Don Mattingly has openly joked about getting Nick Punto back in camp next week. He didn’t think Team Italy had a long future in the World Baseball Classic. He wasn’t alone.

On a day off for Hanley Ramirez and Ronald Belisario, the other three Dodgers in the WBC — Luis Cruz, Adrian Gonzalez and Punto — were busy pulling off upsets. Italy beat Canada, 14-4, and Mexico stunned the United States 5-2.

Punto went 2 for 4 with a double and scored twice. Gonzalez homered and drove in three runs and Cruz put Mexico up 5-1 with a sacrifice fly off Glen Perkins in the fifth inning. As Ice Cube once said, “it was a good day.”

Unless you’re the U.S., that is. The Americans play the Italians today and momentum is not in their direction. Italy beat Mexico on Thursday and can eliminate the U.S. from advancing to the semifinals with a win.

• I profiled Kevin Gregg today for the paper. As sometimes happens, the story got trimmed and you didn’t read this:

Gregg was a big Dodgers fan growing up. His grandparents lived in the Chevy Chase section of Glendale, on a hill with views of the Rose Bowl to the east and the Los Angeles Coliseum to the southwest. Dodger Stadium was about 15 minutes away and a ritual destination whenever his family came to visit from Oregon.

• Scouts from several teams attended last night’s game. Were they there to see Chris Capuano specifically? Who knows. It’s no secret the Orioles are scouting starting pitchers, first Aaron Harang, now Capuano.

• The Seattle Mariners could be getting new unis.

• The Gold Glove Awards are going sabermetric.

• More SABR: Dodgers president Stan Kasten spoke yesterday at the SABR Analytics conference in downtown Phoenix. A link to the audio will be available soon on SABR.org. Check it out.

• Sweet video/song by Benoit Pioulard: