"The first quarter-final elimination" was a shock that did not go away. "Fatal weaknesses were revealed.""

*This content was translated by AI.

He won three out of five competitions. Therefore, it seems that it is still difficult to accept the elimination from the quarterfinals. The Japanese media has shed light on Venezuela's thorough analysis.

On the 17th, Japanese media No. Web revealed the coaching staff's strategy, saying, "Japan was actually found to have a fatal weakness at the World Baseball Classic (WBC)."

Japan lost to Venezuela 5-8 in the 2026 WBC quarterfinals on the 15th. Japan, which won the most three times in a row, including the first WBC tournament, was eliminated from the quarterfinals for the first time.

I was even more excited because I was the defending champion. With Shohei Ohtani, the world's best player, Yoshinobu Yamamoto (LA Dodgers), the hero of last year's World Series, and Seiya Suzuki (Chicago Cubs), who hit 32 home runs and 103 RBIs in the big league last year, he was able to express his desire to win for the third consecutive time.

He gained momentum by winning all four games in the group stage, but it was different in the quarterfinals. Yamamoto, the trusted starter, allowed two runs in four innings and the bullpen collapsed.

Suzuki was replaced early due to injuries early in the game, and after the third inning, the batters were blocked by the opposing pitching staff and bowed their heads. It was painful for Enmanuel de Heysus, who was active in the KBO League, to fail to score points by being blocked with one hit, one walk and three strikeouts in two ⅓ innings.

Local media have not yet easily accepted the defeat and are analyzing the cause, citing Venezuela's thorough analysis of its power.

"Of course, Venezuela had leading players in the major leagues, including Ronald Acuña Jr. (Atlanta), who won the MLB Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player (MVP), Luis Arraez (San Francisco), who won the batting champion three times, and Salvador Perez (Kansas City), who won the home run and RBI king in 2021. More than half of the 10 starting lineups, including Rangel Suarez (Boston), who started, were a corps of top major league stars with experience playing in all-stars. "I already knew that it was not an easy opponent to win in the first place," he said. "But what will happen when such a powerhouse thoroughly analyzes the enemy and carefully plans the strategy. Venezuela showed the answer clearly in the semi-final against Japan," he said.

Coach Omar Lopez's Venezuela spent an unusual 90 minutes just analyzing opponents two days before the game. The media said, "In MLB, when entering the series, we usually have a batter and pitcher analysis meeting, but it's about 30 minutes at the most. In comparison, I can guess what a detailed and thorough analysis meeting it was," he said.

I was surprised by Venezuela's microscopic analysis. Lopez, who has been a coach for the Houston Astros for a long time, was aware of Otani, Suzuki, and Masataka Yoshida (Boston), but this analysis allowed first baseman Ezequiel Toba (Colorado) to run to third base when Gleyber Torres (Detroit) hit a left-handed hit in the sixth inning with no outs. "It is a tactic often seen in Major League Baseball to try to run aggressively considering Yoshida's weak shoulders, but Venezuela's lack of hesitation in this game proves that the sharing of tactics between the coaching staff and players with extensive major league experience is complete," he said.

He also clearly understood how to attack Yamamoto. In the top of the first inning, first batter Acuña Jr. hit a four-seam fastball with a first pitch to hit a leadoff batter home run, and in the second inning, Toba hit the four-seam and hit a double. Torres then scored again by targeting the splitter.

Venezuelan batting coach Carlos Mendes' comments revealed why he could target Yamamoto Roll. He said, "We have a few players on our team who have faced Yamamoto. We discussed them over and over again. "The basis of the attack is to hit the ball aggressively entering the strike zone and not to bat on the low ball," he said. "The splitter is his decision, but the power of the fast ball is also great. You shouldn't just wait for a fastball. The most important thing is to throw away the low ball and not miss the actual pitch that comes into the zone," he said.

He has also completely finished analyzing other pitchers. The bottom line is that the ball to be thrown away was completely abandoned and approached. "We had various discussions watching videos of pitchers playing in Japan. There is enough information. They have high quality pitching and use the top and bottom of the zone widely. "I threw away the same low ball and aggressively targeted the ball entering the strike zone," he explained.

In the fifth inning, Mikel Garcia (Kansas City) cut a low ball against Jihiro Sumida and hit a two-run home run after a fierce game, and Willy Abreu (Boston) hit a three-run home run to Ito Hiromi in the sixth inning.

On the other hand, I felt something different about Japan. Lopez said, "We carefully observed how the Japanese coach manages the bullpen. The surprise during the game was that they were under the impression that they did not seem to use data analysis, he said. "We did not elaborate on the matchup of attaching left-handed to left-handed hitters and right-handed to right-handed hitters. On the other hand, we kept it thoroughly. So we were able to win," he said.

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*This content was translated by AI.