- The team led by Omar López remains undefeated, after beating the Dominican Republic on the opening day | Photo: EFE
The Venezuelan team defeated Puerto Rico 9 runs to 6 and thus achieved its second consecutive victory in the World Baseball Classic.
Venezuela opened the scoring in the first episode with four runs. José Altuve reached on error and advanced to second for a rolling. Ronald Acuña Jr. walked. A single by Salvador Pérez drove in the first for Venezuela. Anthony Santander hit a home run that brought another three lines for Vinotinto.
Venezuela extended their advantage in the second episode. Altuve doubled and advanced to third base on Luis Arráez’s single. With runners at the corners, Salvador Pérez hit a home run that drove in three runs and made the score 7-0.
In the bottom half of the episode, Puerto Rico discounted one with a solo home run by Eddie Rosario.
The Venezuelan team added the eighth run in the fourth inning. Pérez hit a double and with Giménez’s single he advanced to third. David Peralta drove in Pérez with an infield single.
Venezuela’s ninth race came in the fifth chapter. Acuña Jr. hit and came to the plate with a double drive from Pérez.
Puerto Rico discounted four in the bottom of the sixth inning. Vimael Machín received a walk and advanced to third with a single by Francisco Lindor to score a hit by Kiké Hernández. MJ Meléndez reached on a ticket. An RBI hit from Emmanuel Rivera allowed Lindor to step on the plate and put Hernández 90 feet from home before scoring on Javier Báez’s ground ball. Rosario connected a sacrifice fly that allowed Meléndez to score the fourth of the episode and put the actions 9-5.
The Puerto Ricans in the eighth marked a stripe. Hernández reached first base by mistake and scored on Melédez’s double to seal the final score 9-6.
Venezuela vs. Puerto Rico: pitching
Puerto Rico’s pitching used eight pitchers in the game to try to control the Venezuelan offense. The starter José Berrios allowed six runs in one episode of work and was relieved by Fernando Cruz who stayed on the mound for one chapter, allowing a score.
The pitcher Jovani Morán took charge of the mound and an inning of work conceded two tickets and struck out two, to be relieved by Héctor Santiago who allowed two runs in 2.1 innings of work.
Dereck Rodríguez pitched 0.2 innings and was relieved by Alexis Díaz, who pitched an inning in which he struck out all three batters he faced.
Nicholas Padilla took the mound for a chapter to make way for Jorge López who had a one-inning job in which he struck out a rival.
For Venezuela, starter Pablo López contained the Puerto Ricans’ bats and in 4.2 innings of work he allowed one run, struck out six players and received two hits.
The reliever Andrés Machado pitched 0.1 innings in which he allowed two hits and four runs.
Jhoulys Chacín was the second reliever for Venezuela. In two innings of work he allowed three hits and one run.
Silvino Bracho took charge of the actions and stayed on the mound for two episodes in which he left without allowing hits or runs.
The next meetings of Venezuela
-March 14: Nicaragua vs. Venezuela at 12:00 p.m.
-March 15: Venezuela vs. Israel at 12:00 p.m.
The Venezuelan team debuted the World Baseball Classic with a triumph by beating the Dominican Republic team 5-1.
The Dominican team opened the scoring in the first episode and the Venezuelans equalized the actions in the bottom part of the second episode.
Then the Venezuelan team stepped on home plate twice in the fourth episode, once more in the sixth to seal the final score in the eighth chapter.