The World Baseball Classic continues to be the most fun you can have with March baseball. Move over March Madness. On Saturday night, an absolute classic unfolded as Team Venezuela took on Team Japan in a back and forth slugfest that saw the Venezuelans advance to the semifinals with a wild 8-5 victory. Detroit Tigers’ Gleyber Torres, and in particular lefty Enmanuel de Jesus, played big roles in the victory. It was a bit of a Tigers’ fest all around as even Miguel Cabrera had a long cameo in a key
moment.
The Tigers contingent will continue to be center stage as Keider Montero is now slated to start in the semifinals against Team Italy on Monday. The winner will advance to the finals against the winner of tonight’s 8:00 p.m ET matchup between Team USA and Team Dominican Republic.
Last night’s game started off with a bang and it didn’t slow down until Team Venezuela’s bullpen slammed the door on Samurai Japan from the middle inning onward. Facing World Series hero and Dodgers’ ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Ronald Acuña Jr. led off the game with a solo shot to right center field on a 1-0 heater right down the pipe.
In the bottom of the first, Shohei Ohtani struck right back with a leadoff solo shot on a Ranger Suarez curveball down and in to make it 1-1. It was not a good night for Ranger Suarez. It’s way too early for this kind of statement, but after spending a fair amount of time trying to decide whether the Tigers would be better off signing Suarez or Framber Valdez, but expecting neither, so far I think we’re in a good place. The bottom of the first ended with Cubs outfielder Seiya Suzuki getting banged up a bit trying to steal second with two outs. Salvador Perez cut him down and the Venezuelans got right back to work.
Ezequiel Tovar, who had a big night all around, opened the second inning with a drive off the wall in center field, and our own Gleyber Torres followed suit. Yamamoto hung a 2-2 splitter up on the inner edge of the plate, and Torres smoked it to left, missing a home run by inches and cruising into second with an RBI double that made it 2-1 Venezuela.
Torres was stranded on base, and Ranger Suarez settled down for a quick 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the second. Yoshinobu did likewise in the top of the third, giving up a leadoff double to Maikel Garcia of the Royals, but settling things down by stranding him. Suarez then imploded a bit in the bottom of the third, giving up an RBI double to Teruakui Sato, and then a three-run shot to Shota Morashita that threatened to blow the game open.
Suarez was knocked out of the game a batter later, but Venezuela got out of the inning without further damage. Still it was 5-2 Japan with Yamamoto on the mound. Things looked a little bleak.
In the bottom of the fourth, Enmanuel de Jesus took over, and this is where the game’s momentum began to shift. The left-handed has been a minor revelation this spring, and he was outstanding in this one and truly one of the standout heroes for Venezuela.
As he has all spring, De Jesus had his deep pitch mix under control and showed off a lot of deception. Team Japan was guessing wildly as De Jesus painted the edges with fourseamers and sinkers, and then bent cutters and changeups in and out of the zone with good command while pitching in the most pressure packed environment he’s faced as a professional.
He got the first out of the fourth, but gave up a single and a walk before bouncing back to strike out Ohtani and Sato both swinging at ghosts as his cutter sailed down and away from the two left-handed hitters.
In the top of the fifth, Miguel Cabrera briefly got involved. After Jackson Chourio drew a leadoff walk, Acuña was called on out a really tough checked swing call by home plate umpire Dan Iasogna. Acuña was livid, and it was the Tigers’ great and future Hall of Famer Cabrera, Venezuela’s hitting coach, was seen hollering at Acuña to let him do the yelling and to calm down before he got tossed out of the game. Iasogna did a nice job there by taking it without immediately tossing the Braves’ star in such a key game.
Fortunately for Venezuela, they had other powerful options. A two-run homer from Maikel Garcia cashed in Chourio anyway, cutting Japan’s lead to 5-4, and de Jesus held it in the bottom of the inning, striking out Morashita and getting a routine grounder and a pop-up to send this to the sixth inning.
Wilyer Abreu seized control for Venezuela with Yamamoto gone, cracking a three-run shot after singles from Tovar and Gleyber Torres to make it 7-5. De Jesus got the dangerous Munetaka Murakami, who we’ll see a lot of with the White Sox, on a flyout to start the bottom of the sixth before giving way to José Butto.
De Jesus finished with 2.1 IP, 0 R, H, BB, 3 K for the night. Pretty darn good against a dangerous lineup.
Team Venezuela’s bullpen followed de Jesus’ example and shut the door on Japan the rest of the way. Angel Zerpa, Andrés Machado, and Daniel Palencia shut the door with a solid inning of work each. Tovar continued his huge game with an eighth inning double, and then scored on a ill-fated pickoff attempt that was thrown away by Atsuki Taneichi. That was the ballgame.
These guys were pretty hype.
Now, Keider Montero will take Venezuela’s hopes into his hands in the biggest start of his career. Of course, Montero is familiar with some pressure. He does have 8 1/3 scoreless innings over the last two postseasons with the Tigers, so he’s been in these situations before. However, doing the pre-game media as the starting pitcher in an elimination game for your country is a different animal. Hopefully Keider handles the pressure and does well in all respects. This could be a huge confidence builder for him, or a tough moment that stings a while.
It will be very interesting to see how he does, just as his role with the Tigers this season remains an interesting question. Going from starting a semifinal game for your home country, to getting sent out to Toledo to start the year, is going to be some medicine for a letdown if that’s how it goes. No doubt his chances will come anyway if he’s pitching well.
The Detroit Tigers have had really longstanding ties to Venezuela. Apart from Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez, and Magglio Ordonez, one of the Tigers top prospects, Josue Briceño is Venezuelan, as well as Torres, Montero, and now de Jesus. So it’s great to see Team Venezuela’s underdog run.
