Team USA: Tonight, it's win or ... uh ... stay home

It's the biggest game that the United States of America's baseball program has played.

Ever.

So far.

The MLB Network will carry today's World Baseball Classic matchup between the Dutch-killing Team USA, without the injured Pedroia, Braun and C. Jones, and Puerto Rico today at 4 p.m. from Miami.

Win, and the U.S. travels all the way to Dodger Stadium for the semifinals this weekend.

Lose, and go home. Uh, back to their MLB teams.

Matt Vasgersian, Harold Reynolds and Al Leiter will call the game live.

MLB Network also has the Japan-Korea contest tonight at 8 p.m.

On Wednesday, MLB Network has the next game (4 p.m.) that the U.S. would play if it wins tonight, against Venezuela, that would only determine seeding in the semifinals, since both would guarantee to advance. ESPN2 (8 p.m.) then has Cuba, which eliminated Mexico late Monday, against tonight's Japan/Korea loser in San Diego (with Dan Shulman, Orel Hershiser and Steve Phillips)

Then on Thursday, ESPN (6 p.m.) has the Japan/Korea winner against Cuba or the Japan/Korea loser in San Diego (with Shulman, Hershiser and Phillips). It'll make more sense once we get there. Either way, this game will probably be just for seeding purposes only as well.

The semifinals are Saturday at 6 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m. on ESPN. The title game is Monday at 6 p.m. on ESPN.

More info at the official WBC site (linked here)

And this quote from MLB commish Bud Selig on how it's gone so far (linked here):

"I think it's been remarkable. The TV ratings have been spectacular, and the crowds are running pretty good. Everybody in baseball has said, 'We need to do more internationally.' Well, this is our foray into that, and I think it's been remarkable. ... Our games have set all-time highs in Korea and Japan, where we do a lot of business. It's doing precisely what we wanted it to do, which is grow the game on the international level. At some point, you've got to do things that are in the long-term best interest of the sport. I don't think people understand how much this is going to help the game long term. We've been criticized as being slow with our international growth. But no more."