Another international sports tournament victory for Team USA means yet another disgruntled and vanquished foreign player.
In February, Canada’s Nate MacKinnon became the first to declare his team better than the Americans despite losing. Less than a month later, the Dominican Republic’s Juan Soto has picked up the mantra.
After the DR’s controversial 2-1 loss to Team USA in Houston on Sunday, Soto was asked for his thoughts on his team’s demise. During which he (knowingly or unknowingly) channeled MacKinnon and took a shot at Team USA.
“We showed the world who’s the best team in baseball,” Soto told ESPN. “That’s all I got to say.”
Soto’s beef, at least as far as it extends to the final call of the game, is legitimate. With Team USA’s Mason Miller dealing to Geraldo Perdomo with two strikes and two outs with a runner on third in a 2-1 game, led by the United States, Miller threw a pitch that appeared to miss low. So convinced was Perdomo that the pitch was a ball that he began tossing his bat and getting ready to take his base before home plate umpire Cory Blaser called him out.
But here’s the thing: the DR had multiple chances to win the game before that fateful final pitch. After a second-inning home run put the Dominican Republic ahead 1-0, they never added to that run total.
And boy, did they have chances to do it. The DR had the bases loaded with 2 outs in the bottom of the fourth. They had runners on first and second in the bottom of the fifth, with only one out. A situation in which Soto himself grounded into the inning-ending double play. They had runners on second and third with one out in the bottom of the seventh, and a runner in scoring position with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Shouldn’t the best team in the world have found a way to prevail in at least one of those situations?
Fans on X were quick to torch Soto, who plays for the Mets when he’s not playing for the DR, for his dig at Team USA.
In any event, the DR’s World Baseball Classic dreams are over. Now, Soto can head back to the Mets. A team that must be the greatest of all-time, if not winning championships, proves you’re the best.
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