Juan Soto Boldly Claims Dominican Republic Is Best Team in World After Loss to USA

Team USA is marching on to the final after shutting down a historic offense.

Juan Soto praised his Dominican Republic team after exiting the World Baseball Classic. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The Dominican Republic's World Baseball Classic came to a crushing end on Sunday night as one of the best offensive lineups ever assembled could muster only a single run in a 2-1 loss to Team USA. Six pitchers worked together to stymie Dominican Republic hitters and some missteps on the basepaths allowed Mark DeRosa's team to hang on and advance to the WBC finals.

It's a bitter pill to swallow for the Dominican side, especially when they set a tournament record for home runs by a team, missed out on several chances to score the go-ahead runs and saw their elimination ushered in by a terrible strike three call to the end the game.

So it's understandable that emotions were high in the losing locker room.

Still, it's always a bit surprising to hear an athlete say that the team that lost was actually superior, as Juan Soto did in an interview with ESPN's Jeff Passan.

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

If someone felt so inclined they could get upset by this or cast it as sour grapes. But the thing about Soto's comments is that they might be true. Baseball is a game of inches and a single-elimination tournament is going to create situations where the "best" team does not win the title quite often. And one could argue that on balance the Dominican Republic outplayed the United States.

Yet none of that matters. Ninety-nine people out of 100 are always going to equate the "best team" and the team that wins the competition. That actually might be the correct way to do it as someone who believes that's why we play the games in the first place.

With time, though, Soto and his teammates will be recognized as playing in one of the most compelling and dramatic games in recent baseball history. The sheer talent and pure emotion on display was the sport near its apex. That won't take any of the sting out of the loss in the short-term but it's still an accomplishment and unforgettable experience.

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