The Dominican Republic's Historic World Baseball Classic Clinches Top Spot In Pool D

In front of 36,230 fans who filled the seats at loanDepot park in Miami, Florida, the biggest matchup of the World Baseball Classic up to this point took place, with the undefeated Dominican Republic and Venezuela facing off. It would be Albert Pujols' Dominican Republic squad, powered by four homers, that defeated Omar Lopez's Venezuelan team by a final score of 7-5, clinching the top seed in Pool D. 

In the top of the first inning, the DR would waste no time getting on the board, as New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto took Eduardo Rodriguez deep for a two-run homer that left the bat at 105.5 mph and went 409 feet to straightaway center field. That gave the Dominican Republic an early 2-0 lead.

The ensuing inning saw a Diamondback on Diamondback action, with second baseman Ketel Marte taking Rodriguez deep for a solo homer, making it a 3-1 game. The ball left the bat at 107.4 mph and went 403 feet to left field. After Rodriguez struck out Soto, manager Omar Lopez made a pitching change, going with Eduard Bazardo, who surrendered a 375-foot homer to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., extending the Dominican Republic's lead, 4-1.

Fernando Tatis Jr. would hit the DR's fourth homer of the game off of Antonio Senzatela to extend the lead, 7-3. This marked Tatis' second home run of the tournament.

In total, the Dominican Republic has hit a total of 13 home runs and scored 41 runs through four games of play. As a team, they are slashing .313/.466/.723/1.189. There have now been six games in this year’s World Baseball Classic where a team has hit four or more home runs, setting a new tournament record (previously four in 2009), with the Dominican Republic national baseball team becoming the first team to accomplish the feat twice in a single WBC.

The Venezuelan team did not go down without a fight. Miami Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara took the mound in front of his hometown crowd, and in three innings of work, he allowed three runs off of five hits, two walks, and struck out three. In the bottom of the first inning, Wilson Contreras knocked in an RBI single, making it a 2-1 game.

Alcantara ran into some trouble in the bottom of the third inning, surrendering a lead-off walk to Ronald Acuña Jr., and then he stole second. Maikel Garcia drove Acuña in on an RBI double, and then Alcantara's former teammate, Luis Arraez drove Garcia in on an RBI double, making it 4-3.

The Marlins' starting pitcher finished his second WBC outing, going three innings, allowing three runs off five hits, two walks, and three strikeouts. Pujols expects Alcantara to make another appearance in the WBC, likely coming in the finals, assuming he goes through a normal progression.

Venezuela made things interesting in the bottom of the ninth inning, as they loaded the bases. Luis Arraez drove in a run on a sac fly, making it 7-4, and another run scored after a throwing error from Elvis Alvarado. With two outs, Venezuela opted to keep Salvador Perez, and he went on to ground out to end the game.

With the Dominican Republic's win, they move to 4-0 in the tournament and will now play Korea in the quarterfinal round on Friday at 6:30 pm. Venezuela will drop to 3-1 and will wait until Saturday for their next game against Shohei Ohtani and Japan at 9:00 pm. Yoshinobu Yammamoto will make the start.

Cristopher Sanchez will start for the DR against Korea, while Ranger Suarez will take the mound for Venezuela against Japan.