What a game.
The United States beat the Dominican Republic 2-1 in the semifinals of the 2026 World Baseball Classic on Sunday night to advance to the finals for the third consecutive tournament. The game, which featured loads of All-Stars, lived up to the hype and produced the kind of game we were hoping it would.
Junior Caminero opened the scoring in the bottom of the second, as he lifted a hanging sweeper off starting pitcher Paul Skenes and sent it over the left field wall for a 1-0 lead. It didn’t take long for Team USA to answer back.
In the top of the fourth, Gunnar Henderson answered back by blasting a Luis Severino cutter over the right center field wall to tie the game. Henderson was reinserted into the lineup in place of Alex Bregman on Sunday night, and it turned out to be an outstanding decision. Two batters later, Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony waited out reliever Gregory Soto and hammered a 3-2 sinker 421 feet to center field for another solo home run.
That 2-1 margin was all the U.S. needed.
Here are three takeaways from the game:
Mark DeRosa pulled all the right strings
Team USA manager Mark DeRosa took a lot of heat last week, and for good reason, but on Sunday night he was Picasso. It was his best performance to date.
DeRosa pulled all the right strings against the Dominican Republic. He pulled underperforming stars Bregman and Cal Raleigh from the lineup in favor of Henderson and Will Smith. They rewarded him as Smith had a hit and Henderson homered.
On the mound, he stuck with Skenes for a bit longer than others might have. The big righty was laboring a bit through his first four innings, but DeRosa left him in before finally pulling him with one out in the fifth. He went with Tyler Rogers, then followed with Griffin Jax, David Bedar, Garrett Whitlock and Mason Miller to finish it.
Team USA’s bullpen allowed no runs on two hits and one walk with eight strikeouts over 4 2/3 innings. DeRosa nailed the order and the matchups. The man deserves his credit.
Dominican Republic’s bats went silent at the worst time
The Dominican offense entered the game as by far the best in the tournament. The team led the 2026 WBC in runs, home runs, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging and OPS, yet on Sunday night the bats went silent.
They managed just one run, on Junior Caminero’s second-inning home run, despite eight hits. As a team, they finished 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and couldn’t punch in runs when they needed to. Austin Wells, Ketel Marte and Geraldo Perdomo all failed to come through with runners in scoring position and two outs.
The team entered the game as an offensive juggernaut, averaging more than 10 runs per game. On Sunday night, the U.S. was able to shut the Dominicans down.
The game lived up to the hype
For weeks, these looked like the two best rosters in the tournament, and they have been on a collision course either for the final or semifinals since it started. We got the matchup we were all hoping for and it was as good as we could have hoped.
Sure, some more fireworks would have been fun, but this was a tense playoff atmosphere from the opening pitch to the last. Every swing felt important and every moment was heightened because of it. Even the awful call to end it was overshadowed by how competitive the game was.
This game is the reason the World Baseball Classic exists. We can only hope the final lives up to it.
Team USA vs. Dominican Republic live blog: Here’s what happened in World Baseball Classic semifinal
More MLB on Sports Illustrated
- Team USA Shuts Down Loaded Dominican Lineup to Advance to WBC Final
- Awful Strike Three Call Ends Team USA-Dominican Republic WBC Clash in Controversial Fashion
- Why Cal Raleigh, Alex Bregman Are Out of Team USA Lineup vs. Dominican Republic
- Why Austin Wells Is Playing for Dominican Republic at World Baseball Classic
This article was originally published on www.si.com as USA 2, Dominican Republic 1: How U.S. Advanced to WBC Championship in Thrilling Nail-biter.
