Trey Turner blasted a stadium in Miami on Saturday.
Behind an eighth-inning grand slam from Philadelphia Phillies shortstop, Team USA defeated Venezuela 9-7 to advance to the semifinals of the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
After blowing a three-run lead in the fifth, the Americans entered the inning leading 7–5 and six out of elimination. Venezuelan reliever José Quezada, after shutting down an American rally in the previous frame, quickly got into trouble with a Tim Anderson walk, Pete Alonso’s single and JT Realmuto’s hit-by-pitch.
Venezuela replaced Quezada with Silvino Bracho, who faced a nightmare task: bases loaded, no outs, Turner, Mookie Betts and Mike Trout about to face him, with Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado If things turned ugly. He started well, going 0-2 on Turner, but then he hung a changeup and, well, see for yourself:
Turner knew it as soon as it came off his bat, and he made sure the American dugout knew it too:
The quarterfinals of a tournament are emotional enough (allegedly) no matter what.
Venezuela kept the US down from there but had to score two runs. They were already on track for a blowout win, as they scored four runs in the fifth inning when Daniel Bard lost his command and opened the door for Venezuela to take the lead. However, he lost star second baseman José Altuve to a hit-by-pitch by the arm in the process.
Before Turner’s slam, most of Team USA’s runs had come in the first inning, and they probably should have scored more. The USA started the game with five straight singles, but an out on the basepath by Kyle Tucker gifted Venezuela a break and stopped the bleeding.
The win sets the US up for a semifinal match-up against Cuba at 7 p.m. ET Sunday (FS1).