Venezuela won 8-5 and pulled off a shock at the 2026 World Baseball Classic by eliminating Shohei Ohtani’s Japan, and will play the semifinal against Italy, who caused the other surprise of the day by eliminating Puerto Rico after winning (8-6). The sixth edition of the tournament will have a new champion as the Japanese team, which won the 2023 tournament and is the most successful team in the competition with three victories, was eliminated.
Venezuela reached the semifinals for the second time, after the 2009 edition when it lost to Korea, and not only defeated one of the favorites at LoanDepot Park in Miami, but also achieved its direct qualification to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. The other ticket for America went to the Dominican Republic.
In front of 34,548 fans, Venezuela took confidence from the first inning when Ronald Acuna Jr. opened the scoring with a home run off 2025 World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto. But Japan, who came into the game unbeaten, responded immediately when Ohtani hit a 190 km/h home run to tie the game against Venezuelan starter Ranger Suarez.
Venezuela regained the lead in the second inning with Gleyber Torres, who hit a double that allowed Ezequiel Tovar to score to make it 2-1. Japan woke up in the third inning and attacked Suarez with everything they had. First, Teruaki Sato hit a double, drove in Sosuke Genda’s run and put Ohtani on third. Then Shota Morishita hit a home run and drove in three runs to give them back the lead at 2-5.
Yamamoto settled down to pitch four innings, allowing two runs and striking out five. But Venezuela did not give up and reacted against the Japanese bullpen. In the fifth, they scored two more runs to make it 4-5, when Maikel Garcia hit a home run off Chihiro Sumida with Jackson Chourio on base.
Key sixth inning
The key moment came in the sixth inning. Wilyer Abreu hit a home run off Hiromi Itoh, winner of the Sawamura Award (the Japanese version of the Cy Young), which drove in three runs, with Tovar and Torres on base, and ended up tipping the score in favor of Venezuela.The climax of the game could not have been better for the Venezuelan team. In the ninth inning, Daniel Palencia dominated from the mound to Ohtani with a fly ball for the last out and sent his team to the semifinals against Italy, a game that will be played on Monday in Miami. On Sunday, the first semifinal will be played between the United States and the Dominican Republic, the only undefeated team in the tournament.
Italy’s surprise continues
Meanwhile, Italy gave another surprise by reaching the semifinals thanks to a solid 8-6 victory over Puerto Rico in the quarterfinal game played in Houston, Texas. The European team showed that it was hungry for revenge against the Puerto Ricans, against whom it had a losing streak of more than a decade and two defeats in the only previous duels in the World Classic.
Italy is thus confirmed as the big surprise in this edition of the World Baseball Classic and remains perfect, including a victory against the United States in the group stage, while Puerto Rico is left out for the second consecutive time in the quarterfinals, as in 2023 it fell against Mexico.
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