USA's Pettitte Says Team Hasn't Evaluated Data on Dominican Republic Hitters, 'Been Underwater'

Given that Team USA didn't even know until late Wednesday night if it would advance to the knockout round of the World Baseball Classic, it's not a surprise the club hasn't done a lot of work to prepare for the Dominican Republic's lineup.

Speaking to reporters after Friday's 5-3 win over Canada, United States pitching coach Andy Pettitte said he has "been underwater" trying to prepare for each individual game that looking ahead wasn't really on his mind.

"I'm not going to lie," Pettitte said. "I've been underwater trying to get ready for all of our games."

According to Talkin' Baseball, Dominican Republic batters are 4-for-32 with 10 strikeouts, two doubles, two walks and a hit by pitch when facing Paul Skenes. Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. are the only Dominican Republic batters who have yet to face Skenes.

It would have been impossible to really do any strong preparation considering the U.S. matchup with the Dominican Republic in the semifinal wasn't even set until late Friday night.

Team USA's game with Canada didn't start until 8 p.m. ET, 90 minutes after first pitch of the Dominican Republic-South Korea showdown.

Given that the U.S. had to sweat its way through the last three games, thinking ahead to a hypothetical matchup could have proven costly.

Unfortunately when Pettitte and the U.S. pitching staff get to work on studying the Dominican lineup, they're not going to like what they see. Their top seven hitters in Friday's 10-0 win over South Korea were Fernando Tatis Jr., Ketel Marte, Juan Soto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Manny Machado, Junior Caminero and Julio Rodríguez.

The Dominican Republic team is hitting a collective .312/.453/.637 in five games. Their 51 runs scored is 11 more than any other team in the tournament.

On the bright side for Team USA, they might have the best possible pitcher going to contain that lineup. Skenes will get the start, his second of the tournament. The 2025 NL Cy Young winner was dominant in his WBC debut with seven strikeouts in four shutout innings in a 5-3 win over Mexico on Monday.

Mexico's lineup isn't as formidable as the Dominican Republic, but Skenes has two years of elite performance against MLB competition with the Pittsburgh Pirates to suggest he is more than capable of handling himself.

First pitch between the U.S. and Dominican Republic is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET on Sunday.