WBC 2023- How USA, Dominican Republic and others can advance

The races for the final spots in the 2023 World Baseball Classic quarterfinals are coming down to the last days of pool play and, thanks to the tournament's unique five-team groups, several WBC tiebreaker scenarios could come into play.

So what happens should either Pool C (which the United States currently leads with Mexico, Colombia and Canada tied for second) or Pool D (which Venezuela leads followed by Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Israel) end in a two-, three-, four- or even a five-way tie?

Yes, a five-team tie is in play — and it would be the second one this WBC, after every team in Pool A finished with a 2-2 record; Cuba and Italy moved on via tiebreakers. So really, anything is possible.

Here is how the WBC tiebreakers work, and what it means for the teams in both remaining groups.

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Two-team tiebreaker: Head-to-head record.

This is pretty simple. If two countries are tied in the standings, the team that won their pool-play matchup moves on.

But what happens if three or more teams are tied in the standings? This is where things get more complicated.

Multiteam tiebreaker No. 1: Lowest quotient of runs allowed divided by the number of defensive outs recorded in games between the teams that are tied.

OK, so what does that mean?

Instead of using overall run differential, this WBC tiebreaker comes down to how many runs your team allowed against the other teams that it is tied with (the added math of dividing by the number of outs recorded helps account for extra-innings games or those shortened by a run rule).

Using the five-way tie in Pool A as an example, Cuba gave up 15 runs and recorded 108 outs in four pool games (which all counted toward the tiebreaker,