Arraez powers Venezuela past Israel with 2 HRs

Luis Arraez homered twice, doubled twice and drove in five runs as Venezuela beat Israel 11-3 in Miami.

Arraez became the first player with a pair of multi-homer games in his WBC career.

Eugenio Suárez also went deep and Ezequiel Tovar had three hits for Venezuela, which improved to 2-0 in Pool D. It was Israel's first game of the tournament.

Venezuela starter Enmanuel De Jesus struck out eight in five innings of one-run ball.

Suárez's two-run homer chased Israel starter Ben Simon and capped a four-run first. Arraez hit an RBI double and scored on Salvador Perez's single.

De Jesus retired his first 14 batters until Garrett Stubbs tripled with two outs in the fifth. Matt Mervis followed with an RBI infield single to put Israel on the board.

Venezuela regained its four-run lead in the fifth when Arraez hit a solo homer off reliever Jordan Geber.

Israel narrowed the deficit again in the sixth on RJ Schreck's solo homer against reliever Ricardo Sánchez before Venezuela broke it open with five runs in the bottom half. Maikel García hit a two-run single and Arraez followed with a three-run homer that made it 10-2.

Arraez, a three-time batting champion, has five hits and seven RBIs over the first two games.

Harrison Bader hit a solo homer for Israel in the ninth.