I think the best line I’ve seen from Italian sports fans is their disbelief that Italy has a better national baseball team than a calcio (soccer) team.
Italy scored four runs in the first inning to upset Puerto Rico and advance to the semifinals of the World Baseball Classic for the first time.
Things didn’t look good for Italy early as the first batter of the game for Puerto Rico, former Cub Willi Castro, hit a solo home run in the top of the first inning. [VIDEO]
But Angels pitcher
Sam Aldegheri retired the next three batters in order. Meanwhile, Italy jumped all over Puerto Rico starter Seth Lugo for four runs in the bottom of the first inning.
After two walks, Vinnie Pasquantino tied the game 1-1 with this RBI single. [VIDEO]
Next up, Mariners outfielder Dominic Canzone singled to put Italy up 2-1. Then Jac Caglianone singled home another run to make it 3-1. [VIDEO].
Jovani Morán then replaced Lugo, but he walked the first batter he faced. Then J.J. D’Orazio hit a sacrifice fly and it was 4-1 Italy.
Puerto Rico got a run back in the top of the second when Aldegheri walked two batters and hit a batter to load the bases. At that point, Italy manager Francisco Cervelli pulled Aldegheri for Alek Jacob, but Jakob hit the first batter he faced to make it 4-2 Italy.
But Jacob then struck out Castro and got a ground out by Darell Hernaiz to end the threat.
Italy expanded the lead to 8-2 with a four-run fourth inning. First, Brewers 2025 first-round pick Andrew Fischer doubled home two off Luis Quiñones. [VIDEO]
As you can see, there was clear fan interference on that play, so the umpires correctly called it a double.
J.J. D’Orazio, who plays in the Diamondbacks system, drove in two more with back-to-back doubles. [VIDEO]
After that, it was up to the Italian bullpen to hold the six-run lead. They almost blew it. Guardians minor leaguer Dylan DeLucia was strong for Italy, pitching four shutout innings against heavily-favored Puerto Rico. Twins reliever Dan Altavilla pitched around an error in the seventh. But Matt Festa came on to pitch the top of the eight and and he failed to retire a batter, loading the bases on a single, a walk and another single. Festa gave way to Pirates reliever Joe La Sorsa. La Sorsa gave up a run on an groundout to first, which was a trade Italy would make any day in that situation. But with the score now 8-3, La Sorsa’s control abandoned him. He hit a batter and then uncorked a wild pitch that scored a run and made it 8-4 Italy.
Christian Vázquez then made it 8-6 with a two-run single. [VIDEO]
Cervelli went to his closer Greg Weissert at this point in the eighth inning. Weissert struck out Castro for the second out, gave up a single to Darell Hernaiz and then got Nolan Arenado to ground out to end the inning with no further damage.
Weissert stayed in the game to pitch the top of the ninth and immediately gave up a single to Athletic Carlos Cortes to lead off the inning. But Weissert retired the next three batters to end the game and send Italy to the semifinals for the first time.
Three-time WBC champion Japan will not make it to the semifinals because Venezuela upset Japan 8-5.
Venezuela got off to an early lead when the first hitter of the game, Ronald Acuña Jr., homered off of Japan starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto. [VIDEO]
Japan got that run back promptly in the bottom of the first when Shohei Ohtani homered off of Venezuela starter Ranger Suárez. [VIDEO]
Venezuela broke out to a 2-1 lead in the top of the second when Ezequiel Tovar doubled off Yamamoto to lead off the inning and then Gleyber Torres doubled him home. [VIDEO]
Japan got to Suárez in the third inning. First, Teruaki Sato tied the game 2-2 with this double. [VIDEO]
The next batter, Shota Morishita, hit a three-run home run to make it 5-2 Japan. [VIDEO]
Morishita was in the game as a replacement for Seiya Suzuki, who injured his knee trying (and failing) to steal second base.
Let’s all hope Suzuki isn’t seriously hurt. This doesn’t sound too bad.
Yamamoto allowed two runs on four hits over four innings. He struck out five. [VIDEO]
Japan’s bullpen wasn’t of the same quality. In the fifth inning, Venezuela cut the Japan lead to 5-4 with this Maikel Garcia home run off of Chihiro Sumida [VIDEO]
In the sixth, Venezuela took the lead for good with this upper-deck. three-run home run by Wilyer Abreu, [VIDEO] which made it 7-5 Venezuela.
Venezuela made it 8-5 when Ezequiel Tovar scored on this throwing error by Atsuki Taneichi. [VIDEO]
Japan got a threat going in the bottom of the eighth inning with two two-out singles, but former Nationals pitcher Andrés Machado got a ground out to end the last threat. [VIDEO]
Cubs closer Daniel Palencia came on in the ninth to seal up the win for Venezuela and he did just that, striking out Sosuke Genda and Kensuke Kondoh before getting Ohtani to pop out and send Venezuela to the semifinals. [VIDEO]
As noted in that video, it is the first time Venezuela has made the semifinals of the WBC since 2009. It’s the first time ever that Japan has been eliminated before the semifinals.
Italy will play Venezuela in the semifinals at 7 p.m. CT on Monday. On Sunday at 7 p.m. CT, Team USA takes on the Dominican Republic. Both games are on FS1. A game thread for tonight’s game will post here at 6 p.m. CT.
