Colombia’s Upset Loss, U.S. Rout of Canada Puts Americans Back in Pool C Driver’s Seat
After Sunday night’s loss to Mexico, Team USA was facing down — to quote Thomas Paine — the times that try men’s souls. But Monday brought new life; Great Britain’s upset win over Colombia put the Americans’ destiny back in their own hands, and in the nightcap the United States bludgeoned Canada with nine first-inning runs en route to a 12-1 mercy rule win.
Team USA is idle on Tuesday, but will advance with a win over Colombia on Wednesday. With a win and a Mexico loss in either of its two remaining games, Team USA will win the pool. If Mexico and the U.S. both win out, Mexico will win the group.
For fans of chaos, the dreaded five-team tiebreaker scenario is still on the table under a specific set of circumstances:
| Home Team | Away Team |
|---|---|
| Colombia | Canada |
| Mexico | Great Britain |
| Canada | Mexico |
| Colombia | United States |
If that happens, be prepared to laugh and/or cry and/or pray.
Michael is a writer at FanGraphs. Previously, he was a staff writer at The Ringer and D1Baseball, and his work has appeared at Grantland, Baseball Prospectus, The Atlantic, ESPN.com, and various ill-remembered Phillies blogs. Follow him on Twitter, if you must, @MichaelBaumann.
Can the US advance if they lose to Colombia?
(I think this is right, but it’s early)
We can advance losing to Colombia either maybe through the convoluted chaos tie breaker or if Colombia also beats Canada; GB beats Mexico; and Canada beats Mexico. That would put USA, Canada, and GB all at 2-2 but we’d have beaten both of them, giving up 3 runs total, so we’d easily win the weird tie breaker.
If Colombia beats Canada, but Mexico wins both games, we’re done. If they win one, we are in a tough spot with the 11-spot we gave up to Mexico. But I do think if Mexico beats Canada like 11-10 or something around that then we’d win the tie breaker for some stupid reason.
Yes – depending on the scores. See the chaos rubric above.
ALL HAIL CHAOS RUBRIC