Japan vs. Venezuela Live Updates: Japan Takes the Lead With Big Inning

Welcome to Sports Illustrated’s live blog of the World Baseball Classic semifinal between Japan and Venezuela. The winner will take on Italy on Monday night after their semifinal win earlier today against Puerto Rico.
Japan and Venezuela got the fireworks going early was Ronald Acuña Jr. and Shohei Ohtani both hitting lead-off home runs in the first inning. Venezuela continued to hit Yoshinobu Yamamoto hard with three extra base hits in the next two innings and took a 2-1 lead.
The game is right there for both teams early.
Follow along with Sports Illustrated’s live blog of the WBC:
Japan vs. Venezuela live blog: Updates from the World Baseball Classic quarterfinals
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Stephen Douglas is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in media since 2008 and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Douglas spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and previously wrote for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.
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