championship against the United States<\/a>.<\/p>\nJust three players listed on Italy\u2019s roster were born in Il Bel Paese: Los Angeles Angels left-hander Sam Aldegheri; Gabriele Quattrini, a 29-year-old right-hander who has pitched in the Italian Serie A; and Claudio Scotti, a 27-year-old right-hander released from a minor league contract by the New York Mets in 2023.<\/p>\n
Italy\u2019s roster also includes Philadelphia All-Star pitcher Aaron Nola, who would start Tuesday\u2019s final, and Kansas City All-Star first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino, the team captain, who gives his each home-run hitting teammate a kiss on each cheek.<\/p>\n
Long ball hitters cut a bella figura, honored with a Giorgio Armani jacket during the dugout celebrazione,<\/p>\n
Following each win in a 5-0 start, the team luxuriated la dolce vita, with pitchers and players each given a bottle of wine, a suggestion of team publicist Jason Zillo of the New York Yankees. Pedigree increases with each win, and selections have included Francesco Rinaldi Barolo, Barbaresco Montefico, Antinori Prunotto: Bric Turot and Bertani Amarone della Valpolicella Classico.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast night I forgot to take the brown paper bags off of them when I handed them out. so it looked like I was passing 40s around to guys on the team after we won,\u201d Pasquantino said after he became the first player with a WBC three-homer game, in the group stage win over Mexico.<\/p>\n
In a soccer-mad nation where calcio is omnipresent, the baseball Azzurri have managed to make some impact.<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s front page of La Gazzetta Sportiva was dominated by Inter Milan, AC Milan and Juventus but included a small box at the bottom featuring baseball with the headline \u201cCHE ITALIA\u201d followed by a subhead that started \u201cAltra impresa\u201d (What an Italy \u2026 another feat).\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the south of Italy they don\u2019t play that much baseball and yesterday everyone was watching the game,\u201d Italy manager Francisco Cervelli said. \u201cThey send me pictures all the time. It\u2019s like the family reunion watching baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n
A big league catcher from 2008-20, Cervelli was born in Venezuela to an Italian father, and he played for the Azzurri in the 2009 and 2018 WBCs. He moved to Florence, Italy, last year after he replaced Hall of Famer Mike Piazza as manager.<\/p>\n
A Juventus fan, he, of course, follows Serie A.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you watch the newspaper, it\u2019s going to be five, six pages about soccer,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd now we\u2019re in. Yesterday I think was the first time for the national team on TV.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pasquantani was born in Richmond, Virginia, and says he became eligible for the Azzurri because his paternal great-grandfather was from Italy.<\/p>\n
Home runs are celebrated this year with sips from a Lavazza Classy Mini, and Pasquantino is the current barista. He took over from Piazza, who had a Nespresso machine in the dugout at the 2023 WBC.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it kind of comedically worked out that they were too hot the first day. So people were spitting them out,\u201d Pasquantino said. \u201cBut it is just coffee. I\u2019m not spiking it with anything other than coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 Dylan DeLucia pitched four scoreless innings against Puerto Rico to help boost Italy to its first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,24,49,853,4,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-626524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago-cubs","10":"tag-chicago-white-sox","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116239387404111041","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}