Venezuela hits the final
Venezuela beat Italy 4-2 with a three-run seventh to reach the World Baseball Classic final — their first-ever trip to the championship game — and will face Team USA tonight (March 17, 8 p.m. ET). (x.com) Their win leaned on Ronald Acuña Jr.’s elite speed — he was logged at 29.7 ft/sec during the run spree — and the matchup now spotlights USA bullpen availability after heavy usage in earlier rounds. (x.com)
Starter Keider Montero was pulled after 1 1/3 innings after issuing three walks and allowing two runs, forcing Venezuela into a bullpen-heavy plan early in the game. (espn.com) Six Venezuelan relievers — Ricardo Sánchez, Luinder Ávila, Ángel Zerpa, Eduard Bazardo, Andrés Machado and Daniel Palencia — combined to record 23 outs and keep the opposition scoreless after Montero’s exit. (espn.com) The decisive rally began with a two-out single by Jackson Chourio, followed by Ronald Acuña Jr.’s game-tying infield single, Maikel García’s go-ahead single to left and Luis Arraez’s insurance RBI single in the seventh. (mlb.com) Eugenio Suárez supplied Venezuela’s earlier run with a solo home run in the fourth inning, his first homer of the tournament according to the box score. (espn.com) Daniel Palencia closed the game with a one-inning save, striking out two batters and throwing 15 pitches (11 strikes) in the final frame. (espn.com) By contrast, Team USA used Paul Skenes plus five relievers (Tyler Rogers, Gabriel Jax, David Bednar, Garrett Whitlock and Mason Miller) in their March 15 semifinal, leaving both finalists with notable recent bullpen workloads heading into the title game. (espn.com)
