World Baseball Classic: Venezuela storms back vs. Italy, sets up finale vs. Team USA

MIAMI — The Venezuela offense was held at bay for six innings, but then the big rally happened in the seventh and for the first time in the history of the event, Venezuela is going to the finals of the World Baseball Classic. It won on the strength of a three-run seventh inning by the final score of 4-2 over the Cinderella story that was Italy.

Here’s what to know about the Monday night semifinal as we also look ahead to Tuesday’s championship game pitting Venezuela against Team USA. 

Italy’s duo of starters worked for six innings

Italy decided to go with Aaron Nola as the starter in this one and then use its No. 2 starter, Michael Lorenzen, in relief. This meant that if Italy was able to win, it would be using a bullpen game in the finals against USA, a pretty dicey proposition. It almost worked. Through six innings, the only run for Venezuela came on a solo homer from Eugenio Suárez and, well, he does that. The philosophy for Italy manager Francisco Cervelli was clearly that you have to get to the finals first before figuring out how to pitch in the finals. Things worked out well for most of the game and just fell off the rails late …

That seventh inning rally

The leadoff walk to Gleyber Torres was innocent enough, especially given that Lorenzen struck out the next two batters. Then a hit-and-run worked perfectly as Jackson Chourio singled up the middle. That put runners at first and third for Ronald Acuña Jr. He hit a grounder in the hole to the right of shortstop Sam Antonacci, who couldn’t make the play. That gave Acuña an infield single along with the game-tying RBI. Maikel Garcia followed with a single to take the lead and then Luis Arraez singled home another run. Just like that, Venezuela had a 4-2 lead.

Venezuela’s bullpen was huge

The two runs Italy scored in the third inning were due mostly to three straight walks from Venezuela starting pitcher Keider Montero. Once Montero was removed from the game, the Venezuelan bullpen completely dominated the Italian offense — which had been among the most powerful offenses in the WBC prior to Monday. A tip of the cap to Ricardo Sánchez, Luinder Avila, Angel Zerpa, Eduard Bazardo, Andrés Machado and Daniel Palencia for their stellar work. They combined for 7 ⅔ innings of scoreless ball, only allowing three hits. 

USA sends Nolan McLean to mound

The Venezuela lineup isn’t quite as scary looking as the Dominican Republic lineup on paper, but it’s pretty stout. Acuña, Garcia and Arraez start things off before Suárez in the cleanup spot. The lineup is so loaded that William Contreras hits eighth, Chourio hits ninth and Willson Contreras is a bench player. Salvador Perez wasn’t in the lineup Monday either. 

McLean has only made eight career MLB starts, but he was dominant in those starts. It’s bound to be a very fun matchup of power vs. power. 

Venezuela to start Eduardo Rodríguez

The USA offense is loaded with power. Bobby Witt Jr. will hit leadoff before Bryce Harper, Aaron Judge and Kyle Schwarber. Cal Raleigh, who hit 60 homers last season, has batted either sixth or seventh when he’s in the lineup. Pete Crow-Armstrong, who was a 30-30 guy last year, hits ninth. The bench is loaded, too. 

Rodríguez is a capable MLB pitcher who once finished sixth in Cy Young voting. He has posted an ERA north of 5.00 each of the last two seasons, however. He was last a good starting pitcher in a full season in 2023. 

Then again, the USA lineup has been shut down by some pitchers in the WBC that one wouldn’t think would shut them down, such as Lorenzen in the Italy game in pool play. It’s just one game. Anything can happen and Rodríguez has talent and MLB pedigree. He also has World Series experience (2018 with the Red Sox), so the gigantic stage shouldn’t be an issue.

The bullpen issue for Venezuela

Thanks to tournament rules, Team USA, having played Sunday and getting the day off Monday, has a pitching advantage. Every USA pitcher is technically eligible to pitch. Venezuela, meanwhile, will be limited by back-to-back rules.

It doesn’t quite seem fair to have a setup like this, but those are the rules and that’s how everything shook out. Advantage USA on this one.