Canada faces United States in first-ever World Baseball Classic playoff appearance

Josh Naylor and Team Canada celebrate

Canada’s first-ever appearance in the World Baseball Classic’s playoffs won’t be easy.

The Canadians will be the underdogs when they take on the United States in Friday’s quarterfinal at Daikin Park, home of Major League Baseball’s Houston Astros. The U.S. are the betting favourites to win the entire 30-team international tournament.

Although Canada has participated in all five WBCs (2006, 2009, 2013, 2017, 2023), it has never reached the knockout stage before. Canada clinched its quarterfinal berth with a 7-2 win over Cuba on Thursday.

That victory meant Canada (3-1) won Group A over Puerto Rico (3-1) and knocked Cuba (2-2) out in the pool round for the first time in the event’s 20-year history.

“I’m very excited about it, needless to say. I mean, it’s been a long haul,” said Ernie Whitt, who has been Canada’s manager for all six WBCs, after Thursday’s win. “The team has really come together, we’ve gelled.

“As far as the organization is concerned, and representing our country, you couldn’t ask for more. We’re very excited from the top all the way down to the bottom.”

In Friday’s other quarterfinal, South Korea takes on the Dominican Republic. On Saturday, Italy meets Puerto Rico and Venezuela faces Japan.

It’s been 20 years since Canada last beat the U.S. in the WBC, which was an 8-6 game in Pool B in the inaugural WBC in 2006. Canada is the home team in Friday’s game, even though it’s being held in the U.S.

Montreal’s Abraham Toro said that after a 4-3 loss to Panama on March 8 dropped the Canadians to 1-1 in pool play and endangered their chances of advancing to the playoffs, the team had a meeting to mentally reset.

“We just came together, and everybody was still so positive,” said Toro. “We were like, ‘hey, even though we didn’t play our best, we still got two games to go,’ and we cleaned it up and played really good baseball the last two games.

“Hopefully we keep this momentum for the next round.”

Toro has been the key to Canada’s offence, with a .467 batting average, hitting three doubles, a triple, a home run, and driving in five runs. He has a.529 on-base percentage and a 1.000 slugging percentage. His OPS — a sum of those two percentages — is 14th best in the entire tournament.

Surprisingly, Toro’s OPS is better than anyone on the U.S.’s stacked lineup.

That includes three-time American League most-valuable player Aaron Judge and power-hitting catcher Cal Raleigh, who was runner-up to Judge in last year’s AL MVP voting.

Their rotation includes Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal, last year’s Cy Young Award winners as the best pitchers in the National League and American League, respectively.

“The baseball (in Canada) is like anywhere in the world. Baseball is global, so it’s everywhere,” said infielder Otto Lopez who was born in the Dominican Republic but has only represented Canada internationally. “The message I could say is that don’t underestimate any team, and mostly in this tournament.

“We’re prepared, and I think (in the 2023 tournament) we had an experience of the WBC that caught our eye that we wanted to advance, and that is very important for us.”

Underestimating opponents may actually be the U.S.’s Achilles heel.

After the Americans beat Mexico 5-3 on Monday, manager Mark DeRosa seemed to think his team had clinched a playoff berth, even though it hadn’t.

“Ton of respect for Italy — it’s weird — we want to win this game even though our ticket’s punched to the quarterfinals because Mexico plays Italy actually tomorrow," said DeRosa in an interview.

Italy beat the U.S. 8-6 the next day as DeRosa made a series of conservative strategic decisions apparently designed to rest his players.

The 8-6 defeat left the Americans with a 3-1 record at the end of its pool schedule. That meant to advance, the U.S. needed Italy to beat Mexico to actually clinch. The Italians — a roster filled with American citizens — obliged with a 9-1 win over Mexico on Wednesday.

DeRosa later said he “misspoke” in that interview and did not believe the team had already clinched a spot.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 12, 2026.

John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press