American Nightmare: Team USA smoked by Italy, will watch from hotel tonight to learn WBC fate

What a disaster. Team USA, the odds-on favorite to win the World Baseball Classic, got hammered 8-6 by Italy on Tuesday night in one of the biggest upsets in the 20-year history of this tournament. They now have no control over their own fate.

Aaron Nola is pitching for Italy tonight against Mexico and the Americans are watching from their hotel hoping the math works out in their favor.

Team Italy and Aaron Nola carries the weight of the United States of America on his shoulders tonight against Mexico

It started before the game even happened.

Manager Mark DeRosa went on MLB Network’s Hot Stove Tuesday morning and told Vasgersian and Reynolds “we want to win this game even though our ticket’s punched to the quarterfinals.”

Mark DeRosa thought Team USA already advanced before stunning WBC loss to Italy

The problem is Team USA’s ticket was not punched. DeRosa said he was informed of his mistake when he arrived at Daikin Park later that day. “Just sitting on Hot Stove at 9:45 in the morning and misspoke,” he said. “Bottom line.”

Whether or not the gaffe affected the Team USA’s preparation is impossible to know, but the optics were brutal. DeRosa sat multiple starters including Bryce Harper and Alex Bregman.

He did not pinch run for Paul Goldschmidt during the comeback. Clayton Kershaw, 36 years old and an emergency arm, was warming up in the eighth inning. The whole thing felt like a team that thought it had already punched its ticket.

The game itself was ugly from the first inning.

Of all pitchers, Michael Lorenzen, 34 years old and on his seventh MLB team, shut out the Americans for 4 2/3 innings while mixing his pitches brilliantly against a lineup of MVPs and All-Stars.

Lorenzen was not even supposed to pitch this game. He was originally slotted against Mexico but the Colorado Rockies did not want to disrupt their rotation plans so Italy moved him up.

Kyle Teel hit a home run. Sam Antonacci hit a home run. Jac Caglianone hit a home run to right field with one of the best bat flips of the entire tournament. Italy led 8-0 before Team USA scored a single run.

American Tragedy: Team Italy bat flipping all over America

Jac Caglianone shows off the pop!

(World Baseball Classic x @CapitalOne) pic.twitter.com/9sdDd0JKOL

— World Baseball Classic (@WBCBaseball) March 11, 2026

The Americans did claw back. Pete Crow-Armstrong hit two home runs. Roman Anthony had a run-scoring single. They got it to 8-6. But with Witt on first and the tying run at the plate, Boston reliever Greg Weissert struck out Henderson and Judge to end it.

“You always like having your destiny in your own hands and we had it right in front of us,” Judge said. “Now we just need a little luck and we’ll see what happens.”

That is the Team USA captain asking for luck in a tournament they were supposed to dominate. He and his team is gathering at a hotel Wednesday night to watch Aaron Nola pitch for Italy against Mexico and pray the math goes their way.

The WBC is an incredible tournament. Nobody is immune. Not even the Americans.

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