Japan suffers shocking collapse to Venezuela in World Baseball Classic

Shohei Ohtani and his Japanese teammates volition not repetition arsenic World Baseball Classic champions aft falling isolated against Venezuela successful the quarterfinal round.

Ohtani’s 3rd location tally of the tourney was wasted arsenic Japan saw its 11-game WBC winning streak snapped.

Wilyer Abreu deed a go-ahead, three-run homer aft Maikel Garcia sparked the comeback with a two-run shot, and Venezuela bushed the defending champions 8-5 connected Saturday night.

Venezuela reached its archetypal WBC semis since 2009 and clinched a spot successful the six-nation tract for the 2028 Olympic shot tournament, on with the United States and the Dominican Republic.

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Venezuela volition look unbeaten Italy connected Monday, a time aft the U.S. plays the Dominicans.

Abreu gave Venezuela a 7-5 pb erstwhile helium homered disconnected loser Hiromi Itoh successful the sixth, driving a 2-1 four-seam fastball 409 feet to close for his archetypal location tally of the tournament. Ezequiel Tovar made it 8-5 successful the eighth, starring disconnected with a treble past scoring connected a throwing mistake by Atsuki Taneichi connected a pickoff attempt.

Ohtani, the 2023 WBC MVP, led disconnected the bottommost of the archetypal by lifting a 2-1 slider from Ranger Suárez 427 feet to halfway aft Ronald Acuña Jr. homered connected the 2nd transportation from Yoshinobu Yamamoto, driving a fastball 401 feet to right-center for his 2nd location tally of the WBC.

SHOHEI OHTANI OPENS WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC WITH EXPLOSIVE GRAND SLAM AS JAPAN ANNIHILATES TAIWAN

Shohei Ohtani #16 of Team Japan reacts to a onslaught retired telephone successful the seventh inning during the crippled betwixt Venezuela and Japan astatine loanDepot parkland connected March 14, 2026, successful Miami, Florida. (Gene Wang - Capture At Media/Getty Images)

Enmanuel De Jesus pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings for the win, and Daniel Palencia got the save, ending Japan’s destiny by getting Ohtani to popular retired for the last out.

Japan led 5-2 aft a four-run 3rd successful which Shota Morishita, who replaced the injured Seiya Suzuki astatine halfway field, deed a tiebreaking, three-run homer disconnected Suárez. The seasoned left-hander who picked up a triumph successful a radical signifier crippled against the Netherlands pitched 2 2/3 innings connected Saturday, allowing 3 hits, 5 runs and 2 location runs.

Garcia homered connected the eighth transportation against Chihiro Sumida to propulsion Venezuela wrong 5-4 successful the fifth.

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World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed 4 hits and 2 runs portion striking retired 5 successful 4 innings.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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