World Baseball Classic: USA beats Mexico, Puerto Rico advances to quarterfinals

The United States won a showdown with Mexico on Monday night, and Puerto Rico clinched a berth in the quarterfinals, highlighting Dodgers-related action at the World Baseball Classic.

Neither Will Smith nor Clayton Kershaw played on Monday, but Team USA beat Mexico 5-3 to improve to 3-0 in Pool B in Houston. The U.S. hasn’t yet clinched a quarterfinal spot just yet, but can win the pool on Tuesday against Italy, which is 2-0 thus far.

There still exists a possibility for a three-way tie at 3-1 between Team USA, Italy, and Mexico. In that scenario (Italy beats USA Tuesday, Mexico beats Italy on Wednesday), the next tiebreaker is based on defensive runs allowed, and how Korea advanced in a three-way tie at 2-2 in Pool C in Tokyo:

The tied teams shall be ranked in the standings according to the lowest quotient of fewest runs allowed divided by the number of defensive outs recorded in the games in that round between the teams tied.

We’ll delve into the tiebreaker scenarios later, if Team USA loses Tuesday to Italy. But for now they are 3-0.

Puerto Rico clinched a spot in the quarterfinals on Monday with a .. win over Cuba, and is now 3-0 in Pool A in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Edwin Díaz pitched a perfect ninth inning with two strikeouts to earn the save.

In two games thus far in the WBC, Díaz has pitched two scoreless innings with one hit allowed, and five strikeouts in his seven batters faced.

Puerto Rico plays Canada on Tuesday and can clinch Pool A with a win. If Puerto Rico wins Pool A, they will play the Pool B runner-up on Friday in Houston. If Puerto Rico finishes second in Pool A, they play the Pool B winner on Saturday.

Japan finished off Pool C at 4-0 with a 9-0 win over Czechia on Tuesday morning. Because Japan already clinched the pool in three games, Shohei Ohtani did not play in this game, though he did warm up the right fielder during the game, and gave a baseball to a fan.

Ohtani in his three WBC games so far had five hits, including two home runs and a double, in nine at-bats, plus four strikeouts, hitting .556/.692/1.333.

Thus far, five of the eight quarterfinal teams are known. Japan won Pool C, and Korea was the Pool C runner-up, and Puerto Rico is in. Pool D will be decided on Wednesday, with 3-0 Dominican Republic facing 3-0 Venezuela. Both teams have already clinched a spot in the quarterfinals.