Date: March 18th, 2026 11:18 AM
Author: Nazca Redlines
The more deserving team won. Congrats to them. USA was embarrassing. Two anecdotes really capture it:
(1) Partying after the Mexico game, then getting blown out by Italy and potentially missing advancing out of pool play.
(2) Tarik Skubal deciding he'd only pitch a single game against a bad team in pool play, then leaving the team to go back to spring training--but he'd still take a medal for winning, thank you very much.
Both of those just encapsulate the attitude the team seemed to have. If they got guys who were really in it to win it, they probably would have won it. Instead, we got embarassing, half-hearted exhibition games. Venezuela, Japan, and DR were more fun to watch, and they seemed like they actually wanted to be there and to win.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5847102&forum_id=2)#49753100)