How Italy-Mexico will decide Team USA's fate

Plus: Canada-Cuba opens stacked day at Classic

Wednesday, March 11 View Online Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter that gets you up to speed on everything you need to know in baseball, while catching you up on fun and interesting stories you might have missed. Thanks for being here.   Today's the final day of Pool Play in the World Baseball Classic, and we're guaranteed a high-stakes slate. Team USA wrapped up its opening round with last night's narrow loss to Italy, finishing 3-1 in Pool B, but the Americans' first-round fate is far from set. They'll be glued to tonight's Italy-Mexico game (7 ET on FS1), which will determine which two of the top three Pool B clubs -- Italy, USA and Mexico -- will advance to this weekend's quarterfinals and which will go home. Anthony Castrovince has a full rundown of the tiebreaker scenarios for Italy, USA and Mexico here. HOW TO WATCH TONIGHT'S GAMES A quick programming note for tonight's two Classic games in light of a network update: • At 7 p.m. ET, Italy vs. Mexico will air on FS1 • At 8 p.m. ET, Dominican Republic vs. Venezuela will air on Tubi While both the D.R. and Venezuela have secured a trip to the quarterfinals after a 3-0 start to Pool D play, tonight's matchup will directly affect this weekend's matchups in Miami. The winner of D.R.-Venezuela will face Korea, the Pool C runner-up, Friday at 6:30 p.m. ET on FS2. The loser will get an extra day of rest ... but will need to go up against Japan, which went unbeaten in Pool C and is looking for its fourth World Baseball Classic title. That quarterfinal game will be played Saturday night at 9 ET on FOX. So who has the edge in Pool D? If history is any indication, the Dominican Republic has an advantage, having won four of the five matchups between the two countries in Classic history. David Adler has more on this battle of unbeatens here. WATCH LIVE: CANADA-CUBA ON FS2 You don't need to wait until tonight to get your World Baseball Classic fix. If you're reading this on Wednesday afternoon, there is a critical, win-or-go-home matchup unfolding right now on FS2! Canada versus Cuba began at 3 p.m. ET today. The stakes are high and simple to understand: If Canada wins, it advances to the quarterfinals as the top seed in Pool A. If Cuba wins, it advances as the Pool A runner-up. And the loser is eliminated, no matter what. Both teams are 2-1. Canada defeated Pool A host Puerto Rico on Tuesday to put itself on the doorstep of reaching the WBC quarterfinals for the first time. Cuba lost to Puerto Rico but picked up wins against Colombia and Panama. It has made it to the quarters in each of its five Classic appearances but is still looking for its first tournament crown. Stop what you're doing -- or at least finish this newsletter first -- and go turn on FS2 or listen to a free audio stream here to follow the drama.   -- Brian Murphy FOOD BY THE BOATLOAD You won't want to miss the boat on the latest ballpark fare from the club that popularized toasted grasshoppers. This season at T-Mobile Park, the Mariners are offering a souvenir Washington State Ferry Boat that can be filled with options like nachos or chicken tenders and fries. You get to keep the boat, of course, and we can all get on board with that.   Get your Mariners tickets (and your chance to acquire a ferry boat full of food) now >> PLAY DAILY WALKOFF Put your baseball brain to the test with Daily Walkoff, where you can find 30 brand-new trivia puzzles every day, one for each team. Play Daily Walkoff >> © 2026 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. MLB trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball. Visit MLB.com. Any other marks used herein are trademarks of their respective owners. Please review our Privacy Policy. You (gahleexholly.hdhask@blogger.com) received this message because you registered to receive commercial email messages from MLB.com. Please add info@marketing.mlbemail.com to your address book to ensure our messages reach your inbox. If you no longer wish to receive commercial email messages from MLB.com, please unsubscribe  or log in and manage your email subscriptions. Postal Address: MLB.com, c/o MLB Advanced Media, L.P., 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.