TOKYO – There’s not much left for Omar Lopez to do to prove that he’s ready to manage a Major League Baseball club.
He’s won a championship in his home country, leading the Caribes de Anzoategui to the 2014-15 Liga Venezolana de Beisbol title. He was the manager of the year in the Texas League in 2018 with the Corpus Christi Hooks, who he guided to a 82-56 record in the Double-A Texas League. And five years after that, his Venezuela team won Group D at the 2023 World Baseball Classic at Miami’s loanDepot Park, advancing to the quarterfinals, where they lost to the United States 9-7.
This week at the Tokyo Dome, Lopez has led a Venezuela team that narrowly missed the championship game, beat the eventual champion, Chinese Taipei, and put a scare into World No. 1 Samurai Japan, a game where they led 5-3 in the middle of the sixth before a six-run inning doomed their chances.
Venezuela’s first game in the Tokyo Dome, the 2-0 victory against Chinese Taipei, was Lopez’ masterpiece. Utilizing eight different pitchers, five of whom faced a single batter, he squeezed out a win, pushing every button at exactly the right time. Chinese Taipei only managed to get three runners into scoring position, and when they did, Venezuela’s relievers shut them down.
It was a strategy that Lopez had foretold. On Wednesday, the day before the tournament began, Lopez had to change plans because the starter he wanted to use against Chinese Taipei, Mario Sanchez, who plays for the 7-Eleven Uni-President Lions of Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League, had been delayed by visa problems.
Without Sanchez, “It was, like, for me… a matchup. And they play like they don’t know us, we don’t know them, and see who’s going to make, who’s going to minimize mistakes. And whoever kind of take advantage of opportunities will capitalize. And that’s what we did,” Lopez said.
In the fifth inning of that game, Lopez made three separate pitching changes. He replaced starter Nivaldo Rodriguez with Ricardo Rodriguez to start the inning. After getting Yu-Hsien Chu to strike out swinging, Rodriguez allowed single to Kun-Yu Chiang and a walk to Chia-Chiang Lin, Lopez brought in Liarvis Breto.
When Tung-Hua Hueh hit Breto’s 1-2 offering into right field for a single, it looked like the move might be been an error. But Breto struck out Chen-Wei Chen on a 3-2 fastball, and out came Lopez again. On came Pedro Garcia, who induced a fly out to right field from Li Lin, ending the biggest threat Chinese Taipei would muster.
“I think Taiwan had a great opportunity in the fifth,” Lopez said “We came back and we got that strike out after we fell behind the count. And then Pedro Garcia was able to finish that. I think that was the key of the game.”
It was more than just that, though: It was the key moment of a must-win game that kept Venezuela in the hunt for the Premier12 title, and while they didn’t get there — Saturday’s 6-5 loss to the United States ensured the two teams would play again Sunday for third place — it shows the rare combination of guts, skill, and, yes, luck, that successful managers possess.
Against Japan, Lopez’ club’s two-run lead may have only held for a short while, but it was the biggest deficit Japan had faced heading into the championship game.
“Omar is a tremendous baseball man, and I think he showed it in this tournament. He showed it down in Mexico. They had some moves they could make on the offensive side that were a little bit depth and he used them very, very well to get some good matchups,” said United States manager Mike Scioscia, who managed the Los Angeles Angels from 2001-16, winning a World Series in 2002. “He used them very well to get good match-ups. I think he uses his bullpen very well for in the moment. We’re fortunate we played some of our best baseball the last two nights against them. Omar is certainly a guy that you can see him get an opportunity in the manager in the Major Leagues.”
Lopez built this team largely through personal relationships, and in doing so, built more than a team.
“We get more together as a team, as a family, you know, every player, every staff member, you know we we treat as a family member,” Venezuela starter Mario Sanchez said.
Sanchez, who had to return to Venezuela from Guadalajara, Mexico to get his visa straightened out before traveling to Japan– a 30-hour trip that took him from Caracas to Istanbul before finally arriving in Tokyo on Friday morning — exemplifies the team’s belief in their leader.
“I don’t think he made any mistakes anytime in this tournament. He did great, he did great. I told him I’m going to be ready for whatever situation you’re going to put me in, in the rotation, from the bullpen, even yesterday, I was ready to pitch,” Sanchez said. “All the spirit that he has, I think he does a great job even here and everywhere. He did a great job. I think that his experience is the most important. I trust him very much.”
Even after a 30-hour trip across three continents, Sanchez was ready to take the mound for Lopez.
That tells you everything you might need to know.
Hopefully, general managers around Major League Baseball are listening.
