

Israel 6, Netherlands 2<\/p>\n

The Netherlands took an early lead with RBI from Xander Bogaerts and Didi Gregorius, but Israel\u2019s five-run sixth inning broke the game open and ultimately was enough to secure the team\u2019s second win of the WBC. Jake Gelof, RJ Schreck and Matt Mervis delivered the big hits for Team Israel.<\/p>\n

With the win, Israel finishes 2-2 in the tournament, while the Netherlands falls to 1-3. Neither team is advancing from Pool D.<\/p>\n

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Canada 3, Puerto Rico 2<\/p>\n

It was a small ball affair on Tuesday between Canada and Puerto Rico. P.R. got on the board first with an RBI single from Nolan Arenado. Canada responded with a pair of RBI walks and an RBI single from Abraham Toro to score a total of three runs. P.R. got one back, but Canada held its opponent scoreless across the final five frames to secure a 3-2 win.<\/p>\n

With the victory, Puerto Rico, which has already clinched a spot in the quarterfinals, falls to 3-1 in Pool A. Canada improves to 2-1 and will play Cuba, also 2-1, on Wednesday. The winner of that contest will advance, and it\u2019ll go to a tiebreaker to determine the Pool A winner and runner-up.<\/p>\n

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Tuesday\u2019s WBC schedule<\/p>\n

6 a.m.: Japan 9, Czechia 0
7 p.m.: Israel 6, Netherlands 2
7 p.m.: Canada 3, Puerto Rico 2
9 p.m.: Italy 8, United States 6<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Monday at the 2026 World Baseball Classic saw a handful of teams punch their tickets to the quarterfinals.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[4260,33558,103,220751,146353,6801,3471,180797,26,363,7646,56394,4261,5898,99,42270,2830,72364,47416],"class_list":["post-516577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-aaron-judge","tag-abraham-toro","tag-canada","tag-czechia","tag-didi-gregorius","tag-italy","tag-japan","tag-matt-mervis","tag-mexico","tag-mlb","tag-nolan-arenado","tag-nolan-mclean","tag-pete-crow-armstrong","tag-puerto-rico","tag-sports","tag-team-usa","tag-u-s","tag-world-baseball-classic","tag-xander-bogaerts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}