Aaron Nola will once again put on the glass slipper Monday evening as he tries to pitch a Cinderella Italy team into the World Baseball Classic Championship.
The longest-tenured Phillie will get the start for Italy Monday in the semifinal matchup with Venezuela, despite former Phillie Michael Lorenzen previously being announced as the starter:
RHP Aaron Nola will start for Team Italy against Venezuela, not Michael Lorenzen, sources tell @ElExtrabase.
This is a strategic move by Francisco Cervelli.
This appears to have been some gamesmanship by Cervelli, as Venezuela likely spent most of Sunday preparing for face Lorenzen. To his credit, Lorenzen was tremendous when he started an eventual Italy upset of the United States in pool play, logging 4 2/3 innings of scoreless ball. But Nola — despite the fact that he's coming off of the worst season of his MLB career — is much more accomplished, so it makes sense to go with him when tomorrow isn't guaranteed. And if Italy makes it to the final Tuesday against the USA, they can feel good about likely handing the ball to Lorenzen.
Of course, while Italy has won all five of their WBC games to this point, they will still enter their semifinal matchup Monday evening as underdogs against a loaded Venezuela lineup that includes Ronald Acuña Jr., Wilyer Abreu, William Contreras, Eugenio Suárez and Jackson Chourio.
Keider Montero, a 25-year-old pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, is slated to get the start for Team Venezuela Monday. We could have had a Phillie vs. Phillie matchup, but Jesús Luzardo declined the chance to be added to the Venezuelan roster for this round.
For the Phillies, Monday's Nola start will provide a glimpse into what the 32-year-old could look like as he tries to bounce back from a 2025 campaign that saw him post a 6.01 ERA over 17 games last season. In his prior WBC start against Mexico on March 11, Nola recorded five strikeouts across five shutout innings. If "Captain Hook" is able to turn in anything resembling that on Monday, it might be time to start believing in a bounce-back season from a pitcher who has traditionally thrived in even years.
