The Japanese team missed the semifinals, which was the first time in the history of the World Baseball Classic. They were defeated by Venezuela 8-5 on Saturday night at Loans Warehouse Park in Miami. Venezuela reached the WBC semi-finals for the first time since 2009, and with victory secured a spot at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Mike Garcia hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning and Willier Abreu gave Venezuela the lead for good with a three-run blast in the sixth. There were 17 hits in the game, 10 of which were extra-base hits, including 5 home runs.
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Yoshinobu Yamamoto struggled early, needing 57 pitches for the first nine outs. Ronald Acuña Jr. hit his first home run on his second pitch of the night, but Shohei Ohtani answered the call with his first home run in the bottom of the inning.
MLB.com’s Sarah Langs noted that there has never been a major league game in which two former league MVPs each hit their first home run, making this WBC quarterfinal game quite rare.
Venezuela added back-to-back doubles in the second inning, driven by Ezequiel Tovar, who at this point had the same number as Yamamoto. The Rockies shortstop had eight hits in 12 at-bats against Yamamoto and had two home runs and two doubles. But luckily for Yamamoto, one of the outs was a strikeout in the bottom of the third inning, when Venezuela got into a leadoff double.
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Yamamoto had three doubles and a home run on Saturday, allowing four hits in a start for just the second time in 60 starts since joining the Dodgers before the 2024 season. The other time was last June 13 against the Giants at Dodger Stadium.
But Japan scored four runs in the bottom of the third inning, including a three-run home run by Shota Morishita, to take a 5-2 lead, and Yamamoto held on to pitch a perfect fourth inning, retiring the last six batters. Yamamoto allowed two runs early in his four innings of work but had five strikeouts and one walk-on in 69 pitches.
Japan went scoreless after the third inning, with Emmanuel DeJesus, Jose Buto, Angel Zerpa and Andres Machado going 13 consecutive hitless at-bats at one point, including Ohtani’s two strikeouts. It was Ohtani’s only strikeout in five games this tournament. In total, he hit .500/.647/1.333 with six runs and seven RBIs in 12 at-bats and five at-bats (three on purpose), including three homers and a double.
Japan has reached the semifinals in the previous five World Baseball Classics, including tournament wins in 2006, 2009 and 2023.
Earlier on Saturday, Italy remained undefeated, this time beating Puerto Rico 8-6 in the quarterfinals in Houston.
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Edwin DÃaz struck out one batter, walked another and threw a wild pitch, but allowed one run in the ninth inning with two strikeouts. In three games with the WBC, the Dodgers right-hander pitched three innings, allowing one hit, one hit, one run and two steals, but also struck out seven of the 12 batters he faced.
Catcher Will Smith is the only Dodger player still active in the World Baseball Classic.
Remaining WBC schedule
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Sunday semifinals: U.S. vs. Dominican Republic, 5 p.m. PT (FS1)
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Monday semifinals: Italy vs. Venezuela, 5 p.m. (FS1)
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Championship Game Tuesday, 5 p.m. (Fox)
