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SI:AM | Venezuela Ends Italy’s Dream Run to Reach WBC Final Against Team USA

A two-out rally in the seventh inning propelled the Venezuelans to their first World Baseball Classic championship game.
Dan Gartland|
Venezuela is headed to its first World Baseball Classic final after a thrilling victory over Italy.
Venezuela is headed to its first World Baseball Classic final after a thrilling victory over Italy. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I think St. Patrick’s Day is a perfect opportunity to revisit my story from September on one of the most important places in Ireland: Croke Park. 

In today’s SI:AM: 
🇻🇪 Venezuela’s comeback win
🏈 Five best NFL signings so far
🏀 Women’s Final Four favorites

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Venezuela breaks through

The World Baseball Classic final is set. 

Venezuela mounted a seventh-inning rally to come from behind and win 4–2 in Miami last night, ending Italy’s storybook run. For the first time, Venezuela is headed to the WBC final. It will face Team USA tonight at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. 

Italy took an early lead when starter Keider Montero, the 25-year-old Tigers pitcher, began to unravel in the second inning. He allowed a one-out single followed by three straight walks to force in a run, at which point Venezuela manager Omar López pulled him from the game. Italy’s Dante Nori drove in the second run by grounding into a fielder’s choice.

Venezuela got on the board with a solo homer from Eugenio Suárez in the fourth, but that was the only run allowed by Italy starter Aaron Nola. Michael Lorenzen took over in relief in the fifth inning and was sharp at first, allowing just one walk in his first two innings. But he got into trouble in the seventh. 

After issuing a leadoff walk to Gleyber Torres, Lorenzen appeared to get back on track with back-to-back strikeouts, but then young Brewers star Jackson Chourio started a two-out rally with a single to center. Ronald Acuña Jr. drove in the tying run by legging out an infield single, and two more singles by Maikel Garcia and Luis Arráez gave Venezuela a 4–2 lead. Italy failed to get anyone on base in the final three innings, and five of the nine batters it sent to the plate struck out. 

It was a good game, but the energy of the Venezuelan fans in Miami made it a great game. The crowd was electric throughout the night, particularly during the seventh-inning rally and at the end of the preceding inning when Ángel Zerpa got out of a bases-loaded jam with a beautiful strikeout pitch. 

Even though it fell short of a championship, Italy’s improbable run will be the most enduring memory of this tournament. While the team’s ties to Italy were tenuous (only three players on the roster were born in Italy), it was still a tremendous underdog story. Nola was the team’s only player to have been named to an All-Star team (all the way back in 2018). Vinnie Pasquantino was the only hitter with any sustained track record of big league success. The rest of the roster was mostly made up of top prospects and guys on the back end of their careers. The Italians even got 40-year-old Adam Ottavino to come out of retirement. 

A United States-Italy final would have been fun simply because of the mismatch of historic baseball success, but Team USA vs. Venezuela should be a better game. It’s obvious that Venezuela badly wants to win, both to establish itself as a baseball power on par with the rest of the world’s best and to provide a boost to a country that has been rocked by political strife for years (a situation exacerbated by a United States military operation to capture then-president Nicolás Maduro in January). 

“We have to come tomorrow and play the same way we played against Japan, against Italy,” Acuña said, “and we have to show the world who Venezuela is.”

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The top five…

… things I saw yesterday: 
5. David Pastrnak’s beautiful deke for a game-tying goal against the Devils. (The Bruins went on to lose in overtime.)
4. Venezuela pitcher Luinder Avila’s nasty 90 mph changeup that froze Vinnie Pasquantino. 
3. Bulls guard Yuki Kawamura’s jumper in the paint over the outstretched arm of Grizzlies defender Jaylen Wells. Kawamura is 5'7" and Wells is a full foot taller. 
2. Jalen Green’s powerful dunk in transition. 
1. This preposterous behind-the-back shootout goal in the KHL.

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Dan Gartland
DAN GARTLAND

Dan Gartland writes Sports Illustrated’s flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, and is the host of the “Stadium Wonders” video series. He joined the SI staff in 2014, having previously been published on Deadspin and Slate. Gartland, a graduate of Fordham University, is a former Sports Jeopardy! champion (Season 1, Episode 5).

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