With the win over the defending WBC champions, Venezuela not only advanced to face Italy on Monday in its first WBC semifinals appearance, but it also qualified for the 2028 Los Angeles Games, marking the first time the nation will participate in the Olympic baseball tournament.
"It's the most gratifying feeling you can have as a Venezuelan," manager Omar López said in Spanish.
Venezuela toppled Japan, which went 4-0 in pool play in Tokyo and had never been eliminated from the WBC before the semifinals, thanks to home runs from right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr., third baseman Maikel Garcia and left fielder Wilyer Abreu. Acuña, the Atlanta Braves' superstar right fielder, initiated the scoring by clubbing the second pitch from Japan starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto for a leadoff home run.
Garcia launched a two-run homer in the fifth, and Abreu crushed a go-ahead, three-run homer in the sixth inning off Hiromi Itoh to complete a three-run comeback and ignite a raucous pro-Venezuela crowd as Abreu's jubilant teammates spilled out of their dugout to celebrate.
"The feeling is something incredible," said Abreu, who has won a Gold Glove in each of his first two full major league seasons with the Boston Red Sox and hit 22 home runs last year. "It's something unimaginable. It's very difficult to describe because it was a unique moment, one of the best moments that I've had in my life."
Japan designated hitter Shohei Ohtani, who was not cleared to pitch in the tournament, matched Acuña in the bottom of the first inning, smashing a slider from Ranger Suarez for a leadoff home run to tie the score. Two innings later, Shota Morishita, who replaced an injured Seiya Suzuki to start the second frame, hit a three-run homer off Suárez to give Japan a 5-2 lead.
But Japan didn't score again as six Venezuela relievers combined for 6⅓ scoreless innings. Ohtani faced a lefty in his first four plate appearances, homering off Suárez before he was intentionally walked in the third and struck out in the fourth and seventh innings. Ohtani came to the plate with two outs in the ninth inning against right-hander Daniel Palencia and flied out to end the game three years after he struck out Mike Trout to close out Japan's championship victory over Team USA.
"We had a meeting two days ago for an hour and a half projecting Japan's lineup," López said. "The two days off was positive for us to have the bullpen fresh and to be able to navigate through that lineup. We decided we had to neutralize the moves Japan made, and that's what we did. It was teamwork."
Suárez, who signed a five-year contract with the Red Sox in the offseason, yielded five runs on three hits with three walks and four strikeouts in 2⅔ innings in his second outing of the tournament. López announced that Detroit Tigers right-hander Keider Montero will start for Venezuela on Monday. The team hoped Philadelphia Phillies left-hander Jesus Luzardo would join the roster to make a start in the knockout rounds, but he declined the invitation.
With a win Monday over Italy, the tournament's surprise team managed by Venezuelan former big leaguer Francisco Cervelli would play for the championship against either the Dominican Republic or the United States. Those teams will meet in Sunday's semifinal matchup, knowing they will also play in the six-team Olympic tournament in July 2028 -- the U.S. as the host nation and the Dominicans earning the other spot for a team from the Americas because of their semifinal showing. Venezuela joined them just after midnight Sunday morning, solidifying its place in the world's baseball hierarchy.
"We're a world power like [the Dominican Republic], like Japan, like the United States," López said. "They all have a value in the baseball world. But Venezuela has given a lot of legends, a lot of players who are retired and others who are active, and we can say we're also a world power."
