World Baseball Classic 2023 Pool A tie-breaker: Analyzing qualification criteria and rules after Italy and Cuba advance from hotly contested group

What is the World Baseball Classic tie-breaker? This is not a question many fans expected to be wondering. Ordinarily, the top two teams by record in a given WBC pool move on and play in the next round. However, Group A needed a tie-breaker to determine who that was.

Every single team finished 2-2, which is rather unprecedented. Team Italy and Team Cuba advanced, while the Chinese Taipei, Netherlands and Panama were left home with the same record.

Fortunately, an MLB Network analyst provided the reason why these teams were left home and Cuba and Italy moved on.

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Why Cuba and Italy moved on in Group A World Baseball Classic tie-breaker

MLB analyst Jensen Lewis broke it down:

"The head-to-head action is the first tie-breaker. ... The one that decided Pool A was fewest runs allowed per defensive out recorded. Divide each team's total runs allowed by the total number of outs recorded on defense. The two teams with the lowest numbers advance."

Since the head-to-head record was played all the way out, they had to move on to the aforementioned tie-breaker. This resulted in Cuba and Italy being the top two teams.

World Baseball Classic 2023 Pool A tie-breaker

Tie-breakers are nothing new to baseball. They're used all the time in the MLB. This particular one is unique to the World Baseball Classic, though.

The distinction between runs allowed and runs allowed per out recorded is important and unique. The WBC features a 10-run mercy rule, so teams might have played fewer innings, which is why they had to check.

As a result, this unique tie-breaker means Cuba and Italy are moving onto the next round where they await opponents from Pool B.