For four innings Friday afternoon, the Netherlands looked like exactly what its veteran core had described a day earlier: a team stitched together by familiarity, a group that knew how to hang around, trade punches, and keep the game within reach.
Then Venezuela turned the fifth inning into separation.
Venezuela scored four runs in the bottom of the fifth and beat the Netherlands 6–2 at loanDepot park in the World Baseball Classic Pool D opener. Still, the Netherlands left the field with a real on-field story line that matched its pregame theme: Druw Jones, playing in his first WBC and his first time playing for his Hall of Fame father managing him, drove in both Dutch runs.
“It was fun. It was fun,” Andruw Jones said afterward, reflecting on managing his son for the first time and watching him deliver both RBI. “Just a big opportunity for him to come out there with a big 2-out base hit.”
The Netherlands came into the tournament leaning on the idea that continuity matters in a short format. Xander Bogaerts said Thursday night that the familiarity inside the clubhouse is one of the qualities that gives him confidence entering the Classic.
“I think for me it’s just that we kind of know each other for a long time,” Bogaerts said. “With Didi, I mean, I played with him since we were, what, 14, 15? So for the most part, we kind of know everyone… we all speak the same language pretty much.”
Bogaerts framed it as an advantage against larger countries with deeper player pools.
“I just think that’s something that we have in our advantage compared to a lot of bigger countries,” he said. “Venezuela is so big. Guys probably play with each other only in the big leagues.”
Didi Gregorius, one of the Netherlands’ veteran voices, described the tournament the same way: familiar faces, new faces, and a group built across the Kingdom.
“It’s fun to be with the guys that I grew up with and to see the young talent that Curacao is bringing up, and from Netherlands too,” Gregorius said Thursday. “It’s really amazing to see how far we’ve come.”
The youngest and most visible example of that mix was in right field. Druw Jones has grown up around the game, but leading up to Friday he described this experience as something different. Not simply wearing the Netherlands uniform, but wearing it with his father running the dugout.
“It’s awesome just to be able to play for my dad and wear the same uniform and do all the things and just be able to represent him is the main thing… Picking up the little things every single day, just trying to improve my game… and perform for these guys and come out here and win games.”
The words were said Thursday, before a pitch was thrown. By the second inning Friday, Druw had already started turning them into something real.
“It’s just an honor to be able to play for him, you know, a Hall of Famer,” Druw said. “Being able to put on the same uniform for the first time is a blessing.”
In the bottom of the first, Venezuela landed the first punch. Ronald Acuña Jr. laced a first-pitch double off Netherlands starter Antwone Kelly, then Luis Arraez punched a two-strike RBI single past Bogaerts at shortstop to make it 1–0. Kelly kept it from getting bigger, striking out Wilyer Abreu looking after falling behind 3–0 with two on.
An inning later, the Netherlands answered. Hendrik Clementina muscled a broken-bat single, Chadwick Tromp worked a two-out walk, and Druw Jones came up with a runner in scoring position. After falling behind 1-2, he stayed with a low, away sinker and pieced it up the middle past a diving Andrés Giménez. Clementina scored, Tromp moved to third and Druw turned it into a hustle sliding double that tied the game 1–1.
Venezuela responded immediately in the bottom of the second, and a Miami Marlins player made sure the answer carried extra weight inside loanDepot park. Javier Sanoja, playing in his home ballpark and making his first WBC appearance, tattooed the first pitch he saw for a solo homer to left field to put Venezuela back in front, 2–1. The ballpark erupted and seemingly every Venezuela fan rose to their feet and cheered.
Arraez, a former Marlins infielder, said afterward that playing in Miami brought an atmosphere he could feel from the first inning.
“I’m back to my house,” Arraez said. “I’m back to my house, especially here. Miami gives me a lot of opportunities to play in front of a lot of fans, Latin people. And you see a lot of Latin people here to support us. You want to do something good for them. So I’m really excited, especially to play, to represent my team and my city, and then go there, go there and enjoy it together.”
Everything swung in the bottom of the fifth.
Andrés Giménez was hit by a pitch, Acuña drew a four-pitch walk, and Maikel Garcia dropped down a bunt that was ruled a hit but also exposed a coverage gap as Jonathan Schoop charged and nobody covered first, leaving Venezuela with the bases loaded and no outs.
Luis Arraez walked to force in a run, then Willson Contreras followed by lacing a two-run single into left to stretch the lead to 5–1 before the Netherlands could record an out. A double play off Salvador Perez briefly slowed the inning, but Wilyer Abreu followed with an RBI single through the right side to make it 6–1.
The Netherlands had its window in the sixth, loading the bases with no outs after Gregorius was hit by a pitch, Clementina walked, and Schoop reached on catcher’s interference by William Contreras, but it could only scratch across one on Druw Jones’ sacrifice fly to cut it to 6–2. From there, the bullpens locked it in place. Wendell Floranus gave the Netherlands two scoreless innings and struck out Acuña on a splitter, but Venezuela’s relievers kept the Dutch from putting together a rally.
For the Netherlands, Andruw Jones framed the opener with the kind of blunt reality that comes with this tournament: there is no time to sit in it.
“This is always a fun tournament,” he said.
“There’s going to be one loser, one winner, and you don’t want to be on the other side. So, you know, we lost today. We know what we did wrong. Tomorrow is going to be another day. So we’re going to go out there and correct all those mistakes that we made.”
John Devine has worked with the Miami Herald since 1996. He has worked as a Broward sports editor, Broward news editor, assistant sports editor and deputy sports editor before he became executive sports editor in 2021.