An elimination that would have been humiliating has been avoided.
If Team USA did not quite play like a juggernaut, it at least played well enough to advance without any external help this time.
All the Americans needed to get back on track was a matchup with a nation that shares a land border and has recently doubled as a punching bag.
The United States — a country that boasts 29 major league clubs — faced off against Canada — a country that has one — and survived a scare from its northern neighbors, 5-3, in the World Baseball Classic quarterfinals Friday night in Houston.
It’s a clean sweep for the U.S., whose men’s and women’s hockey teams beat Canada in the championship games of the Winter Olympics last month.
The Los Angeles Dodgers, too, triumphed over the Toronto Blue Jays in the World Series last year.
In the WBC, the Americans have won five straight times against the Canadians, including a 12-1 beatdown in 2023.
Team USA moves on to what arguably is the showdown of the tournament: a semifinal Sunday against the Dominican Republic, which knocked off South Korea in its Friday quarterfinal that ended in a mercy rule-inducing homer from the Yankees’ Austin Wells.
The Dominican lineup owns the muscle and starpower to keep up with the Americans, a relentless onslaught of Fernando Tatis Jr., Ketel Marte, Juan Soto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Manny Machado, Junior Caminero and Julio Rodríguez, just to name a few.
As a reminder: This stage is single elimination, so another Game 7 awaits.
