MIAMI \u2013 Venezuela manager Omar L\u00f3pez went beyond the limit to help his nation win its first World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n
Major league clubs routinely place restrictions on how national team managers can use pitchers at the WBC. One key for L\u00f3pez and Venezuela<\/a> in Tuesday night’s championship game was that he talked some MLB team executives into dropping their initial limitations. U.S. manager Mark DeRosa<\/a> accepted such restraints.<\/p>\n That allowed L\u00f3pez to pitch Chicago Cubs closer Daniel Palencia for the second straight night and third time in four days. Palencia retired three straight batters to seal a 3-2 win.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI woke this morning, three text messages from different organizations trying not to pitch guys back to back,\u201d L\u00f3pez said before the game. \u201cOne of my strengths is talk, and I send my text back fighting for my guys and then set a phone call with everybody. When you talk and you get an agreement, you negotiate it, everything is going to go well.”<\/p>\n L\u00f3pez relaxed a bit after the back and forth.<\/p>\n \u201cI have my guys tonight to go back to back if I need to, and that\u2019s the most important thing,” he said. <\/p>\n DeRosa didn’t use Mason Miller, perhaps baseball\u2019s best reliever, because he promised the San Diego Padres he would pitch the 27-year-old righty only in a save situation. Miller had Monday off after throwing 22 pitches in the ninth inning of Sunday’s 2-1 win over the Dominican Republic<\/a>, when his fastball averaged 101 mph.<\/p>\n After Bryce Harper’s two-run homer tied the score 2-2 in the eighth against Venezuela, DeRosa brought in Boston\u2019s Garrett Whitlock to start the ninth. Whitlock walked Luis Arraez, and pinch-runner Javier Sanoja stole second. Sanoja came home when Eugenio Su\u00e1rez doubled to the left-center gap on a full-count changeup.<\/p>\n \u201cHonoring the Padres,” DeRosa said of Miller’s absence. \u201cHad we taken the lead, he was coming in, but I wasn\u2019t going to bring him in to a tie game.\u201d<\/p>\n With the U.S. the home team and batting last, there was no chance for a save situation once the game entered the ninth inning tied.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to honor the fact that there was a situation there where, if it was tied, we were going to use Whitlock,\u201d DeRosa said. \u201cWe had talked to the Red Sox about that. And if we had the lead, we were going to use Mason.\u201d<\/p>\n Palencia, a 26-year-old right-hander, threw 13 pitches in a perfect ninth to close out Saturday’s 8-6 quarterfinal win over Japan<\/a>, striking out two and ending the game by retiring Shohei Ohtani on a popup.<\/p>\n