00:00You take a look at Team USA here, beat Brazil 15-5, you beat Great Britain 9-1, Mexico 5
00:06-3,
00:06and then Italy 8-6, which was the loss, which again, put their season in peril. Should I say
00:10the WBC in peril? Come back with a nice victory over Canada at 5-3. For the Dominican side of
00:15thing, Craig, they swept all the way through. They have no losses here. Nicaragua 12-3,
00:20Netherlands 12-1, Israel 10-1, Venezuela 7-5, and then pounded Korea in the knockout stage
00:2510-0 here. So both of these teams coming in, one undefeated, one not, I don't think that all
00:30makes a difference because it's a one-game playoff. Winner's going to advance on a round drop.
00:34You got to beat the other team twice now because one team already has lost. That's not the case.
00:37So that brings us, Craig, to starting pitchers tonight. None better than Paul Skeens. He is
00:42in mid-season Cy Young form right now going up against Louis Severino. Let's talk about the
00:48two pitchers here to start here, Craig. Skeens, this is the guy you wanted with the ball against
00:52maybe the best team left in this tournament. Yeah, and look, that's where Team USA has the
00:58major advantage here because you would assume, you would assume on paper that Team US would have
01:04their way with Louis Severino. And by the way, if the DR had to pull him, I know that their
01:09bullpen
01:09has done a good job, but who would be left for six, seven innings? And that's the significant
01:13advantage in this one. And from a live perspective, I think if USA goes up, it is trouble. It is
01:20trouble
01:20at that point for the Dominican Republic. But I've heard some comparisons. I've heard some
01:25comparisons to Team USA in the Olympics, the basketball team, where through the years,
01:33they get a scare, they play a few games that aren't really what they're supposed to. They
01:36don't look like a dream team, so to speak. But I remember the dream team of Magic Johnson,
01:43Michael Jordan, Larry Brown. Those teams just dominated and just blew through teams. It was the
01:48teams after that that played close. I don't know. I just don't see it in this Team USA
01:54squad. Like, I could easily see them winning today and easily see them winning Tuesday.
01:58But to say that there's been an indicator of them sort of, you know, just turning it up and
02:03then sleepwalking and then all of a sudden turning it up, maybe that's what will happen
02:07tonight. I don't know. Yeah, it's good. But I certainly don't, can't indicate that I see
02:12something that's going to make that happen. Can you, Donnie?
02:15No, I'm with you on that. And look, let's be truthful here coming into this. Like when we saw
02:19the odds coming out for this tournament at the start, of course, Team USA was always going to be
02:22favored. But I wanted to take the plus money odds behind them, whether or not it was going to be
02:26Japan or the Dominican Republic as opposed to the United States. Because understanding this,
02:30it's not game seven of the World Series. We're skiing is going to take the baseball tonight,
02:33Craig. You need me for nine innings. I'll go all nine innings, 112 pitches to get this done.
02:37And also understand that's a one game knockout at this point. So for me, I thought the plus money
02:41made some sense. And again, you're talking to look tonight, depending where you're shopping at,
02:44the 135s, the 130s, the minus 128s here on the U.S. as the favorite. But also, Craig,
02:49that total is interesting to me. Listen, an eight and a half. It seems like every all hand on deck
02:55from what you need from a bullpen side to your starting pitcher is going to be there outside of,
02:59again, schemes throwing 95 pitches tonight, which he's probably not going to do and rightfully so.
03:03But if we look at that total, sort of a playoff, maybe feeling to this, Craig, or do you say,
03:08wait a second, Donnie, have you been saying what the Dominicans are doing at the plate? But again,
03:13you got to do it against Paul schemes. First five would, would be my guess to go under that total.
03:19But, but I really don't know what kind of bullpen talent you're going to get. They brought in Rogers,
03:26team USA did. I mean, he hasn't been with the team and I know that Dominican Republic will throw
03:30their very best out there, but I could see a very low scoring game for the first few innings.
03:36And then I just don't know what to expect toward the back end of that game. But as you said,
03:42the odds came out initially and I saw team USA minus one 50. I thought by the time we were
03:46on
03:46the air Sunday, this is not going to be minus one 50 is anybody watching these games. But look,
03:52it does. I went to when team USA beat Venezuela and Trey Turner hit the grand slam. It was one
03:58of
03:58the big moments in that part too. Maybe we got a big moment in store tonight late. Maybe so,
04:03because there's been big moments throughout the WBC thus far.
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