MIAMI – You had to be there.
The samba drums, the Japanese cheer band, the jerseys, the noise, the crowd, all of it surrounding a game between two of the best baseball teams in the world on Saturday night that started with a pair of leadoff home runs, one each by the biggest name on each team, and closed with shutdown relief pitching by Venezuela and a game-ending pop-out by Shohei Ohtani as Venezuela upset the defending World Baseball Classic champion Japan 8-5 at loanDepot Park.
The win propelled manager Omar Lopez and Venezuela one game closer to the final, setting up a Monday semifinal matchup with Italy, which beat Puerto Rico 8-6 earlier in the day in Houston, and also qualified the South American nation for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
There may never have been a bigger single moment in Venezuelan baseball that this game tonight, and Lopez, the manager, masterfully managed his bullpen, using six relievers to cover the final 6 1/3 innings after starter Ranger Suarez allowed five runs in 2 2/3 innings. Lopez’ club was ready for the challenge of facing the world’s top team, making what Lopez called “surgical decisions” to counter how Japan manager Hirokazu Ibata juggled his lineup.
“We had a meeting two days ago for one and a half hours projecting Japan’s lineup. Two days off were positive for us to have the bullpen fresh and to be able to navigate through that lineup,” Lopez said of the game plan he and his coaches forged. “We decided we had to neutralize the moves Japan did, and that’s what we did. It was teamwork.”
Suarez having a short, rough start, though? That was not part of the plan.
“We hope that Suarez is going to be the great pitcher that he has been all the time. He has cold blood, he prepares himself, and he can pitch in front of 30,000 or 40,000 people at the stadium. He is going to have a good execution, cold-blooded, and he’s going to count on the win in the first part of the game,” Lopez said on Thursday after Venezuela’s workout. “Maybe he will be able to pitch for four, five, six innings. He’s one of the best pitchers in the WBC, and if we have good pitching, then we are going to win the game.”
On the fourth pitch of the bottom of the first, Ohtani got the numerous Japanese fans out of their seats with a solo homer to lead off the inning, and in the second, a three-run homer by Shota Morishita gave Japan a 5-2 lead.
But once Suarez was off the mound, lifted for Eduard Bazardo after getting Masataka Yoshida to ground out to second base for the second out in the third inning, the Venezuelan bullpen stifled Japan.
And while Lopez had planned for Suarez to go deep in the game, when he didn’t, he went to Plan B, which was to juggle relievers and keep the Japan batters off balance.
“We have to be as aggressive as possible and make it to the ninth inning,” Lopez said on Thursday. “I made my decision to stop the Dominican offense and I used the bullpen for that, and it almost worked. This is the way that we are going to manage the next game.”
Bazardo came on and gave up a double to Kazuma Okamoto before getting Munetaka Murakami to ground out to second. On came Enmanuel De Jesus, who allowed just one hit and one walk over 2 1/3 innings.
Jose Butto came on with one out in the bottom of the sixth and finished off that frame without allowing a run, and then Angel Zerpa threw a perfect seventh. Andres Machado allowed two hits but no runs in the eighth, and on came Daniel Palencia for the ninth.
There was no more magic tonight, for Japan at least, as the defending champs got homers early from Ohtani and Morishita but couldn’t find enough to win against the Venezuela bullpen. They’ve played their final game in this World Baseball Classic.
For Venezuela, there’s a lot of baseball ahead. Lopez’ bullpen will have a day to rest, and then another test against a scrappy, hungry team with something to prove. A semifinal matchup with Italy awaits on Monday, as does a trip to the Olympics in 2028.
“That is celebrating not only me, but everyone that has been working with me for seven or eight months. This is the very first goal, and this is very rewarding for me as Venezuelan,” Lopez said of the team qualifying for the Olympics. “I asked God to give me wisdom to do something for my country so they could celebrate for a couple of days or three. So taking this game to L.A. 2028, whoever is the manager, whoever are the players, I am proud that I helped the team for that. And why not win a gold medal in L.A.?”
History and baseball sometimes have an uncanny way of repeating themselves. A few days less than three years ago, Shohei Ohtani gave fans around the world an unforgettable moment when he came out of the bullpen in the championship game, closing out the win for Japan with a strikeout of his former teammate, Team USA’s Mike Trout, here in Miami.
Tonight, against Venezuela, Ohtani again ended the game, this time popping Palencia’s 2-1 fastball into shallow center field where Venezuela shortstop Ezequiel Tovar caught it for the final out.
Perhaps in three years, Ohtani and Japan will have another chance.
Photo: Japan’s Shohei Ohtani reacts after fly out during the ninth inning of a World Baseball Classic quarterfinal game against Japan, Saturday, March 14, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
