Dominican Republic mashes in win over Venezuela to sweep World Baseball Classic pool play
Fernando Tatis Jr. took advantage of an elevated slider and the moment.
He obliterated the pitch sent his way by Antonio Senzatela and, with an emphatic bat flip, energized an already electric crowd at Miami’s loanDepot park as the ball sailed 394 feet to left field for a three-run home run. He took more than 11-and-a-half seconds to go 90 feet to first base and more than 27-and-a-half seconds total to round the bases.
“That was fire,” outfielder Juan Soto said. “I was right there just watching from the best seat in the stadium. You see the ball goes like that, he’s fired up. The bat is flying all over the field. I think it’s really cool. It’s really cool to see it.”
It was the fourth home run in as many innings for the Dominican Republic — and the team’s 13th of the World Baseball Classic.
And it was the most seismic of them all on this night as it lifted the Dominican Republic to a 7-5 win over Venezuela on Wednesday in front of a sold-out crowd of 36,230 at loanDepot park to cap a perfect run in pool play.
Soto, Ketel Marte and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. also hit home runs for the DR, which outscored opponents 41-10 during its four-game pool play run and is now 5-1 all-time against Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic.
“Our offense from the first to the ninth can do harm,” said Dominican Republic manager Albert Pujols, who with 703 career home runs knows a thing or two about doing damage at the plate. “And the beauty is that they are not trying to do a lot. And Tatis Jr. created that today. ... When you have the lineups such as the one we have, this is going to be a problem for the rival. This is what happened today. This is what they have been doing throughout the tournament.”
The Dominican Republic will face Korea in the quarterfinals at loanDepot park on Friday (6:30 p.m., FS1), while Venezuela will play defending tournament champion Japan on Saturday (9 p.m., Fox).
Both teams had already advanced from pool play by nature of their 3-0 start to the tournament prior to this meeting.
But Wednesday’s game was about more than advancing.
Country pride, seeding for the rest of the tournament and Olympic implications (the top two teams in the tournament from the Americas outside of the United States automatically qualify for the 2028 Summer Games) were on the line.
“It’s about first place, about being No. 1 in our bracket,” Venezuela manager Omar Lopez said pregame. “… Both teams are going to play aggressively. It is a baseball game, you know? And in the moment, the adrenaline for the World Baseball Classic starts now.”
The game certainly lived up to the hype.
The Dominican Republic jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning on a 405-foot Soto home run to straightaway center field.
Venezuela cut its deficit in half in the bottom of the first on a Willson Contreras RBI single against Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara that plated Maikel Garcia, who hit an infield single and moved to second on a Luis Arraez walk.
Marte and Guerrero home runs in the third pushed the Dominican Republic’s lead back up to 4-1.
Venezuela immediately punched back again to cut its deficit to one with back-to-back RBI doubles in the third from Garcia and Arraez.
And then Tatis belted his momentum-securing home run.
“We are definitely enjoying our moment,” Tatis said. “We definitely know it’s something special, and we are just having fun and enjoying it.”
After Alcantara held Venezuela to three runs over three innings, seven relievers — Huascar Brazoban, Juan Mejia, Seranthony Dominguez, Dennis Santana, Camilo Doval, Abner Uribe and Elvis Alvarado — covered the final six innings to secure the win.
Venezuela loaded the bases with no outs in the ninth but only managed two runs on an Arraez sac fly and an Alvarado fielding error on a Willson Contreras ground ball. Salvador Perez hit into a double play to end the game.
This run in pool play served as a monumental, if expected, step for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic.
The DR didn’t advance out of pool play in 2023 and came back this year wanting to make a statement. Their path to reaching the quarterfinals was easier this year — it was all but expected that the Dominican Republic and Venezuela would advance from a pool that was rounded out by Israel, the Netherlands and Nicaragua — but they had to produce on the field to ensure it happened.
The results?
A 12-3 rout of Nicaragua on Friday.
A 12-1 walk-off, run-rule win over the Netherlands on Sunday.
A 10-1 win over Israel on Monday.
And a 7-5 win over Venezuela on Wednesday.
Venezuela put together a strong start to the tournament as well, handling Nicaragua, the Netherlands and Israel by a combined 21-5 score prior to losing to the Dominican Republic to advance as well.
The work is just beginning for both teams, though. Three more wins separate each from the championship. A rematch down the road isn’t out of the question, although Venezuela will need to upset Japan for that to have a chance of becoming reality.
But on this night, just like the games that preceded it in this tournament, the Dominican Republic’s bats did the heavy lifting and carried them to a big win.
“You have seen two great countries, two great teams,” Pujols said. “We won. The Dominican Republic won. But you have to respect Venezuela because they have so many talented players on that team. Considering the history of all the Venezuelan players, we have to respect that. ... No matter the team we are going to face, we will try to win. And this is what we did for today. I’m happy that was a great game for the fans. They were expecting this. Beautiful game.”
This story was originally published March 11, 2026 at 11:12 PM.
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