2026 World Baseball Classic: Pool Play Gave Us Some Unforgettable Moments, Now On To the Big Games

MIAMI – All 40 pool play games of the 2026 World Baseball Classic have been completed, and those games gave us homers, heartbreak, upsets, great plays, wild scenarios and sent eight teams on to the elimination games at Daikin Park in Houston and loanDepot Park in Miami.

Cuba Is Eliminated – Cuba failed to make it out of the first round for the first time ever when they lost to Canada in the final game of Pool B in San Juan. After finishing second in the inaugural WBC in 2006, Cuba hasn’t returned to the finals. They reached the semifinals three years ago, losing 14-2 to the United States, and couldn’t put a roster together this year that was competitive. Sure, they beat Colombia and Panama, but Colombia lost Julio Teheran from the starting rotation hours before his start against Canada, saw Jose Quintana’s service limited by the Colorado Rockies, and were only able to muster a win against Panama. Panama beat group winner Canada and took Puerto Rico to extra innings, and despite being relegated to the qualifier, may not have been the worst team in Pool A – which is not to say that Cuba was the worst team in San Juan, but they beat the two teams that finished below them and lost to the two that finished above them.

Ondrej Satoria Says Goodbye – Satoria, an amateur player for Czechia who works as an electrician, electrified the crowd at the 2023 World Baseball Classic with a strikeout of Shohei Ohtani despite throwing a fastball that barely touches 80 mph. In his finale with the Czech national team at the Tokyo Dome this year, he threw 4 2/3 scoreless innings against Samurai Japan in an incredible final chapter for his baseball career.

今大会限りで代表を引退するチェコのサトリア
pic.twitter.com/qaCCy0VKj9
『私はチェコに帰れば野球はしているが、ただの一般人です。誰も私のことを知らない。でも、日本ではこんなに多くの人が私に声援を送ってくれた。日本の皆さんには、心からの感謝を伝えたいです。… https://t.co/6TqovElBH4

— 【ＳＳ】大谷速報＆スポーツ速報 (@30R9gmaMUy3guDJ) March 10, 2026

Canada Advances For the First Time – Canada advanced to the elimination games for the first time at the World Baseball Classic, a big accomplishment for a country that saw the Toronto Blue Jays come within a few feet of winning the World Series when Isaiah Kiner-Falefa was forced out at the plate in Game 7. The country has played baseball since the 1800s and had at least one MLB franchise since 1969, and saw Toronto win the World Series in 1992 and 1993, wins that inspired thousands of Canadian kids to play baseball. They’re now reaping the benefits of those kids picking up bats, balls, and gloves. They’re on the quarterfinals on Friday against Team USA at 8 p.m. EDT.

The Netherlands Wins a Heartbreaker Against Nicaragua – Nicaragua had to run the gauntlet of qualifying for the 2023 World Baseball Classic, then went 0-4, which meant that they had to qualify again for this WBC. Leading 3-1 in the bottom of the ninth inning, they were just one out away from winning a WBC game for the first time when Ozzie Albies hit the first come-from-behind, game-ending homer in WBC history. Having gone 0-4, Nicaragua will have to go back to the qualifier again, though they’re building momentum. Don’t be surprised when they return to the WBC and win a game or two next time.

Ozzie Albies just delivered the first come from behind walk-off home run in World Baseball Classic history! WHAT A GAME pic.twitter.com/1KzrzE9znx

— Jeff Duda (@INTLBaseball24) March 7, 2026

The $2 Billion Team Sweeps Pool D – The Dominican Republic put out a batting order with 1,332 career MLB homers against Israel and a lineup with $2.328 billion worth of Major League contracts against Venezuela. After going 2-2 in 2023 and failing to advance out of pool play, the Dominicans loaded for bear this year, and swept through pool play with a perfect 4-0 record. The win in Pool D means that they potentially won’t have to play defending champion Samurai Japan until the championship game. They lead the tournament with 13 homers, one more than Italy, and have scored 41 runs, five more than the United States. They’ll face Japan in the quarterfinals at 9 p.m. EDT on Saturday night in Miami.

Italy Upsets the United States – A lot of factors played into one of the most remarkable wins in WBC history, Italy’s 8-6 win over the United States in Houston on Tuesday night, but none moreso than the management skills of Mark DeRosa, who sat Bryce Harper, Cal Raleigh, and Alex Bregman against Italy, a team loaded with MLB talent that was hungry to win. DeRosa, an MLB Network on-air personality, apparently didn’t know that his team hadn’t clinched a berth in the quarterfinals going into the game, saying so in an interview on the network that the outlet then tried to hide after it became clear that DeRosa, who has no managing experience beyond Team USA, didn’t know or didn’t care to know his team’s status. If that led to his decision to bench his starters, it’s a blunder on the level of Merkle’s Boner. If Team USA goes on to win the WBC, maybe it’ll be forgotten, but if not, it will live on in WBC lore the way Merkle’s baserunning error in 1909 for the New York Giants is still regarded as one of the worst mental errors in baseball history.

That’s not to take anything away from Italy, a team with 29 Italian-Americans and Samuel Aldegheri, the first MLB to grow up playing baseball in Italy. General manager Ned Colletti foresaw this possibility months ago, and told World Baseball Network so at the Italian-American Baseball Foundation gala in New York in December. He put together a team that shocked the United States, and he and the IABF, which have done so much to build Italian baseball, deserve credit for this historic, unforgettable moment.

Photo: Italy third baseman Jon Berti (1) celebrates his home run with catcher J.J. D’Orazio in the fourth inning of a World Baseball Classic game against Mexico, Wednesday, March 11, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)