Italy saves USA from ultimate WBC embarrassment by beating Mexico

Team USA should be drinking some honorary espresso shots right now.

Thanks to Italy’s 9-1 win over Mexico on Wednesday night, the Americans have advanced to the quarterfinals in the World Baseball Classic.

The Italians’ rout of Mexico saved the U.S. from any of the WBC’s tiebreakers, including the much-discussed run quotient.

So, in the end, the Americans will get to regroup after an 8-6 loss to Italy on Tuesday night in one of the biggest upsets in international baseball history.

After thrilling United States-Canada gold medal matches in both men’s and women’s hockey at the Olympics, the North American rivals will get to square off on the baseball diamond in the WBC quarterfinals on Friday.

Italy, which finished atop Pool B with a sterling 4-0 record, will play Puerto Rico in its quarterfinal matchup on Saturday. Vinnie Pasquantino led the way over Mexico with three home runs, becoming the first player to do so in a WBC game.

Before Tuesday night’s loss, USA manager Mark DeRosa made an MLB Network appearance and erroneously said, “our ticket’s punched to the quarterfinals,” even though that was not the case. He also spoke about getting certain players rest and giving a start to the likes of Yankees veteran Paul Goldschmidt.

After the loss to Italy, DeRosa claimed he misspoke, though he did stick to the lineup changes he discussed on TV.

“I misspoke,” he said. “I was on ‘Hot Stove’ with a couple of buddies today and completely misread the calculations,” he said. “We knew Mexico was going to play Italy and running all the numbers with if we lost tonight with the runs allowed and runs scored and outs. So, I just misspoke.”

Now, though, their ticket is punched.