For the first time in 20 years, since the first World Baseball Classic in 2006, the USA (3-0) has a win against Mexico (2-1). Their next matchup is against Italy (2-0) on March 9th at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.
Meanwhile, Mexico will face Italy the following day at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time.
USA starting pitcher Paul Skenes tossed four shutout innings, giving up just one hit and one walk while striking out seven batters in his World Baseball Classic debut.
He will make just one more start before going back to the Pittsburgh Pirates' camp for the remainder of Spring Training.
In other games, Venezuela defeated Nicaragua 4-0. Nicaragua would finish the WBC without a single win (0-4). Meanwhile, Venezuela (3-0) is gearing up to take the Dominican Republic (3-0) on March 11th at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. The winner will go on to face South Korea in the next round of the WBC, while the loser will take on the reigning champion Team Japan.
The Dominican Republic made light work of Israel after defeating them 10-1, officially eliminating them from advancing (full recap here).
Puerto Rico defeated Cuba 4-1 to take the lead in Pool A. They're now sitting at 3-0, while Cuba is now 2-1, as they prepare for their next game against Canada (1-1) on March 10th at 7:00 p.m. Cuba will face Canada a day later on March 11th at 3:00 p.m.
In the earlier games, Colombia eliminated Panama in nail-biting fashion after Panama did the same to Colombia the previous day with a win over Canada (full recap here), while Great Britain defeated Brazil 8-1 (both teams already eliminated).
USA vs Mexico recap and highlights
Both teams would start the game scoreless in the first two innings before they went on to combine for 15 total hits (USA-8, MEX-7).
It wasn't until the bottom of the third inning that the U.S. finally broke the game open after Aaron Judge launched a home run to right field, bringing home Bryce Harper following his single to make it 2-0.
In the same inning, Kyle Schwarber would reach first with a single and advanced to second after Cal Raleight was hit by a pitch, putting runners on second and first with one out (Alex Bregman strikeout).
Then Boston Red Sox rookie Roman Anthony would launch a moon shot to deep right field that put the Americans up to a commanding 5-0 lead.
The next highlights may not be from home runs, but they're certainly worth praising.
American shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. showed everyone why he's a Platinum Glove recipient with a diving stop to get the second out in the top of the fourth inning.
It wasn't just once, but twice. Witt would pull off the nearly same highlight one inning later for, yet again, the second out as he made a play at first.
In the top of the sixth, Mexico started to find life against USA reliever Matthew Boyd.
Jarren Duran would hit his second home run of the 2026 World Baseball Classic to cut the USA lead to 5-1 for just Mexico's second hit of the game at the time.
But Mexico wasn't finished as they continued to rally.
Boyd proceeded to give up three-straight two-out singles that would eventually come back to bite him. Jonathan Aranda and Alejandro Kirk would get the first two base knocks to get on first and second with two outs.
Then Joey Meneses would hit an infield single off Brice Turang's glove to score Aranda from second to make it 5-2 before heading into the bottom half of the inning.
Durran would cut the lead once more to make it 5-3 with his second homer of the game and third of the WBC, once again off of Boyd.
With two on and two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, the USA failed to capitalize on the opportunity, leaving Mexico one last chance in the top of the ninth to try and rally.
In the first at-bat, Meneses got on board with a single to right field with no outs to start the inning off USA reliever Garrett Whitlock. Alejandro Osuna came on to pinch-hit for Mexico, but got sent down on three quick strikes for the first out.
Whitlock would strikeout Mexico's next pinch hitter in Julian Ornelas before forcing Alek Thomas to ground out for the final out.