The United States scored one in the seventh and three more in the eighth to stun Venezuela 4-2 at the World Baseball Classic Tuesday night.
Ender Inciarte put Venezuela on top early with a sacrifice fly in the third inning. Roughned Odor extended the lead to 2-0 in the seventh with a solo home run. The United States finally got some things going in the bottom half of the seventh and cut the deficit in half with a sacrifice fly by Jonathan Lucroy.
The U.S. tied things up in the eighth on a solo home run by Adam Jones. Eric Hosmer followed with a two-run home run of his own to put the United States in front for good. Venezuela brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth in Victor Martinez but Luke Gregerson got him to ground into a double-play to end the game.
Felix Hernandez threw five shut out innings for Venezuela. Drew Smyly struck out eight over 4 2⁄3 innings while allowing three hits and one unearned run for the U.S. Hosmer, Lucroy, Ian Kinsler and Alex Bregman all finished with two hits each.
Venezuela is right back at it on Thursday when they take on the Dominican Republic in a key matchup. The Dominican Republic dropped their second round opener 3-1 to Puerto Rico on Tuesday.
Pool F schedule for Thursday, March 16
Venezuela vs. Dominican Republic
Location: San Diego
Time: 10 p.m. ET
TV: MLB Network
Streaming: MLB.TV
Full World Baseball Classic Schedule, Results and Standings
Second Round
WBC Pool E
Date | Team | vs. | Team | Time | Venue |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date | Team | vs. | Team | Time | Venue |
March 11 | Cuba (1) | vs. | Israel (4) | Tokyo | |
March 12 | Japan (8) | vs. | Netherlands (6) | Tokyo | |
March 13 | Netherlands (12) | vs. | Israel (2) | Tokyo | |
March 14 | Cuba (5) | vs. | Japan (8) | Tokyo | |
March 14 | Netherlands (14) | vs. | Cuba (1) | Tokyo | |
March 15 | Israel (3) | vs. | Japan (8) | Tokyo |
Pool E Standings
Rank | Team | W | L | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Rank | Team | W | L | Notes |
1 | Japan | 3 | 0 | Advanced |
2 | Netherlands | 2 | 1 | Advanced |
3 | Israel | 1 | 2 | |
4 | Cuba | 0 | 3 |
WBC Pool F
Date | Team | vs. | Team | Time | Venue |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date | Team | vs. | Team | Time | Venue |
March 14 | Dominican Republic (1) | vs. | Puerto Rico (3) | Petco Park | |
March 15 | Venezuela (2) | vs. | United States (4) | Petco Park | |
March 16 | Venezuela (0) | vs. | Dominican Republic (3) | Petco Park | |
March 17 | United States (5) | vs. | Puerto Rico (6) | Petco Park | |
March 18 | Puerto Rico (13) | vs. | Venezuela (2) | Petco Park | |
March 18 | United States (6) | vs. | Dominican Republic (3) | Petco Park |
Pool F Standings
Rank | Team | W | L |
---|---|---|---|
Rank | Team | W | L |
1 | Puerto Rico | 3 | 0 |
2 | United States | 2 | 1 |
3 | Dominican Republic | 1 | 2 |
4 | Venezuela | 0 | 3 |