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Jorge CastilloMar 15, 2026, 12:31 AM ET<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.<\/p>\n Multiple Authors<\/p>\n MIAMI — Venezuela, a country steeped in baseball tradition, made history on two fronts Saturday night when its national team defeated Japan 8-5<\/a> in the World Baseball Classic quarterfinals at LoanDepot Park.<\/p>\n With the win over the defending WBC champions, Venezuela not only advanced to face Italy on Monday in its first WBC semifinals appearance, it also qualified for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, marking the first time the nation will participate in the Olympic baseball tournament.<\/p>\n “It’s the most gratifying feeling you can have as a Venezuelan,” manager Omar L\u00f3pez said in Spanish.<\/p>\n Venezuela toppled Japan, which went 4-0 in pool play in Tokyo and had never been eliminated from the WBC before the semifinals, thanks to home runs from right fielder Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr<\/a>., third baseman Maikel Garcia<\/a> and left fielder Wilyer Abreu<\/a>. Acu\u00f1a, the Atlanta Braves’ superstar right fielder, initiated the scoring by clubbing the second pitch from Japan starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a> for a leadoff home run.<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n 2 Related<\/p>\n Garcia, who started at third base, launched a two-run homer in the fifth, and Abreu crushed a go-ahead, three-run home run in the sixth inning off Hiromi Itoh to complete a three-run comeback and ignite a raucous pro-Venezuela crowd as Abreu’s jubilant teammates spilled out of their dugout to celebrate.<\/p>\n “The feeling is something incredible,” said Abreu, who has won a Gold Glove in each of his first two full major league seasons with the Boston Red Sox<\/a> and hit 22 home runs last year. “It’s something unimaginable. It’s very difficult to describe because it was a unique moment, one of the best moments that I’ve had in my life.”<\/p>\n Japan designated hitter Shohei Ohtani<\/a>, who was not cleared to pitch in the tournament, matched Acu\u00f1a in the bottom of the first inning, smashing a slider from Ranger Suarez<\/a> for a leadoff home run to tie the score. Two innings later, Shota Morishita, who replaced an injured Seiya Suzuki<\/a> to start the second frame, hit a three-run home run off Su\u00e1rez to give Japan a 5-2 lead.<\/p>\n But Japan didn’t score again as six Venezuela relievers combined for 6\u2153 scoreless innings. Ohtani faced a lefty in his first four plate appearances, homering off Su\u00e1rez before he was intentionally walked in the third and struck out in the fourth and seventh innings. Ohtani came to the plate with two outs in the ninth inning against right-hander Daniel Palencia<\/a> and flied out to end the game three years after striking out Mike Trout<\/a> to close out Japan’s championship victory over Team USA.<\/p>\n “We had a meeting two days ago for an hour and a half projecting Japan’s lineup,” L\u00f3pez said. “The two days off was positive for us to have the bullpen fresh and to be able to navigate through that lineup. We decided we had to neutralize the moves Japan made, and that’s what we did. It was teamwork.”<\/p>\n Su\u00e1rez, who signed a five-year contract with the Red Sox in the offseason, yielded five runs on three hits with three walks and four strikeouts in 2\u2154 innings in his second outing of the tournament. L\u00f3pez announced that Detroit Tigers<\/a> right-hander Keider Montero<\/a> will start for Venezuela on Monday. The team hoped Philadelphia Phillies<\/a> left-hander Jesus Luzardo<\/a> would join the roster to make a start in the knockout rounds, but he declined the invitation.<\/p>\n With a win Monday over Italy, the tournament’s surprise team managed by Venezuelan former big leaguer Francisco Cervelli, Venezuela would play for the championship against either the Dominican Republic or the United States. Those teams will meet in Sunday’s semifinal matchup, knowing they’ll also play in the six-team Olympic tournament in July 2028 — the U.S. as the host nation and the Dominicans earning the other spot for a team from the Americas because of their semifinal showing. Venezuela joined them just after midnight Sunday morning, solidifying its place in the world’s baseball hierarchy.<\/p>\n “We’re a world power like [the Dominican Republic], like Japan, like the United States,” L\u00f3pez said. “They all have a value in the baseball world. But Venezuela has given a lot of legends, a lot of players who are retired and others who are active, and we can say we’re also a world power.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jorge CastilloMar 15, 2026, 12:31 AM ET CloseESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-541578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Venezuela’s Wilyer Abreu celebrates his three-run homer in the sixth inning of Saturday’s 8-5 win over Japan. Venezuela will face unbeaten Italy in Monday’s semifinal game.\u00a0AP Photo\/Marta Lavandier<\/p>\n