It will be Team USA against the Dominican Republic in the first semifinal of the 2026 World Baseball Classic after a close win by the former and a blowout win by the latter.
Team USA defeated Canada, 5-3, Friday to move a win away from a repeat appearance in the WBC championship game, taking a significant lead early and holding on as its neighbors to the north rallied.
The Americans scored in spurts, but never put away the Canadians. They took a seemingly safe 5-0 lead in the top of the sixth inning, until Canada responded with a three-run rally capped off by a Bo Naylor homer in the bottom of the frame.
Canada had a prime chance to tie the game with two runners in scoring position and no outs in the seventh inning, but Team USA's David Bednar escaped the danger with a pop-out and two strikeouts against the heart of the opposing lineup.
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It wasn't the blowout many expected after Team USA entered the game as a -800 favorite. Logan Webb, limited by a 70-pitch maximum, was good in 4 2/3 innings of work, but the middle relief corps nearly coughed up the game.
Team USA will need more in its next game, judging how Friday's earlier game went. The D.R. demolished Korea, ending the game in the seventh inning on an Austin Wells three-run homer to make it 10-0, triggering the WBC's mercy rule.
Five games is a limited sample, and it might be hyperbolic to say when it's won four of those games, but it's hard to see Team USA as the tournament's top team after its loss to Italy and closer-than-needed wins over Mexico and Canada. The vaunted lineup has been less than dominant against every pitching staff with major leaguers (read: the ones that aren't Brazil or Great Britain), and the pitching staff has been as uneven as you see in a typical spring training game.
It can all change in a single game, though. We'll see if that's the case in Miami at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday (Fox Sports 1).
Follow along with Yahoo Sports for the latest news, updates and highlights coming out of Friday's WBC quarterfinal matchups: