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SAN JUAN -- In a development that could have made only Twins manager Ron Gardenhire and Cuba\'s hitters happy, Venezuela manager Luis Sojo made the tough decision of taking out ace Johan Santana after five innings and 67 pitches of mastery in Sunday\'s World Baseball Classic contest at Hiram Bithorn Stadium.
Santana, who had yielded only two hits and a run while striking out five, was 13 pitches under the limit for this round. But Sojo went to his bullpen, and the result was decidedly bad for Venezuela in what wound up as a 7-2 loss to Cuba in the first game of the second round of Pool 2.
Reliever Giovanni Carrara was hammered for three hits and five runs over two-thirds of an inning, including a game-breaking, three-run homer off the bat of Frederich Cepeda.
"Santana did what he does best, he\'s a good pitcher and we were waiting for him to come back [out]," said Cepeda. "But then he was finished, he was taken out. They decided to take him out, but he had control over the way he was pitching."
And after Santana\'s exit, it was Cuba that took control.
Such is the balancing act at the World Baseball Classic, where managers such as Sojo are trying not only to win for their country, but also to keep a player such as Santana healthy for the team by whom he gets paid to pitch.
There was also a freak play during that five-run sixth, as shortstop Omar Vizquel literally got a fielder\'s-choice grounder stuck in his jersey, robbing Venezuela of a precious out. Then, on the next batter, Vizquel had a chance to turn a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning, but he couldn\'t get a clean handle on the flip from second baseman Edgardo Alfonzo. That kept the rally going long enough for Cepeda\'s blast.
"The sixth inning, [Cuba has] a man on first," said Sojo. "The ball went to Omar Vizquel. He can\'t take the ball out of his body, he can\'t find it. We could have turned a double play [on the next batter]. The next pitch was a three- run homer. That basically was the game. We\'ve just got to forget it and come back strong [Monday]."
Next up for Venezuela is a matchup with Puerto Rico, with Carlos Zambrano on the mound. If Venezuela can\'t win that one, its chances of advancing to the semifinals in San Diego would basically be nonexistent. Cuba next faces the Dominican Republic on Monday.
Venezuela continues to have problems offensively, no matter which pitcher it is facing.
"I think most of the time it was the offense, our hitting," said Endy Chavez, who supplied Venezuela\'s only substantial offense with a two-run homer in the seventh. "We didn\'t do the job and take the opportunities. I think they pitched great. They threw a great game. I understand everything that happened in the game. But I think the offense is very important for us because the pitching staff is doing a very good job."
For five innings, this game was an epic, as Santana and Cuba starter Yadel Marti were both stingy.
Cuba did get a quick rally going in the second. Yoandri Garlobo got it started with a one-out double down the line in right. Vizquel tried to get Santana out of the inning unscathed by ranging into the hole on a grounder by Ariel Pestano. However, his throw to third was not in time, giving Ariel Borrero the opportunity to belt an RBI single to left to make it 1-0.
But Santana settled down from there, mowing through the Cuban lineup with an array of fastballs and devastating changeups. The former Cy Young Award winner retired the final 10 batters he faced.
His counterpart, Marti, was every bit as sharp. Venezuela didn\'t get a hit until the bottom of the fifth, when Magglio Ordonez led off with a single to left. Ramon Hernandez followed with a single up the middle, prompting Cuba manager Higinio Velez to bring in right-hander Pedro Lazo from his bullpen.
That move came about five innings later than Sojo expected, as he was prepared for Lazo, Cuba\'s best pitcher, to start the game. Instead, he came out of the bullpen throwing heat.
Alfonzo tried to simply move the runners over with a sacrifice bunt, but things turned out even better as Lazo couldn\'t field it cleanly. The error loaded the bases for Venezuela with nobody out. Lazo then got Chavez and Vizquel to hit medium-range flyballs to just the right guy, left fielder Cepeda. Wisely, Ordonez made no attempt to score off Cepeda\'s rocket arm, leaving the rally in the hands of Carlos Guillen. He had no chance against Lazo, though, who blew him away with a 95-mph fastball to escape unscathed.
"We had three men on base, but the boys are not happy with the results," Sojo said. "They were not able to hit and get the blast as they can do. We had three very good hitters at one point and they were just not able to do what they had planned and what they wanted to do."
Then came that fateful top of the sixth. Things went bad for Carrara immediately, as leadoff man Eduardo Paret got things started with a walk. He then stole second and scored on an RBI single by Michel Enriquez to make it 2-0. With one out, Osmani Urrutia hit that crisp grounder through a button hole of Vizquel\'s jersey, and with two outs, Cepeda launched his three-run homer to right. Pestano followed with a solo shot to right, and suddenly it was 6-0.
The game was basically over from there, as Lazo stifled Venezuela in the late innings.
"He\'s been around for a long time," Sojo said. "I think he\'s the best pitcher they have. That really surprised me because he\'s supposed to start today, at least that\'s what we thought. So he came in [during] the fifth inning, and this guy has been around for a long time. He had 95-plus [mph heat], a nasty sinker, and nasty pitching, and he knows what he\'s doing over there. He\'s got a lot of confidence. We didn\'t come through when we needed to, and that was the game right there." ', tagline: 'Ian Browne is a reporter for MLB.com.', summary: null, article_photo: { caption: 'Johan Santana yielded just two hits and a run while striking out five in a five-inning start.', credit: 'Lynne Sladky/AP', path: '/images/2006/03/12/9iPFrADT.jpg' }, sub_headline: 'Starter Santana throws five strong innings, but bullpen falters', alt_headline: 'Five-run sixth dooms Venezuela to defeat', related_links: null, headline: 'Five-run sixth dooms Venezuela' }