Venezuela defeats Team USA to win the World Baseball Classic
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What were the highlights of Venezuela's victory over Team USA?
This is Rahimi Harrison-Grote on 104.3 The Score. And even though Team USA did not win, it was still nice to see a Cub on a big stage showing you why he was a gamer. This is Rahimi Harrison-Grote on 104.3 The Score. Layla Rahimi, Marshall Harrison, Mark Grote broadcasting with you on this Wednesday. And that is where we get it started. Just an incredible game to close this out. Team USA, Marshall, you were right about this. You knew from starting pitcher Nolan McClain, he was on the mound starting against Team Italy when USA lost, thinking they had clinched already. But not only did Team USA not strike first like Venezuela did, getting on the board in that third inning, but the way Daniel Palencia closed out the game, give me the ball and I'm going to throw straight hundo to end it.
And that was just an incredible moment. Team USA. Three for 30 in the game. Didn't get a single runner in scoring position. Obviously, Bryce Harper had the only extra base hit, the two-run homer. But this is what I was worried about, was that Venezuela would have some timely hitting and that the U.S. wouldn't have enough offense. Because, frankly, since we got out of pool play into elimination stage, it's been a struggle for the U.S. to put up runs. And that was my concern. I feel like we've been here before. Team we watched struggling to put up runs. Why does that sound familiar? Yeah, at least the Cubs, though, were a run-scoring machine in the first half of the season. Machine. That's right, machine. The Americans never got it together, and they didn't get away with it last night.
There were three, I think there was three straight innings where they had two outrunners on base. Yep. And finally, Bryce Harper hits the two-run jack. That's the point at which I thought, USA, USA, they're going to win this thing. They have stolen the momentum, but they did not because of Eugenio Suarez, who I know we'll talk more about. And I think sneaky MVP in this game was the pinch runner in that spot, Javier Sanoa, who was mentioned during the broadcast package for that stolen base from first to second that had albert almora jr vibes from 2016 when he tagged up and ran to second and eventually scored you like that ray yeah that that's the i was feeling that last night and by the way i want to give a shout out to that intro by the butte you had all the broadcasters that are joe davis was was magnificent but i i loved hearing the voice of my guy mike
farron that was farron right he obviously did the radio call mike farron a chicagoland native worked at wgn radio he's been out he did the arizona diamondbacks for years and sounding just just amazing so chicago guy done well shout out to mike farron for that call giving me goosebumps during that intro Our thanks to Fox Sports, Tyler Buterbaugh with a fantastic open, and Sirius XM Radio as well, and Daddy Yankee, because I can always wake up to some gasolina. A classic, a reggaeton classic.
How did Team USA's performance impact the game outcome?
That was just also, for us talking about modern baseball, right, and last time the World Baseball Classic happened in 2023, one of the things I liked was that it didn't have the pinch clock, and that was still something relatively new in Major League Baseball. So I enjoyed seeing the contrast between baseball's new rules, for example, that they were implementing at the time in spring training and then how the classic was still managed. But one of the things I really liked about the game that we saw yesterday and frankly, how Team Venezuela has played the entire time, how Team USA has won games up to that point. was with old school stuff, productive outs, smart base running, some savvy managing decisions by Omar Lopez specifically.
I thought Mark DeRosa in the game prior against the Dominican Republic, you know, deciding to go with Gunnar Henderson in that scenario over Alex Bregman. And Bregman's defense was good yesterday. But the point is... There were some good decisions made, good management, productive outs, base running, defense, some really old school stuff led to the victories in this entire classic.
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