The 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics had plenty of upsets and surprises, but Tuesday night’s World Baseball Classic action might have produced the most shocking international result of 2026.
And Team USA was on the wrong side of it.
The Americans were stunned by Team Italy, 8-6, in a game in which they never led, played sloppily and failed to find the big hit.
Now, their hopes to reach the quarterfinal round are in doubt and could come down to a tiebreak.
Mets hurler Nolan McLean got the start for the U.S., and after a dominant first inning where he struck out the side, allowed two home runs in the second to put the Americans in an early 3-0 hole.
Yankees lefty Ryan Yarbrough didn’t provide any relief, yielding a two-run blast to Jac Caglianone in the fourth.
Things completely unraveled two innings later when reliever Brad Keller turned a possible double-play ball into a run-scoring error when he threw wildly to second base. The Italians then tacked on two more in the inning with a sacrifice fly and a wild pitch to take an 8-0 lead after the first five and a half innings.
Gunnar Henderson (a solo shot) and Pete Crow-Armstrong (three-run homer) went deep in the sixth and seventh before Roman Anthony delivered a run-scoring single in the eighth.
But Bryce Harper, who came up as a pinch-hitter for Paul Goldschmidt and represented the tying run, flied out to left field to strand runners on the corners in the eighth. Crow-Armstrong went hit a second homer, a solo blast, in the ninth, but the U.S. couldn’t pull any further. Captain Aaron Judge, up with a runner on and two outs, struck out swinging to end the game.
