LONDON- - The Italian stallion has a spring in its step as Ferrari, Formula One's oldest and most successful team, start a new season with fresh hope of returning to the top in the carmaker's 70th anniversary year.

GLENDALE, Ariz. – It was after 1 a.m. Tuesday in Guadalajara when Rob Segedin decided he could finally go to sleep. His wife and infant son had already clocked out, and Team Mexico had just beaten Team Venezuela, 11-9, in the World Baseball Classic. That meant Segedin and Team Italy were still alive in the WBC. They would play a do-or-die game against Mexico later in the day. “I woke up the next morning,” he said, “and we were playing Venezuela.”

Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez did not sleep that night. Shortly after Mexico’s victory, WBC officials announced that a necessary but obscure tiebreaker scenario had been miscommunicated. Gonzalez, the first baseman for Team Mexico, couldn’t rest until he received a satisfactory explanation for why his team was suddenly eliminated, and Venezuela was moving on to play Italy in an elimination game.

By Wednesday, Segedin, Gonzalez, Mexico pitcher Sergio Romo and Mexico outfielder Alex Verdugo were back in the Dodgers’ spring training clubhouse. Gonzalez was still angry. He told reporters that “it’s good to be the hell out of that tournament.” He vowed never to return.

While most of the country was asleep early Tuesday morning, Mexican officials submitted a written appeal to the WBC. According to the tournament’s tiebreaker rules, when three teams finish with a 1-2 record in pool play, the two teams with the fewest runs allowed per defensive inning (including partial innings) play each other to determine who advances to Round 2. The third team is eliminated.

Mexico, Italy and Venezuela all had 1-2 records by Tuesday morning. Based on the WBC’s calculation of runs allowed per defensive inning, Italy's average was 1.05, Venezuela's was 1.11 and Mexico's was 1.12. That’s why Italy and Venezuela played Tuesday, and Mexico went home.

So why all the confusion? In its first pool play game, Mexico allowed five runs to Italy in the ninth inning of a 10-9 loss. But because Mexico didn’t record any outs in that “partial inning,” it pushed its runs allowed per defensive inning to 1.12.

Gonzalez said he was present at an early-morning summit among officials from the MLB Players’ Association, Major League Baseball (which sanctions the WBC) and the Mexican baseball federation. The MLBPA representatives tried to mediate a solution between MLB and Team Mexico, he said.

“They heard us,” Gonzalez said. “They were honest when they would say, ‘that’s not a valid argument’ with both sides.”

Ultimately, Gonzalez accepted the WBC’s definition of a “partial inning.” He accepted that if Mexico had recorded a single out in the ninth inning against Italy, his team would still be playing. But he did not accept World Baseball Classic Inc.’s written statement Tuesday that “a number of media outlets, including the WBC's social media accounts and the MLB Network, incorrectly reported that Team Mexico rather than Team Venezuela would play in the tiebreaker, which regrettably caused confusion.”

Gonzalez said Mexico’s general manager reached out to WBC officials seven times before Monday’s game, either by phone or by text, to clarify how many runs they needed to score against Venezuela to advance. His GM never got an answer. MLB did not offer a response to that specific allegation.

Segedin said there was similar confusion as Team Italy watched the Mexico-Venezuela game from its team hotel. “There were MLB Players reps there, WBC reps, Italian Federation people,” Segedin said. “A bunch of different people running and going through the rules on the WBC website, trying to interpret them, because there was a little vagueness as far as partial innings.”

Gonzalez said if they had the correct tiebreaker information before the game, Mexico “would have played the game differently.” For WBC officials to blame the media outlets struck him as unfair.

“They're trying to become the World Cup,” he said, “but they're not even close to being the Little League World Series.”

Kenley Jansen didn’t seem to mind the calamity. The Dodgers’ closer said Wednesday that he will pitch for The Netherlands in the WBC after all, two days after insisting he would not.

“I was talking to (Netherlands outfielder) Jurickson Profar, talking to Bam Bam (Netherlands manager Hensley Meulens),” Jansen said. “Just why not, you know? It’s on my schedule, so why not?”

Proximity helps. The Netherlands will play a WBC semifinal game Monday at Dodger Stadium. Jansen said he was scheduled to pitch an inning in Cactus League games Friday and Tuesday anyway.

“Who knows where the championship round is going to play in the next Classic? I’m a Dodger,” Jansen said. “Playing for my country in Dodger Stadium, championship round -- I get my locker, I get my bullpen, I get my music. I get my fans around me, my hometown fans. I think it’s a great thing to do.”

Gonzalez has participated in every WBC since it was first held in 2006. Jansen, for one, doesn’t believe Gonzalez will walk away from the tournament for good.

“I think he’s just a little upset right now that they didn’t make it,” Jansen said. “Adrian’s competitive. He’s going to be upset that he didn’t make it because he wants to win all the time. That’s Adrian. He might say no today; he might say yes in four years.

“I might say yes today. That’s me.”

Both teams look to avoid 0-2 hole in San Diego's pool

By Austin Laymance / MLB.com

SAN DIEGO--The Dominican Republic and Venezuela are in desperate need of a victory heading into their 2017 World Baseball Classic matchup tonight at Petco Park in San Diego.

First pitch is scheduled for 10 p.m. ET. Both nations are 0-1 in Pool F, placing added importance on tonight's game. The winner will be in control of its second-round fate, while the loser will move to the brink of elimination.

The Dominican Republic was upset by Puerto Rico on Tuesday for its first loss in the Classic since 2009. Venezuela was unable to hold a late lead against Team USA on Wednesday. Team USA and Puerto Rico are each 1-0 and square off on Friday night. The top two teams advance to the Championship Round at Dodger Stadium (March 20-22).

Elite 8th: Jones, Hosmer power USA rally

By Chad Thornburg / MLB.com

SAN DIEGO--Late-inning heroics from Adam Jones and Eric Hosmer vaulted the United States past Venezuela, 4-2, on Wednesday night at Petco Park in yet another World Baseball Classic thriller.

The U.S. bats were quiet throughout much of the night until Jones brought a much-needed spark with a game-tying leadoff homer in the eighth. Hosmer followed three batters later with a two-run blast that ultimately handed the U.S. a win in its second-round opener.

The victory was similar to Team USA's first-round opener, when it overcame a 2-0 deficit to defeat Colombia in extras on a walk-off single by Jones. The U.S. joins Puerto Rico atop the Pool F standings at 1-0, with Venezuela and the Dominican Republic both 0-1.

Venezuela now faces a must-win matchup with the Dominican Republic on Thursday night at 10 ET. Team USA has Thursday off before resuming play Friday against Puerto Rico (10 p.m. ET).

"We won a game against an unbelievable lineup," Team USA manager Jim Leyland said. "We're going to come back and play Friday against a team that's been really, really playing good. So it doesn't get any easier. All these teams that are here now are outstanding teams."

Runs were at a premium early in the contest, as both starting pitchers

turned in dominant performances. Venezuela's Felix Hernandez tossed five scoreless innings and allowed just three hits, all singles. For the U.S., Mariners lefty Drew Smyly surrendered only an unearned run over 4 2/3 innings and struck out eight batters, including each of the final six he faced.

The Venezuelan lineup struggled to generate production not only against Smyly, but throughout the entire night, collecting just five hits and drawing one walk. Making matters worse, the Marlins' Martin Prado, who ranks second on the team in hits, exited in the sixth inning with a pulled hamstring, which could keep him out the remainder of the Classic, manager Omar Vizquel said. Venezuela already lost Royals All-Star catcher Salvador Perez to a knee injury in the first round.

"I'm going to study the situation," Vizquel said of his team's offensive woes. "I'm going to talk to the coaches and see what would be the best for the team, and see if that formula will create some results."

Jones, whose walk-off single handed U.S. the victory in its tournament opener against Colombia on Friday, again played hero for Team USA, tying Wednesday's game with a solo shot against Venezuelan reliever Hector Rondon in the eighth inning. Hosmer, MVP of the 2016 All-Star Game at Petco Park, found his San Diego stroke again with a two-run shot that proved to be the game-winner.

"I think Jones really got us going, and then we cashed in on a big one by a world champion, obviously," Leyland said. "It was a great game. I know that's easy for us to say; we won the game. But it was. It was agreat game."

Added Hosmer: "After that swing from Jonesy, it just seemed like the energy in the dugout just kind of shifted to our side and really got things sparked up for our club."

The notoriously pitcher-friendly ballpark in San Diego swallowed a number of well-hit fly balls on Wednesday night, but in the seventh inning, Rougned Odor's line drive against U.S. reliever David Robertson managed to be the first to escape the park, increasing Venezuela's lead to 2-0. Odor's homer, his first in the tournament, traveled a Statcast-projected 422 feet and had a 104.7 mph exit velocity with a 34 degree launch angle.

The lone blemish on Smyly's outing was a throwing error in the third inning. Smyly cleanly fielded a Robinson Chirinos bunt down the third-base line, but his throw to first was off the mark, sailing over Hosmer's head. The error put two runners in scoring position for Venezuela's Ender Inciarte, who plated Carlos Gonzalez with a sacrifice fly.

Although Smyly was scored upon, the run was unearned, extending Team USA's streak of starting pitchers not allowing an earned run to 17 1/3 innings in WBC 2017. The Rays' Chris Archer, Blue Jays' Marcus Stroman and Royals' Danny Duffy were unscored upon in the first round.

Hernandez appeared to be in midseason form. He didn't allow a baserunner until there was one out into the third inning and Team USA got consecutive singles from Jonathan Lucroy, Alex Bregman and Ian Kinsler. Hernandez erased any United States momentum in the very next at-bat, however, by getting Jones to bounce into an inning-ending double play.

Hernandez's scoreless outing was a promising sign for the Venezuelan pitching staff after its starters yielded 12 runs through 12 innings in the first round.