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The much-anticipated Battle of the Braves between Venezuela’s Ronald Acuña Jr. and Ozzie Albies of the Netherlands saw a decisive winner, as Venezuela came out on top 6-2 in Pool D of 2026 World Baseball Classic action.

From a Braves perspective, this was a one-sided affair as Acuña hit the ground running in helping his team to victory in this one. Venezuela manager Omar López made the smart decision to have Acuña lead off and he was rewarded for that decision by seeing his leadoff hitter smack one into the gap in left-center field for a leadoff double on the very first pitch that he saw.

An RBI single from singles machine Luis Arraez eventually brought Acuña home for the first run of the gameand Acuña wasn’t done there, either. He followed up a leadoff hit-by-pitch taken by Andrés Giménez with a walk that eventually turned into a bases-loaded situation. Acuña then scampered home again for his second run of the day on a single from Willson Contreras that made it past Didi Gregorius at third base and into the outfield for a two-RBI knock.

Acuña’s exploits weren’t just limited to his plate appearances or on the basepaths as well. The Netherlands attempted to respond to Venezuela’s four-run fifth inning by loading the bases up with nobody out to start the sixth inning. Braves catcher Chadwick Tromp hit a soft blooper to right field that could’ve easily been one of those Bermuda Triangle-type hits that do a ton of damage without a ton of exit velocity. Fortunately for Venezuela, Tromp’s Braves teammate in right field made it clear that he wasn’t going to give his fellow Brave any easy hits. Acuña made a long run to get under the ball, make the catch and then flip the ball on one hop to home plate in order to save a run.

While Acuña was all over the place in a good way for Venezuela, it was a quiet day on the diamond for Ozzie Albies and Chadwick Tromp. Albies went 0-for-4 at the plate and Chadwick Tromp went 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts in this one, as the Netherlands went into this one as clear underdogs and proved those prognostications correct. Braves Hall-of-Famer (and future Baseball Hall-of-Famer) and Netherlands manager Andruw Jones did have something to smile about in this one, as the two runs that Honkbal did score in this one off the bat of his son, Druw Jones. Druw tied things up in the second inning on an RBI double and then he hit a sacrifice fly to Ronald Acuña Jr. for the second run of the game.

That was as good as things got for the Netherlands in this one, as Venezuela ended up cruising to a four-run victory in this one. There wasn’t really a ton of drama in this one and the only Acuña/Albies interaction that we saw was the two pals goofing off at second base in the first inning after Acuña made it there on the leadoff double.

Outside of that, it was all Acuña and Venezuela as one of the dark horse candidates to win the whole thing got off to a good start in this one. Venezuela will return to the field tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. ET against Israel on Fox Sports 2, while the Netherlands will be facing off against Nicaragua at 12:00 p.m. ET on tubi. If you’re trying to keep an eye on Ozzie Albies, Chadwick Tromp and Andruw Jones then make sure you’ve bookmarked tubi because you aren’t done with the land of low-budget movies just yet.

Meanwhile in Houston, Nacho Alvarez Jr. is also making his presence felt for Mexico as he hit a dinger in the second inning during his first at-bat of the game in order to give his squad the initial lead. As of writing, Mexico is currently in a serious fight with Great Britain as they’re deadlocked 1-1 in the seventh inning, so keep an eye on that one. Hopefully we’ll see Nacho Alvarez Jr. continue to show out for Mexico and we’ll update this post if he does add to his tally in this one.

I am running around all day, but feel free to discuss the game below! Sorry this is late

The Texas Rangers welcome the hated Seattle Mariners to Surprise for an Arizona-flavored AL West battle.

RHP Jack Leiter will take the mound for Texas opposite fellow notable former first-round SEC hurler Kade Anderson. The lefty for Seattle is fresh off leading LSU to a championship last summer, while Leiter made his name with Vanderbilt earlier this decade.

The Mariners have a radio feed, otherwise you can follow along on Gameday. First pitch from Surprise Stadium is scheduled for 2:05 pm CT.

Go Rangers!

Double your pleasure, double your fun! More taste! Less filling! And other appropriate advertising jingles of the seventies. For Arizona plays two games this afternoon. Attention will probably be focused on the White Sox game, because you can at least listen to that, through a dbacks.com livestream, hosted by Chris Garagiola alongside Jake Lamb. The Brewers game is in Maryvale, which is basically the “Here be dragons” of Spring Training venues [Look, I used to live near 35th Avenue, I’m not judging], and so results will be transmitted back to the outside world through semaphore flags.

Here are the two line-ups.

Couple of bits of good news out of camp regarding our injured list this morning. Nick Piecoro says “Corbin Carroll is already taking live at-bats as he works his way back from hamate surgery.” And Alex Weiner reports, “Merrill Kelly came out of his bullpen session feeling good, and he will throw live batting practice on Sunday, per Torey Lovullo.” Finally, this:

There is one thing I would suggest Phillies fans, myself included, do more of this year.

Zoom out.

Here in Philly, we can be a bit myopic when it comes to our sports teams. We are immersed in the day-to-day, week-to-week, monthly and yearly frustrations that come with following a baseball team with great intensity, and it is easy to lose the forest for the trees.

Like you, I was not happy with the off-season. After a second straight first round playoff exit and three consecutive highly disappointing postseasons overall, the 2026 Phils are largely the same squad as the ‘25, ‘24 and ‘23 teams, at least in terms of its core.

The starting rotation still features Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and Cristopher Sanchez. The best players in the lineup remain Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto, Bryson Stott, Brandon Marsh and Alec Bohm. The bullpen changes on a yearly basis, but that’s largely true for most teams. Everyone’s a year older, with yet another postseason frustration on which to chew.

We wanted change because it feels like this particular group has hit a brick wall. Teams that stick together this long don’t usually suddenly break through in Year No. 5. But it’s fair to note the Philadelphia Phillies are the two-time defending NL East champions and have been to the playoffs four straight years. This group did advance to a World Series in ‘22 and nearly got back there again in ‘23. And they won the NL East by a whopping 13 games a year ago.

Nationally, baseball analysts and the public are much higher on the Phils than the hardcore fanbase. This week, ESPN released their ranking of the Top 100 players in the league, and the Dodgers led the way with 8 players in the Top 100. But guess which team had the second-most? Yep, your Phils, with 7 (Sanchez, Schwarber, Turner, Harper, Luzardo, Jhoan Duran, Wheeler). That’s a lot!

MLB’s Mike Petriello released his Tier Rankings of all 30 teams, and while the Dodgers were in the top tier all by their lonesome, guess which tier the Phillies fell into? Yep, Tier 2, along with the Cubs (the only other NL team mentioned), Blue Jays, Mariners, Red Sox, Tigers and Yankees. That’s pretty great!

On my Hittin’ Season podcast from WHYY this week, MLB.com’s Mike Petriello joined me to offer his thoughts on why the Phillies largely chose to “run it back” in 2026, and why it’s important for us, as fans, to zoom out a bit and observe the rest of the league, too.

“You know, it’s funny. So I live in New York, but I’m not a Yankees fan, but I hear a lot of Yankees chatter and it’s the exact same conversation. Yankees and Phillies, right? We’re running it back and this is terrible. And it’s like, well, you’re running back a 96 win team in Philly and a 94 win team in New York. And every Phillies fan demanded Kyle Schwarber come back and every Yankees fan demanded Cody Bellinger come back. And at a certain point, if you’re bringing back players you wanted on a very good team, how many more moves are there to be made?

Yankees fans were furious. ‘We need a new shortstop.’ It’s like, shortstops don’t exist! You literally cannot go and find a shortstop right now. For the Phillies, I think it’s a little bit different just because I don’t mind them bringing back Schwarber, I don’t mind them bringing back JT Realmuto, because there just weren’t any other good options.”

And while Petriello did not like the Phillies’ plan for the outfield, specifically the move to acquire Adolis Garcia in free agency and place Justin Crawford in center without a real back-up plan, he called Brandon Marsh and his 2025 second half “underrated” and noted Bryson Stott’s outstanding second half after making a mechanical adjustment.

Things to consider.

While we’re nervous about a seemingly less stable starting rotation, Petriello believes the Phillies’ cadre of starters appear to still be the best in the division.

“The team that I’m out the most on rotation-wise is Atlanta, for sure. Just because of the pitching injuries. And I don’t know what [Spencer] Strider is and Chris Sale has been amazing, but he’s also going to be, what, 38? And [he] doesn’t exactly have a long track record recently of staying healthy. So that scares me the most. I think there’s huge disaster risk right there.

And between the Mets and the Phillies… I guess I’m still going to take the Phillies because it sounds like Wheeler won’t miss that much time. You know, it’s hard to know if he’s going to be “ace” [Zack] Wheeler, or just pretty good. I’m cautiously optimistic about [Aaron] Nola. I think Cris Sanchez is great and always underrated. I really like [Jesus] Luzardo. You know, even if [Andrew] Painter is only a number five, you’re not asking him to be an ace, right? The Pirates are asking Connor Griffin to be Bobby Witt right now and the Phillies are not asking that of Painter.

So I guess I would take the Phillies, then the Mets, then the Braves.“

This is perspective that gets lost when everyone is neck-deep in the echo chamber. Like you, I have a tendency to zero in on the minutia of what’s happening with the Phils, which is why it’s always great to get an outsider’s perspective, something I try to do a lot of on Hittin’ Season.

It’s easy to be down on the Phillies after a disappointing October and off-season. So let’s all make an effort to zoom out a bit more in 2026 and listen to folks who aren’t as emotionally invested in this team as we are.

It might save our sanity and maybe, just maybe, make us smarter baseball fans, too.

We got another game today, a quick turnaround from last night’s massacre at Camelback Ranch. Matchups and injuries later in March aside, the top two-thirds of this lineup could be close to what you see on Opening Day in Milwaukee:

Anthony Kay, top lefty on the staff at least for the moment, gets his third shot at the Cactus League.

Ballgame is at 2:10 p.m. CT, and is another Gameday event, unless you subscribe to MLB radio feeds that will deliver you the Giants’ broadcast.

In other developments, the White Sox re-upped everyone on the 40-man roster not already under contract for 2026, basically all the pre-arb guys playing for (relative) pennies:

And finally, the WBC is underway, with White Sox infielder Curtis Mead (three-run homer) playing a major role in Australia’s 5-1 win over Czechia.

As graybeard Alexei Ramírez sat on the bench, Yoán Moncada hit a two-run homer to provide the winning margin for Cuba in its 3-1 win over Panama.

Munetaka Murakami, hitting sixth, went 1-for-3 and scored three times in Japan’s 13-0 “10-run rule” win over Chinese Taipei.