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The World Baseball Classic rolls along on Monday, March 9 with one of the biggest clashes of the competition as Team USA takes on Mexico. The Americans are 2-0 after defeating Brazil 15-5 and Great Britain 9-1 in their opening matches. Mexico is also 2-0 after beating the same two teams, taking down Great Britain 8-2 and routing Brazil 16-0. This is one of the most anticipated games of the event and those looking to make wagers should see what SportsLine baseball expert Angelo Magliocca is betting for this contest.

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Magliocca, also known as "Amags" is a hugely profitable MLB capper who uses his deep knowledge of baseball to find value on player props, sides and totals. He is coming off another strong season at SportsLine. Over the 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 MLB seasons, Amags is up 133.4 units on straight bets and parlays while winning an additional 25.3 units on ladder plays. 

Here's a look at his best bets and analysis for USA vs. Mexico on Monday.

United States vs. Mexico best bets

The game that everybody has been waiting for in Pool B, United States vs. Mexico, begins at 8 p.m. ET with Paul Skenes taking the mound for the first time in this tournament. The winner of this game will likely be the No. 1 seed in Pool B and with both teams facing Italy (2-0) in the next couple of days, the loser of this matchup will need to win that game to advance. Skenes and a deep bullpen for the United States could dominate the Mexican lineup and make this an easy victory but we've seen the USA bats start slow in each of their first couple of games which could be a disaster on Monday. The Mexican bullpen is stacked towards the back end with potentially the best closer in baseball, Andrés Munoz, along with MLB relievers who were very successful in 2025, Victor Vodnik and Brennan Bernardino. Those bullpen reinforcements could cut the game short for the USA bats, so they'll have to strike early and often to avoid letting this one bleed into the later innings with a narrow lead.

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Opposing the USA hitters is Manny Barreda, a starting pitcher from the Mexican league who has been middling at best this winter and struggled in Mexico last year with a 6.22 ERA. He's almost 38 years old, but has been playing professionally since 2007, so at least he's a veteran who shouldn't be too rattled by this USA lineup. I think he's starting with hopes to simply get through a couple of innings unscathed and Javier Assad is likely to pitch against Italy on Wednesday now. Assad would have been a much stronger option to start this game, but the USA hitters have more experience and information on him, as opposed to Barreda. It's unclear what Mexico is going to do between Barreda and the backend of the bullpen, making this a tough game to handicap, but with a day off tomorrow and a mercy rule shortened game yesterday, they should be able to roll out pretty much every top reliever they have.

I'm going to take one more stab at the First 3 innings bet here, except this time we get the line a run lower than the previous games. We get Skenes on the mound against a significantly worse starting pitcher and hopefully the USA bats are finally rounding into form and can step on the gas earlier. Barreda is one to target for offense, and we are guaranteed Skenes for the first few innings at least, so at this price I'm finding value in backing the USA. There is also a F5 -1.5 out there at DraftKings if you don't want to just take the first three innings but you'll pay nearly 70 cents worse on the price, and at that point we're not guaranteed to have Skenes on the mound towards the end of that bet. Of course, it will give these USA hitters more time to settle in so take that one if you want a bit more security but at the +110 price, I'm more than willing to take another shot in the first three innings.

For the full game, I actually lean towards the Mexico +4 on the spread at DraftKings around -130 with the bullpen the team is able to deploy. The USA needs to win by five runs for you to lose that bet, giving you some room for error, but betting against the USA when I'm going to be watching and rooting for the Americans just feels wrong. I rarely bet with my heart but I can't bet against the United States here, so I'll leave you with the info to make your own choice on a full game bet.

DraftKings released some hits, runs and RBI prop bets, so you know I had to dive in! Schwarber has been scorching hot so far in this tournament, and Judge should continue to hit near the top of the order to give us ample opportunities. Both take walks and we've seen the USA work the count and walk with ease so far, so having this prop available to us is helpful if those guys were to walk instead of getting a hit. I'm playing both straight at 3+ hits/runs/RBI as well, but the parlay at 2+ for each player gets a half unit bet too.