Roman Anthony, Garrett Whitlock have Red Sox hype train at full speed after WBC heroics

As baseball fans across the United States celebrated Team USA's electric World Baseball Classic win over Team Dominican Republic, Boston Red Sox fans celebrated a little harder. Local players became international heroes again (whether the game should've ended that way or not).

The night before, Wilyer Abreu crushed the winning home run for Team Venezuela and loosed the most insane bat flip anyone's ever seen. On March 15, Roman Anthony and Garrett Whitlock had their moments to save an underperforming Team USA in a nailbiter.

Junior Caminero (who'll be a huge problem for the Red Sox) opened the scoring with his third home run of the tournament in the second inning and Gunnar Henderson homered to lead off the fourth. Gregory Soto replaced a shocking prime Luis Severino, and he was no match for Anthony. He launched a 421 foot blast to center field and framed the "USA" on his chest as he crossed the plate — the winning run.

The DR attempted a rally in the seventh inning on an Austin Wells double, and Geraldo Perdomo singled to advance him to third base, but David Bednar put an end to it with two strikeouts. A scoreless top of the eighth later, Garrett Whitlock came in to carve up the heart of the DR's order.

Red Sox Roman Anthony and Garrett Whitlock heroes of Team USA's World Baseball Classic semifinal win against Team DR

He carved up Juan Soto for a strikeout (with some help from the home plate umpire). He induced an easy groundout of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and made the play to first himself. Manny Machado waved at a pitch that finished its path near the lefty batter's box.

Red Sox fans are used to seeing Whitlock slice batters in the eighth inning to set up for Aroldis Chapman — Whitlock posted a 2.25 ERA with 91 strikeouts over 72 innings last year — and he may have become a household name on Sunday night. Team USA manager Mark DeRosa called him "absolutely nasty" after the game, which Boston alredy knew well.

The WBC has been an incredible showcase for the Red Sox's best bats and arms, and Anthony and Whitlock have garnered well-deserved hype for their contributions to Team USA's second consecutive trip to the championship. After what some might call an underachieving offseason, reporters and analysts have expressed concern for Boston's offense in the highly competitive American League East. Anthony, Abreu, and even Jarren Duran on Team Mexico, eliminated in pool play, put those concerns to bed.

Anthony has started every game of Team USA's run to the final, with seven hits, five runs, two of them home runs and seven RBI in the six tournament games so far. He's just 21 years old and his heroics have made him the star of Team USA among some of the best players in the game, like Aaron Judge and Bobby Witt Jr. If the WBC is any indication, Anthony's first full season with Boston will be huge, and MLB rivals aren't ready.