Dem
47
GOP
53
Last night was the finale of the World Baseball Classic, the triennial baseball tournament featuring teams from 20 different nations. The near-universal consensus, going into the tournament, was that only four teams had any shot of winning—the U.S., the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Japan—and that all the other players were just getting a nice vacation and something to tell their grandkids about.
The people who were saying these things were making clear they don't actually know much about baseball, since the gap between the best and the worst teams is much smaller than in most sports, and since games are often decided by one key pitch, or one bad bounce, or one dropped ball. Even in a seven-game series, like the World Series, flukes happen all the time. And the WBC is a single-elimination tournament (once pool play ends), which just increases the likelihood of random outcomes.
The championship game featured the U.S. and... not one of the other three "inevitable" teams. While the players from the D.R., Mexico and Japan watched from the bleachers, it was Venezuela who took the field against the Americans. And it was a heckuva game, with an added (unusual) layer that the Major League Baseball season is about to start, and teams don't want their very expensive players to get hurt. So, there were several "[PLAYER X] can only play in [Y CIRCUMSTANCE]" situations.
Venezuela led 2-0 for much of the game, until the U.S., powered by a Bryce Harper home run, tied it in the bottom of the eighth inning. There was much supposition that the U.S. was about to break a mini-curse, having lost the last two WBC title games. However, the Venezuelans seemed to have a little extra motivation, and pulled ahead 3-2 on a Eugenio Suárez double. By pre-arrangement with his MLB team (the Chicago Cubs), closer Daniel Palencia was only allowed to enter the game if it was the bottom of the ninth and it was a save situation (so, a lead of 3 runs or fewer). Those conditions were met, so he came in, got three consecutive outs, and Venezuela had their first WBC title.
We can't imagine why Venezuela might possibly have had just a little extra motivation when facing the United States, but we thought we'd pass the story along in case readers are able to solve the puzzle. In any event, congratulations to the Venezuelans! (Z)