orangeman

@hckošice I just wanted to thank you for organizing these replays. It's always a mess looking for them, but you made it so easy. Thank you!

I mean, I still find it odd that two teams have to fly around the world and play in a completely different time zone while their competition is sitting there waiting and resting.

I'm sure when that happens Canada will find new ways to screw up. /bitter

Lol. What year to be a Canadian sports fan. Congratulations to Venezuela!

God damn it Japan.

Canada beat PR head-to-head, so I have no problem there. Canada also won their group, unlike Venezuela. But I don't like short qualifiers like this where each team doesn't play each other. And it seems like runs surrendered is arbitrary.

Listen, I don't make the rules. I just enforce them ruthlessly.

HR! Japan just needs to hold on to win and Canada is into the Olympics! (I think)

But I think the first tie breaker is total runs. It just goes to earned runs because total runs are tied between Canada and PR.

I think 8 is enough. I can't double check now, because Im out.

Wooooooooo!

Wait, if Italy only has 8 innings (24 outs) with 8 runs, I think that puts Puerto Rico behind Canada, doesn't it?

One more!

Yeah, this week kicked my butt. I wasn't able to watch a lot of paralympic stuff. I would watch highlights when possible, including the 8th end of this match. Crazy ending.

Agree. What rugby did for Oceania, baseball does for Central America and the Caribbean. Having said that, I totally understand the cost of hosting this sport in non-baseball countries, such as France. However, I think LA should have at least 8 teams, if not 12. It's a sport where players can play virtually every day with little rest, and they could have possibly used Angel Stadium to have more games.

Assuming Venezuela loses and gives up 4+ runs, Canada just needs PR to lose and give up 9 or more runs in a 9 inning or less game. I hadn't realized one of their games went to 10 innings before. I think it's possible, but we'll have to wait and see.

If I understand the tie-breaker, Canada needs Venezuela to lose and give up 3+ runs, and for Puerto Rico to lose and give up 8+. Both totally possible. It is annoying that Canada beat PR, yet could still finish behind them (again, only if I'm understanding the tie-breaker correctly). Of course, Canada could have avoided that possibility by simply beating Panama. Anyway, they fought hard and sort of got the raw deal of an upset in Group B. But I mean, hey, Italy has scored 32 runs in 4 games for an average of 8/game. It could go down to the wire.

Well, it was much closer than most probably expected. That 7th inning will haunt everyone for a while.

Sigh. That was their pass to the Olympics, 3 straight sad outs. Couldn't even fly out to get one.

They're going to blow 2nd and 3rd with no outs, aren't they....

We have a game!

We scored!

I saw that was the tie-breaker in group play, but it said only for games played against each other (Canada and PR didn't play Venezuela). Looking at the 2023 WBC, they ranked "lost in quarterfinal" teams by record (but Australia and PR "tied" for 6th with the same record). Then it groups them by placings in their groups (all 3rd place teams together, ranked by final record, all 4th place teams together ranked by final record,etc.). That's what made me hopeful that Canada would place higher than the other two since they won their group. However, they have Venezuela in the same grouping as AUS, PR, and ITA (lost in quaterfinals) even though they won their division. Anyway, just have to hope for a Canada win or a close defensive loss, I guess. And some help elsewhere.

Help me understand the tie-breaker if all of Canada, PR, and Venezuela lose their playoff games. They'd all be 3-2, but would Canada be ranked higher for winning their group? If not, what is the next tie breaker since Canada/PR did not play Venezuela?

The prize for winning Group A for Canada looks like it might be USA, and then Japan. Cool.