MIAMI (AP) — Venezuela manager Omar López went beyond the limit to help his nation win its first World Baseball Classic.
Major league clubs routinely place restrictions on how national team managers can use pitchers at the WBC. One key for López and Venezuela in Tuesday night’s championship game was that he talked some MLB team executives into dropping their initial limitations. U.S. manager Mark DeRosa accepted such restraints.
That allowed López to pitch Chicago Cubs closer Daniel Palencia for the second straight night and third time in four days. Palencia retired three straight batters to seal a 3-2 win.
“I woke this morning, three text messages from different organizations trying not to pitch guys back to back,” López said before the game. “One of my strengths is talk, and I send my text back fighting for my guys and then set a phone call with everybody. When you talk and you get an agreement, you negotiate it, everything is going to go well.”
López relaxed a bit after the back and forth.
“I have my guys tonight to go back to back if I need to, and that’s the most important thing,” he said.
DeRosa didn’t use Mason Miller, perhaps baseball’s best reliever, because he promised the San Diego Padres he would pitch the 27-year-old righty only in a save situation. Miller had Monday off after throwing 22 pitches in the ninth inning of Sunday’s 2-1 win over the Dominican Republic, when his fastball averaged 101 mph.
After Bryce Harper’s two-run homer tied the score 2-2 in the eighth against Venezuela, DeRosa brought in Boston’s Garrett Whitlock to start the ninth. Whitlock walked Luis Arraez, and pinch-runner Javier Sanoja stole second. Sanoja came home when Eugenio Suárez doubled to the left-center gap on a full-count changeup.
“Honoring the Padres,” DeRosa said of Miller’s absence. “Had we taken the lead, he was coming in, but I wasn’t going to bring him in to a tie game.”
With the U.S. the home team and batting last, there was no chance for a save situation once the game entered the ninth inning tied.
“I wanted to honor the fact that there was a situation there where, if it was tied, we were going to use Whitlock,” DeRosa said. “We had talked to the Red Sox about that. And if we had the lead, we were going to use Mason.”
Palencia, a 26-year-old right-hander, threw 13 pitches in a perfect ninth to close out Saturday’s 8-6 quarterfinal win over Japan, striking out two and ending the game by retiring Shohei Ohtani on a popup.
He threw 15 more pitches Sunday in a 1-2-3 top of the ninth that finished a 4-2 win over Italy.
Against the U.S, he needed just 11 pitches that raised his three-game total to 39. Palencia struck out Kyle Schwarber on a 98.5 mph four-seamer, induced a popup from pinch-hitter Gunnar Henderson and blew a 99.7 mph fastball by Roman Anthony for a title-winning strikeout.
Palencia’s fastball velocity averaged 98.1 mph against the U.S., down from 99.3 mph vs. Italy and 98.8 mph vs. Japan, but it was good enough.
He threw 30 fastballs over the three games, seven sliders and two splitters, totaling 26 strikes and 13 balls.
“With that fastball, it is not easy to have good control, but I train that with my coaches in Venezuela,” he said during the tournament. “I trained like a sprinter because I learned that it is about velocity, the capability of the muscle to move.”
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