A Nail-Biter for the Ages at loanDepot Park — March, 2026
usa vs dominican republic final score, there are baseball moments — the kind that stop the world mid-spin and remind everyone why this sport, at its finest, is unlike anything else in sports. Sunday night at loanDepot Park in Miami, Florida, was one of those moments.
In a semifinals matchup rife with many of baseball’s biggest names, Team USA outlasted the Dominican Republic 2-1 on Sunday night to advance to the World Baseball Classic finals for the third straight time. The game, played before a sold-out crowd of 36,337 fans, began at 8:00 PM ET and was broadcast live on FOX/FS1.
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The first World Baseball Classic semifinal is in the books, with Team USA edging the Dominican Republic 2-1 in the matchup many had been dreaming about since the start of the WBC. But dreams rarely match the lived reality — this one exceeded every expectation. Every inning was a tug-of-war. Every at-bat felt like a championship moment. And when the final pitch was called, the entire baseball world erupted into debate.
This was not just a baseball game. This was an international event, a cultural clash, and a pitching masterclass wrapped into nine innings of pure drama.
Pre-Game Context: Two Powerhouses on a Collision Course
FanDuel considered Team USA to be the favorite to win the WBC entering the semifinals, posting +140 odds. The Dominican Republic was second at +160, ahead of Venezuela (+360) and Italy (+750). On paper, two evenly matched titans going head to head in Miami — the de facto home turf for both nations’ passionate fan bases — was always going to be combustible.
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The Dominican offense entered the game as by far the best in the tournament. The team led the 2026 WBC in runs, home runs, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging, and OPS. Their lineup read like a Hall of Fame ballot: Juan Soto, Fernando Tatis Jr., Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Manny Machado, Ketel Marte — name after name of the sport’s elite talent, all wearing the same jersey. It was, by many accounts, arguably the most offensively gifted roster ever assembled in WBC history.
Team USA, meanwhile, entered off a nervy path through pool play. Team USA finished in second place in Pool B, going 3-1 in group play. The U.S. easily beat Brazil and Great Britain before a close win over Mexico. The Americans then shockingly lost to Italy on Tuesday, which set up a scenario where their quarterfinal fate was temporarily out of their hands. They had survived more than thrived to get here, and manager Mark DeRosa knew it. The semifinal, he decided, was where the real USA would show up.
The Starting Pitchers: Skenes vs. Severino
The pitching matchup alone was worth the price of admission. For Team USA, ace Paul Skenes — the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner — took the mound in the most important start of his young professional career. Across the diamond, the Dominican Republic handed the ball to Luis Severino, a veteran right-hander pitching with undisguised patriotic fire.
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Severino hit 99 mph six times in Sunday’s game — one more time than he did all of last season. That number alone tells the story of what this game meant to him, to his country, and to the 36,000 fans inside loanDepot Park who were overwhelmingly wearing red, white, and blue — Caribbean-style.
Dominican Republic starter Luis Severino opened the game by striking out Bobby Witt Jr. and Bryce Harper, getting them both swinging. In the third inning, he struck out three, including Aaron Judge and Kyle Schwarber with two runners on base. The image of Severino pumping his fist after fanning Judge — his former Yankees teammate — with runners on second and third to strand the threat was one of the iconic moments of this entire tournament.
Those two combined for 109 home runs last season. It was early, but that was a huge moment.
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Inning 2: Caminero Breaks the Silence
After a scoreless first inning, it was the Dominican Republic who struck first blood. Starter Paul Skenes delivered 4⅓ innings of one-run ball for the Americans, allowing only a solo homer to Junior Caminero in the second inning.
Caminero’s homer was the WBC record-setting 15th homer of the tournament for the deep Dominican lineup. Caminero hit his third home run of the tournament off Skenes, who lifted a hanging sweeper and sent it over the left field wall for a 1-0 lead. loanDepot Park shook. The Dominican fans — the majority of the crowd — erupted. This felt like the beginning of something inevitable.
But that word — inevitable — has no place in a game like this.
Inning 3: Severino’s Giant Escape Act
Team USA answered with pressure in the third inning. Bobby Witt Jr. singled and Bryce Harper doubled, setting USA up with runners on second and third with one out. The moment was enormous. Aaron Judge — 62 home runs in a single season, former AL MVP, a man whose name alone makes pitchers nervous — stepped to the plate with two runners in scoring position.
Severino stared him down. And struck him out.
Kyle Schwarber followed. Strikeout again. Inning over, threat extinguished, Dominican crowd delirious. Judge also showed up defensively with a massive throw from right field that ended the third inning — nailing Fernando Tatis Jr., who was trying to go from first to third on a single — with Juan Soto waiting on deck. Spectacular offense, breathtaking defense, a crowd on its feet every half-inning. This was baseball operating at maximum voltage.
Inning 4: Henderson and Anthony Flip the Script
USA manager Mark DeRosa finally played Gunnar Henderson at third base in the semifinals to maximize offense — and it paid off immediately. Henderson was in the lineup over Alex Bregman based on one calculation: Henderson was 7 for 9 with a double and a homer in his career against Severino. Numbers don’t lie, and neither did Henderson’s swing.
In the top of the fourth, with no outs, Henderson hit a solo home run off Severino to tie the game at 1-1. The swing was a thing of beauty — a bullet to right-center that erased the Dominican lead in an instant. The pro-Dominican crowd fell silent. Team USA’s dugout erupted.
Then came Roman Anthony.
The young Red Sox outfielder — a player who, just three years ago, had sat in the stands at this very same ballpark as a minor leaguer to watch the 2023 WBC final — now stood in the box against Dominican reliever Gregory Soto with one out and the game tied. Roman Anthony clobbered a left-on-left homer to dead center field to give USA a 2-1 lead. A 3-2 fastball, hammered 421 feet.
Anthony’s two home runs in this tournament lead all Team USA players. His story alone deserves its own film. From ticket-buyer in the crowd to WBC hero — in the same building, three years apart. You genuinely cannot write a story like this.
The Dominican Republic Threatens — Repeatedly
The Dominicans did not go quietly. Not even close.
Skenes exited in the bottom of the fifth after allowing back-to-back singles with runners on base. Tyler Rogers came in and got Juan Soto to bang into an inning-ending 6-3 double play to end the fifth. One bullet dodged.
In the seventh, the Dominican Republic put runners on second and third with one out against David Bednar. Fernando Tatis Jr. and Ketel Marte — two of the most dangerous hitters in baseball — stood between the Dominican Republic and a tie game. The crowd noise was deafening.
Bednar struck out Tatis and Marte swinging to preserve the 2-1 lead. This is some gutsy pitching: Bednar has been USA’s workhorse, appearing in four of their six games and throwing some of their most important innings. He’s had traffic in those four games — eight hits and a hit batter — but he’s struck out eight and not allowed a run. Sunday’s escape job against Tatis and Marte was Bednar’s best yet this WBC.
In the eighth, Garrett Whitlock delivered a clean 1-2-3 inning against the middle of the D.R. order , sending the game to the ninth with Team USA clinging to their one-run lead.
The Ninth Inning: Drama, Defense, and a Controversial Ending
Nothing about this game was going to be simple. The ninth inning delivered the most gut-wrenching sequence of the entire tournament.
The first pitch to Oneil Cruz popped out of catcher Will Smith’s glove, and Julio Rodríguez moved to second base. The tying run was now in scoring position. Then Cruz grounded out to short — but Julio Rodríguez advanced to third. The tying run was now 90 feet away. Two outs, tying run on third, Mason Miller on the mound, and Geraldo Perdomo at the plate.
Perdomo worked the count full. Then Mason Miller struck out Perdomo on a questionably low called strike three to finish the ninth inning and send the Americans to the finals.
The pitch certainly looked low, and Statcast confirmed that yes, it was below the zone. The stadium fell into a split-second of stunned silence before Team USA’s dugout spilled onto the field in celebration. Dominican players stood frozen, a mix of disbelief and heartbreak written across their faces.
The Controversial Call: ABS in the Spotlight
The game ended on a pitch that will be debated for years. That was a wonderful baseball game. Tension. Drama. Passion. Pride. Everything baseball can be — everything you want baseball to be. So for it to end on a called strike three by home plate umpire Cory Blaser on a Mason Miller slider that was clearly below the zone was such a gut punch, not just to the Dominican Republic players, but to a game that deserved better.
The ABS Challenge System is not in use at the WBC because the system was not available at every venue during pool play. Maybe it should be used in the quarterfinals, semifinals, and Championship Game since those games are being played in MLB parks — but it’s not. Perdomo couldn’t tap his head and ask for a challenge. The call stood, and the game was over.
Dominican manager Albert Pujols chose to take the high road. Pujols told reporters, “I’m not going to focus on that last pitch. I don’t want to criticize any of that. It just wasn’t meant to be for us.”
U.S. skipper Mark DeRosa called it “high-level baseball at its finest.” The two responses captured the spirit of the night: fierce competition, mutual respect, and the knowledge that sometimes the game simply does not hand you what you deserve.
The Heroes: By the Numbers
Paul Skenes — The starting ace delivered when it mattered most. Skenes gave up only Caminero’s homer in 4⅓ innings, holding the powerful Dominican lineup to one run. ESPN After the game, Skenes said: “It wasn’t the prettiest or the cleanest game I’ve ever pitched, but we saw it last game too — the great defense.”
Gunnar Henderson — His second home run of the tournament and his career record against Severino made him the perfect weapon in the perfect moment. DeRosa’s calculated lineup swap paid maximum dividends.
Roman Anthony — Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony waited out reliever Gregory Soto and hammered a 3-2 sinker 421 feet to center field. The kid who once bought a ticket to watch the WBC final from the stands at this same park is now the man who may have hit the most important home run of the tournament.
David Bednar — The unsung hero. Team USA’s bullpen allowed no runs on two hits and one walk with eight strikeouts over 4⅔ innings. DeRosa nailed the order and the matchups.
Aaron Judge — His cannon arm from right field threw out Fernando Tatis Jr. at third base to end a critical inning. His defensive plays kept a game that could have escaped the Americans firmly under control.
What’s Next: USA in the WBC Final
The Championship Game is Tuesday, also in Miami. The Dominican Republic, meanwhile, will disperse, and the many stars of their lineup will rejoin their MLB teams for spring training.
On Monday, Italy faces Venezuela in the other semifinal at 8 p.m. ET on FS1, with the winner advancing to face Team USA in Tuesday’s championship game. MLB USA look to win their second WBC title — their first since 2017.
The road to the final has been paved with late drama, clutch bullpen work, and the kind of young star power that makes baseball’s future look extraordinarily bright. Roman Anthony. Gunnar Henderson. Paul Skenes. This is not just a team built for 2026 — this is a roster that could define a generation of American baseball.
Final Verdict
“That,” said U.S. skipper Mark DeRosa, “will be a game that we’ll remember forever.”
He is right. Whether you were cheering for the red, white, and blue of the Stars and Stripes, or the red, white, and blue of the Dominican flag — Sunday night at loanDepot Park delivered baseball at its absolute, unfiltered, heart-stopping best.
Team USA is in the final. The world is watching. And Tuesday night, this extraordinary 2026 World Baseball Classic will reach its crescendo.
