HOUSTON (AP) — The surprising loss by the United States to Italy in the World Baseball Classic Tuesday night means that the Americans need help to advance to the quarterfinals.
The 8-6 defeat left the team with a 3-1 record at the end of its pool schedule. Mexico and Italy wrap up Pool B play Wednesday night where a win by the Italians will give the U.S. second place and a spot in the next round.
If Mexico wins then all three teams will move to 3-1 and 1-1 against each other and send it to a tiebreaker.
The tiebreaker is the number of runs allowed in games between the tied teams. So, the U.S. could also advance even if Mexico wins if it scores at least five runs.
Aaron Judge, who struck out in the ninth to end it Tuesday night, is disappointed that the team failed to take care of business against Italy.
“It’s the toughest thing,” he said. “You always like having your destiny in your own hands and we had it right in front of us and Italy came out swinging.”
The Italians hit three home runs in the first four innings to build a five-run lead and were up 8-0 before the U.S. got on the board.
After the game U.S. manager Mark DeRosa fielded questions about whether he thought his team had already secured a spot in the quarterfinals with Monday night’s win over Mexico because of his comments on a television appearance Tuesday morning.
In that interview he said: “Ton of respect for Italy — it’s weird — we want to win this game even though our ticket’s punched to the quarterfinals because Mexico plays Italy actually tomorrow. So, the way the schedule lines up this is an important game for us.”
In the interview room he said he “misspoke” in that segment and in a later interview outside the clubhouse he reiterated that he did not think they had already clinched a spot.
“One hundred percent… I misspoke,” he said. “Bottom line.”
Judge said the players didn't think that they had already secured a spot in the quarterfinals and that he didn't know about DeRosa's television interview.
Judge added that the team will probably gather at the hotel to watch Wednesday's game.
“It's out of our control now,” he said. “We just need a little luck and we’ll see what happens.”
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
United States pitcher Brad Keller (40) walks to the dugout in the middle of the sixth inning of a World Baseball Classic game against Italy , Tuesday, March 10, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
United States right fielder Aaron Judge (99) lines out to center field in the sixth inning of a World Baseball Classic game against Italy , Tuesday, March 10, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel and Iran exchanged fire early Wednesday as Tehran kept up its pressure on the region's oil industry, apparently hitting a ship in the Strait of Hormuz and setting it ablaze while targeting infrastructure as concerns grew of a global energy crisis.
Iran has effectively stopped cargo traffic in the narrow strait through which about a fifth of all oil is shipped from the Persian Gulf toward the Indian Ocean. It has also targeted oil fields and refineries in Gulf Arab nations as part of a strategy apparently aimed at generating enough global economic pain to pressure the United States and Israel to end their strikes.
Early Wednesday, Kuwait said its defenses downed eight Iranian drones and Saudi Arabia said it intercepted five drones heading toward the kingdom's Shaybah oil field. A projectile hit a container ship off the coast of Oman in the Strait of Hormuz, setting it ablaze and forcing the crew to abandon the vessel.
The U.N. Security Council was to vote later in the day on a resolution sponsored by the Gulf Cooperation Council demanding Iran stop attacking its Arab neighbors.
Israel, which launched the war with the United States on Feb. 28, said it had renewed attacks on Tehran, following multiple strikes the day before that residents described as some of the heaviest during the war. Explosions were also heard in Beirut and in southern Lebanon after Israel said it had started a new assault on targets related to the Iran-linked militia Hezbollah.
The attacks set a building ablaze in central Beirut in the densely populated Aicha Bakkar area, engulfing the top two floors of the multistory structure. There were no immediate reports of casualties from the strike, which came without warning.
An earlier Israeli strike killed five people in the Nabatieh district in southern Lebanon, while two more were killed in strikes in the Tyre and Bint Jbeil districts, Lebanon's Health Ministry said. A Red Cross worker also died Wednesday of wounds sustained Monday, when his team was hit by an Israeli strike while they were rescuing people from an earlier attack.
Nearly 500 people have been killed so far in Lebanon since Hezbollah triggered the latest round of fighting with Israel when it fired rockets into the country’s north after the American and Israeli attacks on Iran started.
Israel warned of three Iranian attacks early Wednesday, with sirens heard in Tel Aviv and elsewhere but no immediate reports of casualties.
In addition to Iranian attacks targeting Saudi Arabia's oil fields, the kingdom's defense ministry said it had destroyed six ballistic missiles launched toward Prince Sultan Air Base, a major U.S.- and Saudi-operated air facility in eastern Saudi Arabia. The ministry also said it intercepted and destroyed two drones over the eastern city of Hafar al-Batin.
In the Strait of Hormuz north of Oman, a cargo ship was hit with a projectile and set on fire, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, run by the British military.
Iran did not immediately claim the attack though it has been targeting ships in and around the strait.
The UKMTO earlier reported on another attack targeting a container ship off Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates. In that case, it said the “extent of the damage is currently unknown but under investigation by the crew.”
The United Arab Emirates said early Wednesday that its air defenses were working to intercept incoming Iranian fire. The wealthy Gulf nation — home to the business and travel hub of Dubai — said Iranian attacks have killed six people and wounded 122 others there.
Bahrain sounded sirens early Wednesday, warning of an incoming Iranian attack. The warnings came a day after an Iranian attack hit a residential building in the capital, Manama, and killed a 29-year-old woman and wounding eight people.
At the United Nations, the Security Council was to vote Wednesday afternoon on the Gulf Cooperation Council resolution, according to three diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement.
The council, a six-nation regional bloc, said its own facilities were targeted in an Iranian attack last week on Bahrain.
The draft resolution, obtained by The Associated Press, condemns Iran’s attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. The measure calls for an immediate end to all strikes and threats against neighboring states, including through proxies.
It would be the first Security Council resolution considered since the start of the war.
Oil prices remained well below the peaks Monday but the price of Brent crude, the international standard, was still up some 20% Wednesday from when the war began, and consumers around the world are already feeling the pain at the pump.
The spike in oil prices has been rocking financial markets worldwide because of worries that the war could block the global flow of oil and natural gas for a long time.
Amin Nasser, the president and CEO of Saudi Arabia’s oil giant Aramco, warned Tuesday that if oil tankers continue to be unable to transit the strait “that will have a serious impact on the global economy.”
The U.S. military said Tuesday it had destroyed 16 Iranian minelayers near the Strait of Hormuz, though U.S. President Donald Trump said in social media posts that there were no reports yet of Iran mining the passage, a prospect that experts warned of preceding the war.
In addition to the nearly 500 people killed in Lebanon, Iran has said more than 1,300 people have been killed there and Israel has reported 12 people dead.
The U.S. has lost seven soldiers while another eight have suffered severe injuries.
Many foreign nationals have been getting out of the Persian Gulf region since the war began, including over 45,000 U.K. citizens, the British Foreign Office said. Some 40,000 people returned to the United States, according to the State Department.
Magdy reported from Cairo, and Rising from Bangkok. Associated Press writers Sally Abou AIJoud in Beirut, Giovanna Dell’Orto in Miami, Julie Watson in San Diego, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this story.
People take shelter in an underground metro station as air raid sirens warn of incoming Iranian missile strike, in Ramat Gan, Israel, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A man passes in front of a destroyed building that housed a branch of Al-Qard Al-Hassan, a non-bank financial institution run by Hezbollah, which was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
People walk past closed shops at the nearly empty traditional main bazaar in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Motorbikes drive past a billboard depicting Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, center, handing the country’s flag to his son and successor Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, right, as the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini stands at left, in a square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
