Aaron Judge made a splash as the United States beat the Dominican Republic 2-1 in the semifinals of the World Baseball Classic on Monday in an exciting and controversial game.
“The crowd here, the crowd we had when we played Mexico, was bigger and better than in the World Series,” Judge said. In the third inning of Sunday’s win over DR, he launched a power-shift and heat-seeking missile from right field that knocked out Fernando Tatis Jr.
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“The passion with which these fans represent their country and their favorite players is unparalleled.”
Television ratings came from this popcorn-worthy matchup, which, while not bigger or better than the World Series, also broke records.
Competing for a spot in the WBC final, Team USA and DR attracted an audience of 7,369,000 viewers on FS1 and Fox Deportes, making this semifinal classic the most-watched telecast in WBC history. The game was attended by more people than the average audience for last year’s MLB All-Star Game, which had 7.2 million viewers.
That was when the Oscars were airing. In fact, it was the most-watched sports event of the weekend, which included CBS’ NCAA men’s basketball tournament draft show.
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According to Fox Sports PR, FS1’s ratings peaked at 8.17 million between 11pm and 11:08pm ET, with the game going down to the wire and featuring incredible pitching from both sides.
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The game started for the Americans with Paul Skenes, the defending NL Cy Young Award winner, and ended with closer Mason Miller throwing a slider out of the zone that was dubiously called a triple.
The U.S. was powered by solo shots from Gunnar Henderson and Roman Anthony.
Ratings for FS1 jumped 252% compared to Team USA’s WBC semifinal victory over Cuba in 2023, when Team USA drew 1.95 million viewers on FS1.
