World Baseball Classic 2017 schedule: Puerto Rico and Team USA battle to stay atop Pool F

With under a week to go in the 2017 World Baseball Classic, the semifinal matchups are starting to take shape. There is only one game on Friday, but it will go a long way in deciding one of the teams to advance next week to Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

Both the United States and Puerto Rico are 1-0 in Pool F play in the second round, and they meet on Friday night at Petco Park in San Diego. A second win in the three-game Pool F round robin schedule would give Friday’s victor a leg up toward advancing to the championship round. The top two teams from Pool F advance to Los Angeles, where Japan and Netherlands have already qualified as semifinalists from Pool E.

Team USA is coming off an emotional 4-2 comeback win over Venezuela on Wednesday night in San Diego, where one night previously Puerto Rico beat the Dominican Republic, snapping an 11-game WBC winning streak for the defending champion Dominicans.

The winner on Friday night will have a reason to celebrate, as we have seen throughout this tournament.

“There’s a lot of emotion here, and you just let them play. I mean, we let the other team celebrate the way they want to celebrate because this is what it’s all about,” Puerto Rico manager Edwin Rodriguez said after beating the Dominican Republic on Tuesday. “They’re playing for their country. You’ve got the chance to do this for every four years. The same thing with us.”

Puerto Rico is 4-0 so far in the tournament.

MLB Network will televise Friday’s game in English, as they have every game of this tournament. Matt Vasgersian and John Smoltz call the action, with Jon Morosi reporting from the dugout. ESPN Deportes will televise the game in Spanish. Online streaming is available through MLB Network with television provider authentication, as well as Watch ESPN.

10 p.m. ET - United States vs. Puerto Rico
TV: MLB Network, ESPN Deportes