{"id":542105,"date":"2026-03-17T10:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T10:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/542105\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T10:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T10:18:09","slug":"venezuela-to-play-u-s-for-world-baseball-classic-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/542105\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela to play U.S. for World Baseball Classic title"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\" alt=\"Text to Speech Icon\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 2 minutes<\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n<p>Ronald Acuna Jr., Maikel Garcia and Luis Arraez hit run-scoring, two-out singles in a seventh-inning rally that led Venezuela over Italy 4-2 on Monday night and into its first World Baseball Classic championship game.<\/p>\n<p>Venezuela overcame a 2-0, fourth-inning deficit after rebounding from a three-run hole to beat defending champion Japan in a quarterfinal and reached the final for the first time after losing to South Korea in its only previous semifinal appearance in 2009.<\/p>\n<p>They meet the United States for the title on Tuesday night and it appears they&#8217;ll likely start Eduardo Rodriguez against the Americans&#8217; Nolan McLean. Because both teams are 5-1, a coin toss was held earlier Monday to determine the home team, and the U.S. won.<\/p>\n<p>Italy, the first European nation to reach a WBC semifinal, had been 5-0 in the tournament and sparked attention with an espresso-sipping ritual after home runs and victory celebrations featuring Italian wine.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"baseball team\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773742689_414_default.jpg\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.5\" data-cy=\"image-img\"\/>The Italy team console each other after losing to Venezuela at a World Baseball Classic semifinal game, Monday, March 16, 2026, in Miami. (Lynne Sladky\/The Associated Press)<\/p>\n<p>But a team with three Italy-born players, a handful of major leaguers and many from the minors couldn&#8217;t hold a late-inning lead against a batting order that got three straight RBIs from All-Stars as a pro-Venezuelan sellout crowd at LoanDepot Park roared.<\/p>\n<p>Italy went ahead in the second when Keider Montero forced in a run with three straight walks, the last to J.J. D&#8217;Orazio. Dante Nori hit into a run-scoring forceout against Ricardo Sanchez, the first of six relievers who combined to finish a five-hitter.<\/p>\n<p>Eugenio Suarez&#8217;s fourth-inning homer off Aaron Nola started the comeback, and winner Angel Zerpa escaped a bases-loaded jam in the sixth when he threw a sinker on the outside corner past Sam Antonacci.<\/p>\n<p>Gleyber Torres walked leading off the seventh against loser Michael Lorenzen, and Jackson Chourio&#8217;s two-out single put runners at the corners.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"sports team celebrates a win\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773742689_602_default.jpg\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.5\" data-cy=\"image-img\"\/>The Venezuela team celebrates after defeating Italy at a World Baseball Classic semifinal game, Monday, March 16, 2026, in Miami. (Rebecca Blackwell\/The Associated Press)<\/p>\n<p>Acuna grounded to the shortstop hole and beat Antonacci&#8217;s throw from the outfield grass as pinch-runner Andr\u00e9s Gim\u00e9nez scored.<\/p>\n<p>Garcia lined a 2-0 fastball to left, driving in Chourio with the go-ahead run, and Arraez chased Lorenzen when he singled on a full-count fastball.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel Palencia got three outs for the save, striking out Antonacci to end the game.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-542105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}