Dominican Republic Outlasts Rival Venezuela in Rip-Roaring Pool D Finale

MIAMI — It was the most anticipated, cacophonous World Baseball Classic game of the week, a raucous rivalry featuring the national teams of two baseball-obsessed cultures playing in front of some of the loudest fanbases in professional sports. With air horns blaring, drums pounding, and more than 36,000 people shouting for the entirety of the game’s three-hour run time, the Dominican Republic outslugged and outlasted Venezuela, 7-5, on Wednesday night at loanDepot park.

All that for a game that didn’t matter much. Sure, the winner would finish first in Pool D and not have to face reigning WBC champion Japan in the quarterfinals, but South Korea is also a formidable foe. And yes, the winner would also have a better opportunity to secure one of the two spots in the 2028 Olympics reserved for non-United States teams from the Americas. But no matter the result of Wednesday night’s game, both teams would still have a chance to earn both the WBC title and an Olympic berth.

And yet, from another perspective, the game meant everything, because for the fans of these two countries, baseball means everything.

“That rivalry thing, you know, that is created by the fans,” Dominican Republic manager Albert Pujols said after the win. “We do not think about that. The players don’t think about that.”

Beyond the emotional stakes for the fans, this game also provided our first real opportunity to evaluate these two teams against quality competition. In its first three games, the Dominican Republic’s loaded lineup had faced exactly one current major league pitcher, Kenley Jansen of the Netherlands, and only two others with any major league experience at all, Israel’s Zack Weiss and Jake Fishman, who have combined for just 38 1/3 innings big league innings. It’s true that the Dominican hitters had collectively put up a Ruthian slash line against the pitching staffs of Nicaragua, the Netherlands, and Israel, scoring 34 runs on 29 hits, nine home runs, and 29 walks, but bludgeoning baseballs is exactly what one of the greatest lineups ever assembled is supposed to do against a bunch of low-level minor leaguers. Would they produce the same firepower against better pitching?

“I think our offense can hit against anybody,” Pujols said before the game. “You can see that lineup from the top to the bottom; I think they prove it. They have done it in the big leagues their whole career. So, you can throw anybody.”

Similarly, this would be the first test for Venezuela’s hitters; they hadn’t lit up the scoreboard the way the Dominicans had, but their games felt just as lopsided. Their pitching, specifically, baffled opposing hitters. They’d allowed just five runs across their three games.

All that context was forgotten, though, once the first pitch was thrown. Really, there was no time to think about much of anything. The first four innings were the baseball equivalent of Raiders of the Lost Ark, rip-roaring its way through the action at a dizzying speed.

Venezuela starter Eduardo Rodriguez came out chucking, attacking the Dominican batters with heat and daring them to catch up. He struck out both Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado on four-seamers up and away in the first inning, and the first changeup he threw, to two-hole hitter Ketel Marte, was blooped into right field for the game’s first hit. That brought up Juan Soto, who swung through the first two pitches he saw, both four-seamers up in the zone. Rodriguez was feeling himself, so much so that he ignored all reason and threw a third straight high fastball to Soto. This one was his best located of the three, in that it was further outside and at the top of the zone, but Soto was ready for it. He smoked it 409 feet over the wall in center for a two-run homer.

“I’m hunting fastball every single time,” Soto said. “It doesn’t matter if I’m 0-2 or 2-0. I was hunting the fastball. Definitely. I just make an adjustment on my swing, my motion, try to be more quick, try to be more short to the ball, don’t be too big. And that’s how it works, man.”

Venezuela responded quickly in the home half of the first. After Ronald Acuña Jr. grounded out on the first pitch from Sandy Alcantara, Maikel Garcia reached for a 1-1 cutter off the plate and yanked a wicked short hop to shortstop that ate up Geraldo Perdomo for a generously scored single. Alcantara then walked Luis Arraez on four pitches, bringing up Willson Contreras, who shot a single through the right side past a diving Marte. With Garcia tearing toward home, Tatis fielded the ball and came up firing. It was executed to perfection, lined up to fly through the raised arms of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to catcher Austin Wells. It would’ve been close, but Guerrero jumped and cut it off, electing instead to keep Arraez from advancing to third and thus preventing a big inning. Salvador Perez struck out and William Contreras grounded out to end the threat.

The Dominicans struck again with one out in the third inning, when Marte turned on a two-strike, belt-high sinker for a solo shot to left. Venezuela manager Omar López left the lefty Rodriguez in to face the Soto, who struck out looking on a dotted cutter low and away, but with four All-Star righties — Guerrero, Machado, Junior Caminero, and Julio Rodríguez — due up next, López called on the righty Eduard Bazardo. Guerrero dropped the bat head on 2-1 a sweeper just below the zone and clubbed it into the left field bullpen for a home run to make it a 4-1 game.

Again, it didn’t take long for Venezuela to answer. Acuña walked, then stole second without a throw on the first pitch to Garcia, who roped the second pitch to center for an RBI double. Arraez followed that with a double of his own, hooking a first-pitch changeup into the right field corner to cut the deficit to one. There was still nobody out.

However, Alcantara buckled down from there, getting Willson Contreras to swing over a 1-2 sinker, Perez to tap one back to him, and William Contreras to ground out to second. Crisis averted.

Right-hander Antonio Senzatela, the most BABIP-cursed man in baseball, came out of the Venezuela ‘pen and retired Caminero and Rodríguez to begin the fourth. He quickly got ahead of Wells, the no. 8 hitter, with two upper-90s fastballs. Then, chasing the strikeout, he started overthrowing, pumping three heaters nowhere near the zone before just missing the outside corner with a slider for ball four. You cannot, under any circumstances, walk the worst hitter in the opposing lineup with two outs and the bases empty, especially after getting ahead 0-2.

Naturally, just after Perdomo grounded a first-pitch single to bring up Tatis, Senzatela threw him a 1-1 hanging slider; Tatis took a hearty rip at it, connected, and let go of the bat as if he were tossing confetti. He knew he got all of it. After the walk to Wells, the Tatis home run felt inevitable.

The result may have been the most predictable event of the game, but Tatis was fooled in the moment. He said after the game that he was not expecting the slider; the previous pitch was “a really good sinker for a strike,” so Tatis thought Senzatela would go back to it.

“That was the pitch that was in my head,” Tatis said. “I was hunting a fastball, trying to stay on the sinker and stuff like that. And your ability to just kick and play — you just react to those sliders, the breaking ball, and your abilities just take over.”

After allowing seven runs in the first four innings, Venezuela hung zeros for the rest of the night. In that sense, the Dominican lineup was contained some. It was a four-run game, but it still didn’t feel over. Venezuela kept getting guys on base and kept stranding them, but they were one rally away from mounting a comeback.

That finally happened in the bottom of the ninth. Jackson Chourio led off with a four-itch walk against his Brewers teammate, Abner Uribe. That turned the lineup over to Acuña, who fell behind 0-2, then fouled off the next three pitches before taking two pitches outside the zone to even the count. He fouled off another, watched as a slider hit the dirt, and then, on the 10th pitch of the plate appearance, spat on a slider that darted low for ball four.

That meant it was two on and nobody out for Garcia, who was 4-for-4 on the night. Uribe completely lost the zone, issuing another four-pitch walk. With the bases loaded, nobody out, and Babe Arraez stepping to the plate representing the tying run, Pujols trotted out to the mound and replaced Uribe with Elvis Alvarado.

Arraez is a different hitter in the World Baseball Classic. The three-time batting champion has a career .413 slugging percentage in the regular season. He entered that ninth inning plate appearance slugging .903 in 31 WBC at-bats. Five of his 11 hits were doubles, including one in the third inning Wednesday, and four were home runs — only two were singles.

On a 1-2 count, Alvarado got him to chase a 101.1-mph four-seamer above the zone and line a sacrifice fly to left, scoring Chourio from third. That brought up Willson Contreras, who hacked at a middle-middle slider and grounded an easy double play ball to Alvarado, who set his feet and airmailed the ball into center field. Acuña scored, with Garcia advancing to third. This set up the second-most predictable outcome of the game. With his third-percentile speed and super aggressive approach, Perez came to the plate and immediately chased a first-pitch fastball; this, despite facing a pitcher who posted a 12% walk rate last season and had just made a crucial error that sent the go-ahead run to the plate. Perez fouled off the next pitch, then grounded into a game-ending 5-4-3 double play.

With the win, the Dominican Republic is set to host South Korea, the second-place team from Pool C, on Friday night at loanDepot park, with the Venezuela-Japan game scheduled for Saturday night. The Dominican and Venezuelan fans here in Miami are sure to show up, as they have for all of their country’s games since the tournament began last Friday. The horns and drums will certainly be with them. It’s going to be loud; it’s going to be fun. Especially because, next time, something more than pride will be on the line.