Juan Soto Calls Dominican Republic 'Best Team in Baseball' Despite Loss to USA in WBC 2026

A semifinal exit in the World Baseball Classic doesn't change how Dominican Republic star Juan Soto evaluated his squad.

"We showed the world who's the best team in baseball," he told ESPN's Jeff Passan. "That's all I got to say."

The D.R. won all four of its pool games by a combined score of 41-10, and it hammered South Korea 10-0 in the quarterfinals, a score that triggered the WBC's run rule.

At the very least, one could argue the Dominicans boasted the strongest lineup from top to bottom.

"The D.R. is the toughest lineup I've ever faced, for sure," Team USA ace Paul Skenes said, per Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com. "I think they would probably say the same thing about facing us."

That offense met its match on Sunday. Aside from Junior Caminero's second-inning homer, it failed to muster much against U.S. pitching.

The Dominicans went 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position, and they combined for just two hits over the final 4.2 innings.

The Dominican Republic was justly frustrated with how the game ended.

On a full count against U.S. closer Mason Miller, Geraldo Perdomo watched as a slider well out of the zone was called strike three. An inning earlier, Juan Soto got rung up from almost the same location.

"I don't want to focus on the last pitch," manager Albert Pujols said, per MLB.com's Michael Clair. "... I'm not going to criticize any of that. It wasn't meant to be."

One-off knockout games introduce a lot of variability. Teams that look stronger on paper come up short in a few moments, and all of a sudden their run is over.

Maybe the Dominican Republic is the "best" national team in the world. It won't have the hardware from the WBC to prove that thanks to Sunday's tough loss.