The second semifinal of this year’s World Baseball Classic features two impressive teams who have each downed giants in this tournament: Team Venezuela dispatched reigning champions Japan on their road to the semifinals; Team Italy shocked USA in pool play to advance to the knockout rounds. The victor of this game will advance to the final against Team USA for a chance at the WBC title.
Venezuela vs. Italy
When: Monday, March 16, 8 p.m. ET
Where: loanDepot Park in Miami
Watch: FS1
How they got here: This is the unexpected semifinal matchup, but Team Italy and Team Venezuela earned their place by beating the favorites. Italy remains undefeated, having upset much-hyped Team USA in pool play before beating Puerto Rico in the quarterfinals. The Italian team has hit as well as any team outside of the Dominican Republic, and six of its regulars have an OPS higher than 1.000 through the first five games.
Collectively, the Italian team has outhit Venezuela up to this point, but Team Venezuela has one of the most dangerous and established lineups in the tournament, and it showed in their quarterfinal win against Team Japan. Venezuela got a couple of early runs off Yoshinobu Yamamoto and then piled on against the Japanese bullpen. Venezuela has only one loss, and it came against the Dominican Republic’s Hall of Fame lineup. Even that was a two-run game, as Venezuela has proven it can play with anyone in this tournament.
Star gazing: When Venezuela matched up against Japan, Shohei Ohtani was the opposing leadoff hitter, but Venezuelan leadoff man Ronald Acuña Jr. struck first with a second-pitch homer. The Venezuelan lineup goes a lot deeper than that — Luis Arraez, Maikel Garcia, Eugenio Suárez, Willson and William Contreras — but the team’s OPS leader is 24-year-old Colorado Rockies shortstop Ezequiel Tovar. He’s been splitting time with Andrés Giménez, but he’s coming off a huge three-hit, three-run game against Japan that will surely have Venezuelan manager Omar López thinking about getting him back in the lineup against Venezuela. When healthy, Tovar has quietly become a good big-league shortstop the past three years, and now he’s getting to show it on a big stage.
Great unknown: Kansas City Royals teammates Vinnie Pasquantino and Jac Caglianone have been terrific, but Team Italy has won with its depth. Six Italian hitters have driven in at least four runs, and 12 hitters have at least one RBI. Their lineup doesn’t have the star power of Team Venezuela, but a couple of 21-year-old first-round picks — Dante Nori of the Philadelphia Phillies and Andrew Fisher of the Milwaukee Brewers — have been awesome, getting on base a lot and driving in five runs apiece. A lot of the Italian hitters are either minor leaguers or big-league role players, but guys like Nori, Fisher, Jon Berti and Sam Antonacci have been key to getting them this far.