Ramirez, Cabrera push Venezuela past U.S.

Mar 19, 2009 - 6:40 AM MIAMI (Ticker) -- Max Ramirez homered and Miguel Cabrera drove in a pair to lead Venezuela past the United States, 10-6, on Wednesday at the World Baseball Classic.

Henry Blanco added two RBI and Cesar Izturis scored a pair of runs for Venezuela, which earned the top seed in Pool 2 and will face either Cuba or Japan in the semifinals on Saturday.

The U.S. will face Pool 1 winner Korea on Sunday in the other semifinal.

After a rain delay of just over an hour at the start, the Venezuelans wasted little time jumping on U.S. starter Jeremy Guthrie, erasing a 1-0 deficit with six runs in the bottom of the second.

Blanco had one of the big hits in the frame, knocking in Carlos Guillen and Gerardo Parra with a double. Izturis added an RBI single and Jose Lopez and Cabrera capped the frame with back-to-back run-scoring doubles.

Venezuela added a run in the fourth, but the U.S. refused to quit, climbing within 7-6 on David Wright's groundout in the sixth.

But Ramirez put it away in the bottom of the frame, when he drove a 1-2 curveball from LaTroy Hawkins deep over the left field wall to stretch the lead to 10-6.

The U.S. continues to suffer from injuries, with first baseman Kevin Youkilis being sent back to the Boston Red Sox earlier in the day with a sprained left ankle. Youkilis' absence forced Team USA to move Adam Dunn to first base - a move that resulted in a pair of errors.

JAPAN 5, CUBA 0

SAN DIEGO (Ticker) -- Hisashi Iwakuma pitched six scoreless innings as Japan staved off elimination with a 5-0 victory over Cuba in Pool 1 of the World Baseball Classic on Wednesday.

Norichika Aoki had four hits, including a pair of RBI singles in the fifth and ninth innings, and Hiroyuki Nakajima added a sacrifice fly in the seventh for Japan (2-1), which kept its title defense alive by advancing to this weekend's semifinals.

Iwakuma (1-0) smothered Cuba's offense, surrendering five hits and one walk while striking out two before giving way to Toshiya Sugiuchi, who struck out four in three perfect frames to earn the save.

Starter Yuneski Maya (0-1) allowed two unearned runs and four hits in 3 2/3 innings for Cuba (1-2), but was victimized by his defense early in the contest.

Japan opened the scoring with a pair of runs in the fourth inning when center fielder Yoennis Cespedes committed a fielding error on a hit by Michihiro Ogasawara, allowing Aoki and Atsunori Inaba to cross the plate.