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By Curt Bishop
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On Sunday night, the Dominican Republic suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Team USA in the World Baseball Classic. After Junior Caminero's solo home run to put the Dominican Republic up 1-0, Team USA responded with home runs from Gunnar Henderson and Roman Anthony before holding off a rally in the bottom of the ninth inning to win 2-1 and advance to the finals.
The final pitch to Geraldo Perdomo appeared to be below the strike zone, but was called a strike, and with no ABS challenge system in the WBC, the game was over. However, Dominican Republic manager Albert Pujols gave his honest opinion on the loss and didn't make any excuses about the called third strike.
"I don't want to focus on the last pitch," Pujols said, as quoted in an article from Michael Clair of MLB.com. "I'm not going to criticize any of that. It wasn't meant to be."
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Had the ABS system been implemented for the World Baseball Classic, the game likely would not have ended on that pitch. However, Pujols made clear that the final pitch didn't matter to him.
The Dominican Republic had to reigning National League Cy Young Paul Skenes, who held them to one run over 4 1/3 innings pitched. Tyler Rogers, Griffin Jax, David Bednar, Garrett Whitlock and Mason Miller held them scoreless the rest of the game.
But Pujols led them to the semifinals and had a strong roster that featured stars such as Fernando Tatis Jr., Juan Soto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Manny Machado and Julio Rodriguez.
Team USA will face the winner of Monday night's semifinal matchup between Venezuela and Italy.
More MLB: Why WBC Final Will Be Full-Circle Moment For USA Star Roman Anthony - Newsweek
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