Team USA wins heavyweight bout with Dominican Republic to reach WBC final

MIAMI — For the past two weeks as the World Baseball Classic has unfolded, the stars assembled by Team USA have talked about this tournament as if unsure how to gauge its importance. Bryce Harper lamented that the WBC is not the Olympics. Tarik Skubal opted to make one start before departing the team. Mark DeRosa spoke before a crucial game as if he didn’t understand the rules. Their celebrations sounded muted compared to the boisterous displays of the other participants.

All it took to turn up the volume was a date with the Dominican Republic.

In a 2-1 semifinal victory over the D.R. on Sunday evening at loanDepot Park, Team USA displayed a level of performance and verve that met the moment and set the stage for the team to win the WBC for the second time in three iterations of the tournament. The Americans will face the winner of Monday’s semifinal between Italy and Venezuela.

When Team USA returns to the field Tuesday, questions about the group’s level of interest in this exhibition will be gone. They answered those on Sunday. Team USA ace Paul Skenes subdued the fearsome Dominican lineup for 4 1/3 innings. His lone blemish was a solo shot struck by D.R. designated hitter Junior Caminero. The Americans erased the deficit in the fourth with a pair of home runs from Baltimore Orioles infielder Gunnar Henderson and Boston Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony.

The bullpen hung tough after Skenes exited. Toronto Blue Jays side-armer Tyler Rogers induced a crucial double play when facing New York Mets slugger Juan Soto in the fifth. New York Yankees reliever David Bednar struck out a pair to strand two runners in the seventh. Then he bounded off the mound, screaming into the night, showcasing the sort of emotion lacking in Team USA before Sunday. They looked, if only for a night, like they were taking a page out of their opponent’s playbook.

The crowd favored the Dominican Republic. Although the concourse featured its collection of American partisans — fellows wearing New England Patriots jerseys and others wearing the wigs, waistcoats and breeches worn by the patriots of the Revolutionary War — the “U-S-A” chants were drowned out by Dominican fans’ cowbells and drums. The percussion rattled the roof as D.R. starter Luis Severino struck out Team USA leadoff hitter Bobby Witt Jr. Severino roared and flexed after the strikeout, and did the same after fanning the next batter, Bryce Harper.

Witt and Harper looked grim as they returned to the dugout — a continuation of the group’s dour approach to the WBC. The group has looked “dry as hell,” as long-time big-leaguer Cameron Maybin wrote on X. “I’m talking like somebody just ate a whole pack of saltine crackers in the desert with no water in sight.”

Searching for a common bond, Team USA leaned into military imagery. They celebrated home runs with salutes. They sported T-shirts that read “Front Toward Enemy,” a saying originally printed as the directions for Claymore mines. When Skenes, who spent two seasons at the Air Force Academy before transferring to LSU, agreed to play for Team USA, he told DeRosa, “I want to do this for every serviceman and woman who protects our freedom.” Before the quarterfinal, DeRosa invited a team-wide address from Robert O’Neill, a former Navy SEAL who has claimed he killed Osama bin Laden during the raid that led to the Al-Qaeda leader’s death in 2011.

“There’s a reason why we’re doing it and a reason why people protect our freedom at night,” DeRosa said before Sunday’s game. “I just wanted to honor that. So that’s why he came in to talk.”

The solemnity of Team USA contrasted with the giddiness projected by the Dominicans. Their energy has been matched by the rapturous crowds packing the ballpark to watch them these past two weeks. Their highlights leap off the screen: Fernando Tatis Jr. slinking down the line after going deep, Juan Soto pounding his chest, Caminero practically leaping out of his cleats. After victories, the team has danced in the clubhouse with 88-year-old Hall of Famer Juan Marichal.

“We are a family, representing the Dominican Republic,” Team D.R. manager Albert Pujols said.

That family spent the past two weeks pulverizing pitchers. The Dominicans outscored opponents by 41 runs across their first five games. Their 10-0 quarterfinal rout of Korea ended thanks to the tournament’s mercy rules. The offense mashed 14 home runs during its romp to the semifinal, tying a tournament record set by Team Mexico in 2009. The unit presented a tall task for Skenes, the reigning National League Cy Young award winner. “I don’t think there is a lineup that he has ever faced like this before,” Pujols said.

Skenes dusted the first five batters he faced, zipping through at-bats with his 99-mph fastball and 94-mph splitter. The sixth batter was Caminero, a 22-year-old who bashed 45 home runs for the Tampa Bay Rays last season. After Skenes picked up two strikes, he left a sweeper atop the strike zone. Caminero kept his hands back and stayed with the pitch. There was a subtle brilliance to his swing, which lofted the baseball far beyond the left-field fence.

There was nothing subtle about what followed.

Caminero grabbed his bat by the barrel and chucked it across the batter’s box and toward his dugout. His teammates had already vaulted over the railing to greet him. Caminero thumped his chest and pumped his fist toward the stands. In the handshake line after stomping home plate, Caminero shook his hips, donned the team’s celebratory leather jacket and gathered the group to point skyward.

The party extended into the third as Severino escaped a jam. A one-out single by Witt and a double by Harper set the table for Aaron Judge. Severino was not cowed by his former Yankees teammate. The captain of Team USA flailed at a 3-2 sweeper for the second out. Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber stared at a sweeper down the middle to strand the runners.

The exuberance from Team D.R. proved more irrational in the bottom of the third. With two outs and Tatis at first, second baseman Ketel Marte hooked a splitter into right field for a single. Charging forward was Judge, who suffered a flexor strain in his throwing elbow last season. With Soto due to bat next, Tatis decided to test the captain’s health. Judge answered with a strike to third base, where Henderson placed the tag.

Tatis’ gambit looked even more foolish when Team USA’s offense broke through in the fourth. Henderson demolished a thigh-high cutter from Severino for a game-tying solo shot. Henderson exhorted his teammates to exit the dugout as he rounded the bases. After taking Team D.R. reliever Gregory Soto deep, Anthony was less demonstrative. But the group did not need encouragement.

The game crackled with life, packed with feats befitting the talent of the participants. Skenes slithered through a bases-loaded jam in the fourth. An inning later, Julio Rodriguez rose up in center field to swipe a home run from Judge. With two runners aboard in the bottom of the fifth, Witt scooped a grounder off Soto’s bat, stepped on second for one out and flicked an inning-ending peg to first. The double play made DeRosa look like a genius; the manager had removed Skenes and permitted Rogers to face Soto, a left-handed batter. Rogers and Witt rewarded DeRosa for the maneuver.