By Ian Curtis.
Lack of arm depth dooms Brazil again
Pitching depth doomed the Brazilians against Team USA in their opening game Friday evening, as they issued 17 walks en route to a 15-5 loss to the host nation.
Brazil manager Daniel Yuichi Matsumoto said before the game that his focus was on correcting that issue against Italy.
“The most important thing we learned from last night’s game is that we cannot give away bases on balls and we need 27 outs in a game. And when we give base on balls, we don’t get the out,” Matsumoto said. “So today I spoke to my pitchers and I told them to be very aggressive and compete within the strike zone. So I don’t want to see that situation anymore where players keep getting bases on balls over and over. So hopefully that was it for us.”
Despite being out-hit by the Italians in 12-3 in Saturday’s opening game, Brazil found itself tied 0-0 until the sixth inning thanks to the work of starter Enzo Sawayama, who gave up just two hits in four innings of work.
Italy manager Francisco Cervelli credited his team’s slow start to Sawayama’s pitching.
“Well, I think it was slow because the pitcher was throwing well,” Cervelli explained. “We’ve got to give credit to the starting pitcher. But the guys, you know, the game 27 outs. You’ve got to make the adjustment. The guys did it. They let the other guys throw a little more, to see more pitches.”
Brazil fans can look at things with the view of a glass half empty, or a glass half full in the wake of its 8-0 loss to Italy. On one hand, as a whole Brazil did manage to limit their pitching woes by giving up just seven walks and found a reliable starter in Sawayama.
On the other, it was a pair of walks issued by Brazil pitcher Hector Villarroel that set the stage for Italy’s 2-0 lead off of hits by and eventual 8-0 victory.
Of course, the third option is to rage at the WBC pitch count cap that limits pitchers to no more than 65 pitches per game. A necessary evil to attract big-league talent and appease owners, but something that makes the job of teams like Brazil much more difficult.
The Brazilians’ lack of bullpen depth continued to prove a problem late in the game, as reliever Murilo Gouvea was pulled after giving up a solo home run to Dante Nori and issuing a pair of walks in the seventh inning. And his relief, Brazil pitcher Oscar Nakaoshi, gave up a 3-run home run on his first at-bat to Dominic Canzone, effectively putting the game out of reach at 6-0.
Another reliever, Caio de Araujo, gave up a home run to Nori in the eighth inning as well to put the cherry on top of a poor day on the mound for Brazil. One positive, however, was the two assists from the right arm of Lucas Ramírez a day after he delivered two longballs against USA.
With a goal of clinching an appearance in the next World Baseball Classic — with their most likely opportunity coming against Great Britain on Monday — Brazil needs to figure out a solution to its bullpen woes, and fast.
Sam Aldegheri, Dante Nori lead Italy to campaign-opening win
Dante Nori does not like the taste of coffee.
That became a small issue, considering Italy’s iconic espresso machine home run celebration, when Nori hit two solo home runs in an 8-0 victory over Brazil
“The first one, especially, I was like, ‘Ugh,’” Nori said. “But the second one, kind of liked that one a little bit more.”
For five-and-a-half innings, Italy found itself stuck in a scoreless slugfest against Brazil, despite outhitting the South Americans 4-1 headed into the bottom of the sixth inning.
Then — after Villarroel issued a pair of walks, as a solid Brazilian defense began to crack — the Italians broke things open with an RBI single up the right side, and soon after Jac Caglianone hit his own RBI single to the same area to make things a 2-0 ballgame.
Once Dezenzo broke through, things became a home run derby. Dominic Canzone’s three-run shot in the sixth effectively closed the game with the Italians up 6-0.
But Dante and the Italian offense was only one half of the victory. Starting pitcher Sam Aldegheri more than impressed in his WBC debut, tallying eight strikeouts in 4.2 innings of work.
For Aldegheri, the first Italian-born pitcher to play in the Major Leagues, the opportunity to make his WBC debut for his home country was one he’ll never forget, especially the moment he heard the Italian national anthem before the first pitch.
“I had goosebumps all over my body,” Aldegheri recalled. “It was chilling. … I was just feeling deep inside, I was just trying to think about the game. Those moments are hard. You have all these feelings back home, everything goes by your mind. So it was really cool.”
And for Nori, who represents his Italian heritage that traces back to his grandparents on both sides of his family, he said simply wearing the Italian jersey gives him pride.
“I got the call, and it was one of those things that’s really special to you,” remarked Nori. “You get emotional even talking about it. In fact, when I got to tell [my grandfathers], they all cried. Yeah, something really special to me.”
GB Baseball’s Approach
Great Britain manager Brad Marcelino has said from the beginning of Team GB’s WBC campaign that the Brits are not just here to play — they are here to win.
“I don’t know if “hang” for us is the right word, because we expected to go in and win,” Marcelino said after Great Britain’s opening loss to Mexico. “…But overall, we battled. So, proud of how those guys did that.”
Facing Goliath in its second game, Great Britain’s Nate Eaton fired a shot across the bow — and 390 feet to left center field — that gave the visitors a 1-0 run on the first pitch of the ballgame.
“Obviously his plan was dialed in,” Marcelino said after the USA game. “He kind of said what he was going to do, executed it well. Sometimes it doesn’t always work. But I thought he did a good job, obviously, executing his plan. You go through that and you’re up 1-0 going through the middle of the game and you have those little swing moments. … I think there’s some positives we can definitely take away from what we did today.”
The Brits held on until the fifth inning, long enough that some British fans were dreaming of an all-time World Baseball Classic upset in the making. But regardless of the USA’s eventual 9-1 win, Great Britain put the baseball on notice with performances like that of Najer Victor, the former UCF Knight who last played in the Arizona Fall League last season.
In just over an inning of action, Victor struck out Aaron Judge, Bryce Harper, Gunnar Henderson, and Roman Anthony, recording four strikeouts and giving up no hits in 1.1 frames. It was enough to get Victor’s name trending on X.
“Yeah, we knew he had that in him,” Marcelino told Mister-Baseball.com’s Gabriel Fidler. “Electric stuff. He’s energetic on the mound, obviously, and the stuff is plus. Yeah, awesome debut. I thought he commanded the slider, kind of got better as the outing went on. Exciting to see that.”
Fifth-inning fireworks lead USA past Great Britain
For much of Team USA’s game against Great Britain, it looked like an all-time WBC upset might be brewing as Team GB held a 1-0 lead until the bottom of the fifth inning thanks to Nate Eaton’s first-pitch home run.
But, in true American fashion, the hosts took over the game in loud and impressive style, with a streak of three consecutive extra-base hits on just six pitches that eventually led to a 9-1 win.
Ernie Clement reached first on a fielding error, and stole home after advancing to third on a Pete Crow-Armstrong double. Then, Kyle Schwarber broke things open with a home run that sent the Daikin Park crowd roaring to its feet.
In the span of just two innings, the USA put up 8 runs and effectively turned what could have been the biggest win in British baseball history into a somewhat-routine pool stage blowout.
The heavy favorites to advance out of Pool B — and with by far the most stacked roster in the field — the Americans did not suffer from the same bullpen woes that other times, like Great Britain, faced.
And although it did let both Brazil and Great Britain hang around early, the USA has put its depth advantage on full display with blowout wins over both teams. American manager Mark DeRosa credited Great Britain’s pitching with keeping things close early on, though.
“I think they had some good arms,” DeRosa said. “The hitters up here could probably attest to that. After their starter came out, he gave them a little bit of length, had a guy throwing 97 miles an hour. Then [they] brought in Scrubb, and Kyle was able to pop one, a big three-run homer. And then they brought in a little side-arm guy – not little – side-arm guy throwing about 94 to 96. So they were running some arms out there, no question.”