The World Baseball Classic semifinal Sunday night was filled with superstars making spectacular plays, hitting majestic home runs and putting on a ridiculous display of pitching against two of the most dangerous batting orders in baseball history.
That Pittsburgh played a central role it all the more thrilling.
A game started by Pirates ace Paul Skenes ended with Bethel Park native Mason Miller dazzling by repeatedly touching triple digits before getting a favorable called third strike to complete Team USA’s 2-1 win over the Dominican Republic to clinch a return to the WBC final. Team USA awaits the Italy-Venezuela winner at 8 p.m. Tuesday.
It was our first glimpse of how Skenes could shine on the grandest stage, providing a performance that was more deliberate than dominant but portends well for the Pirates if they are to make a playoff push.
“It’s unbelievable,” Skenes told Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports in a postgame on-field interview. “Coming into the game, I just wanted to put up as many zeroes as possible and put us in a position to win. Everybody else did their job. That was fun to watch.”
The Pirates were represented on both sides of the semifinal. Team USA is led by the reigning National League Cy Young winner in Skenes, as well as Mars alum David Bednar, a two-time All-Star for his hometown team before being traded to the New York Yankees last July. Bednar got out of a seventh-inning jam by striking out Fernando Tatís Jr. on a splitter and Ketel Marte on a curveball, fueling a fiery celebration as he walked off the mound.
The Dominican Republic featured Pirates center fielder Oneil Cruz and relievers Dennis Santana and Gregory Soto, who replaced starter Luis Severino one batter after he gave up the game-tying home run to Gunnar Henderson in the fourth. Soto worked a full count to Roman Anthony, who smacked a 95.2-mph sinker to center field for the go-ahead run. Cruz pinch-hit with one out in the ninth and advanced Julio Rodriguez to third base with a groundout to short.
The Pirates have to hope that having so many of their players being involved in high stakes competition this spring can carry over to the regular season, given the playoffs-or-bust mandate issued by team president Travis Williams and their aggressive offseason.
They know this much: Skenes lives for such moments.
1. Skenes shines: The Dominican lineup was dangerous from top to bottom. With Tatis, Marte and Juan Soto followed by Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Manny Machado, Junior Caminero, Julio Rodriguez, Austin Wells and Geraldo Perdomo, there was little margin for error.
Yet Skenes was efficient in allowing one run on six hits without a walk and two strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings against a Dominican team that averaged 10.2 runs through its first five WBC games.
Skenes threw 50 of his 71 pitches for strikes, relying on his four-seam fastball (41) and splinker (18) while mixing in eight sinkers, seven sweepers, six changeups and three curveballs.
Skenes told Rosenthal that “it wasn’t the prettiest or cleanest game I’ve ever pitched,” but his concentration was on executing.
“I came out of the game and (Tarik) Skubal was like, ‘That’s the best lineup you’re ever going to pitch against,’” Skenes told MLB Network. “Honestly, it’s one of the two — them pitching against us or us pitching against them. Just going out there and executing. That’s all you can do, all you can focus on.”
2. Going nuclear: Skenes got through the first inning on nine pitches, getting Tatis to fly out to left, Marte to pop up to second and Soto to ground out to second. Skenes started the second with a Guerrero groundout to third, then struck out Machado on three four-seam fastballs.
But Caminero, Tampa Bay’s 22-year-old third baseman who hit 45 home runs last season, connected on a 1-2 sweeper up and away and sent it 401 feet to left-center for a solo home run.
Skenes admitted that he was “a little bit sloppy at times.”
“If execution were a little bit better wouldn’t have given up that really long home run. I probably would’ve punched a couple more out,” Skenes told MLB Network. “Honestly, I’m a little glad it was a nuke so that he could stand there and watch it. It was cool to see. That was one of the best pieces of hitting that I’ve ever seen.”
Then Skenes showed what a competitor he is with a little dig.
“They didn’t get cheated on the celebration,” Skenes said. “At least they had that.”
3. Getting defensive: Skenes can thank the Pirates for having him ready to pitch in a close game. But he credited the defensive play behind him for protecting the one-run lead.
The biggest play came in the third inning, after Skenes hit Perdomo with a pitch and Tatis reached on a force out at second. Marte singled to right, where Aaron Judge fielded it and made a perfect throw to Henderson at third base to nab Tatis for the final out of the frame.
“It makes it really easy to compete,” Skenes said, “when you’ve got plays like that.”
The Pirates sacrificed defense to add some pop to an offense that ranked last in the majors in home runs, RBIs, slugging percentage and OPS last season. They have their fingers crossed that the outfield of Bryan Reynolds in left, Cruz in center and Ryan O’Hearn in right can make plays to support their pitching.
4. Moving on: Skenes has talked and written about how much it means to him to wear USA across the chest of his jersey, especially after attending the U.S. Air Force Academy for two years.
Skenes told Rosenthal that he received a text message from a former Air Force teammate stationed overseas who said he would wake up at 3 a.m. to watch the game.
“It puts into perspective. If this isn’t perspective enough already, it’s heavy stuff,” Skenes said. “Us playing against a bunch of people that we know and we play all the time, it’s heavy. It’s an absolute honor to be able to do it.”
More than anything, Skenes was thrilled to provide a winning performance in his final start for Team USA. But he made it clear that while he’s done pitching, their work isn’t over.
“Thank God we won this game, moving on to the next one,” Skenes said. “It’s not done. This obviously was a big game. It’s good to win this one but there’s another one to play. Guys understand that. It was a good one to end on for the tournament for me.”
Nor does Skenes want it to be over. As much as anyone, he is cherishing the opportunity to represent Team USA and spend two weeks playing with and against baseball’s best.
“It’s been unbelievable. Just sharing a clubhouse with these guys for two weeks, obviously I want to win and we want to win the tournament,” Skenes told MLB Network. “But coming in, it’s like, ‘I don’t want this to be the last game because I want to be around these guys a little bit longer.’ So, I’m super glad that this isn’t the last game and we get to spend a couple more days together because it’s just an unbelievable group of guys.”
5. Back to the Bucs: Debate all you want whether Skenes or Skubal is the best pitcher in baseball. Their respect and admiration for one another is mutual, to the point that Skenes tipped his cap to Skubal for that honor before the All-Star Game last July.
But there’s no question that Skenes became one of the leaders for Team USA, both vocally for the importance of playing in the WBC and by example with his performance against Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
The Pirates have to be thrilled with how Skenes represented himself and the organization, with hopes that his taking the reins in the WBC will benefit them in the long run.
Before leaving to join Team USA, Skenes discussed his belief that he knows how to win — dating to his college days at Air Force and LSU, which won the College World Series — and that it can be contagious.
“That’s something I’ve found is true,” Skenes told TribLive. “I believe that I’ve been part of two of the winningest programs, in different ways. The United States Air Force is the winningest air force in the world. And LSU baseball is LSU baseball. Yes, that’s something I’ve learned: Winning is winning, at all levels.”
Now, Skenes is on the cusp of being part of a third winner.