USA is challenged to run their bids on consecutive days

Miami, Florida – In a tournament as intense and frantic as the World Baseball Classic, not everything can go smoothly even in victory.

The USA had to resort to using six relievers to back up rookie Lance Lane’s work and upset Venezuela 9-7 to advance to the semifinals in the Depot Park loan.

However, coach Marc DeRosa and his team will not take advantage of the day off and will return to the stadium on Sunday to face Cuba for a place in the final of this edition.

With that in mind, DeRosa announced that veteran Adam Wainwright would take over against the ninth Cuban after he was passed over by the manager for the quarter-final match against Venezuela.

“We’re going to give Wainwright the ball. He plays every big game the guy knows, and we can cover him,” DeRosa said in the post-win press conference. “We also have some rookies who can pitch and we’ll check with some guys about whether they’ll pitch on consecutive days.”

Against Venezuela, DeRosa was forced to use reliever Daniel Bard, who was ineffective. Jason Adam, Adam Ottavino, David Bednar, Devin Williams and Closer than Ryan Presley.

“Let’s see tomorrow (Sunday) where we are. We didn’t use (Kendall) Grafman or (Aaron) the contact lens. One thing I’ve seen is Adam Ottavino, who hasn’t fallen in a while, came in and looked great in the entrance to work. We’ll be too late tonight.”

Prior to the match against Venezuela, DeRosa acknowledged that Wainwright had not made the decision not to give him the ball very well for the match.

“I still think that when we win this game (against Venezuela), he will have a prominent role with us in the future. I wanted him to be upset about that and he was. So I expect nothing less from him. But I think he will continue to play,” DeRosa said at the time. Role.

His words were prescient as the win was secured and it will now be Wainwright’s turn, who hit 4.0 runs on five strikeouts and one run in a 6-2 win over Great Britain despite slowing his pitches – he averaged just 86.2 MPH with his fastball.

Meanwhile, Trea Turner, who dressed as a champion by hitting a grand slam to turn the score and send the United States into the semifinals, expects the match against Cuba to be very competitive.

“I’ve played against them before and I know the quality they have and some of them have reached the major leagues in the last 10 years,” recalls Turner, who made the All-American team in 2014. amazing. It won’t be easy but if we play baseball well we can compete with anyone.”