The other night, Canada needed to beat Mexico or allow two or less runs in the game, win or lose, in order to advance to the second round of the WBC. Otherwise, Mexico would have advanced. This brings up an interesting point. What if Canada trailed 2-0 after the top of the ninth? At that point, they'd have been in--unless they scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth, sending the game to extra innings. Because then Mexico would have had a chance to score another run to win and eliminate the Canadians.

What would have happened in the bottom of the ninth? Mexico's only chance to advance would have been to purposely give up exactly two runs. So they could have started walking people intentionally. But then Canada could have just swung and missed at every pitch on purpose. Mexico's pitcher could have started going to his mouth, making the umpire call a ball, or whatever the WBC rule is on that. But the Canadian runners could have just ran out of the baselines. Or just forfeited the game. As a matter of fact, depending on the forfeit rule, they could have just forfeited the game before it even started. Maybe Mexico would have been credited with a 1-0 win, and Canada would have advanced. Something to (never) think about (again).