HOUSTON — Manny Ramirez hit plenty of home runs in his 19-year major league career — 555, to be exact.

On Friday night at Daikin Park, the 12-time All-Star relished watching someone else go yard when his son Lucas Ramirez hit two homers for Brazil against the United States in the World Baseball Classic.

Lucas Ramirez hit a leadoff homer, then added another solo shot in the eighth inning.

Like father, like son.

The 20-year-old sent Logan Webb’s second pitch into the seats in right field to cut the Americans’ lead to 2-1 after Aaron Judge hit a two-run shot in the top of the inning. Ramirez’s blast in the eighth off Gabe Speier got Brazil within 8-5.

“I was looking forward for him to do something special,” Manny Ramirez told The Associated Press after his son’s first homer. “So, he’s been working so hard all year round and I’m proud of him.”

Lucas Ramirez is playing for Brazil because his mother, Juliana Ramirez, was born and raised in Sao Paulo. She was at the ballpark Friday night and beamed after the leadoff homer.

The younger Ramirez was a 17th-round pick of the Los Angeles Angels in the 2024 draft and he spent last season playing in class A, batting .266 with three homers, 30 RBIs and six stolen bases.

He also played for Brazil in the 2026 WBC qualifiers and went 5 for 13.

Manny Ramirez, a two-time World Series champion and the 2004 World Series MVP, would have been thrilled to see his son homer against any team, but it made it more special for him to do it against one of the top teams in the tournament.

“Oh yeah, they’re No. 1,” he said.

And he thinks the big night will give his son a boost for the upcoming season.

“It’s going to be more special for him because that’s going to give him — he’s going to be ready for the season,” Ramirez said. “I hope he’s going to do good.”

Lucas Ramirez is wearing the No. 24 his father donned for most of his career in the WBC. And Manny Ramirez is thrilled to see his son succeed.

“I’m proud of him,” he said. “Thank God for this opportunity that he has.”

Party scene

MIAMI (AP) — Ronald Acuna Jr. scored easily from third base for Venezuela at the World Baseball Classic, and about a half-dozen of his teammates hopped over the dugout railing to start a celebration.

It was a 1-0 game. In the first inning. Didn’t matter.

“For our people, baseball is joy,” Jessalyn Suarez, an office manager from Miami, said as she walked into the ballpark about an hour earlier. “Today is joy. Today is not about anything else.”

She was like many other Venezuelan fans Friday — wearing her team’s jersey, her country’s flag knotted loosely around her neck, the country’s yellow-blue-red color scheme painted on her face and the faces of some of her friends.

Unusual political times didn’t seem to matter. Thousands of Venezuelans — the stadium was maybe one-third filled for Venezuela vs. Netherlands on Friday, with the overwhelming majority of fans cheering for “La Vinotinto” — showed up to watch their national team play on U.S. soil, two months after American forces executed a military operation in Venezuela to capture deposed leader Nicolas Maduro and bring him to New York to face drug trafficking charges.

“Nobody is thinking about him today,” Jesus Otero, a retired heavy machine operator from nearby Hialeah, said as he watched batting practice. “He’s not here.”

In the end, the Venezuelan fans left happy: Their team won the opener 6-2.

There were a few Netherlands caps and shirts in the crowd — but for the most part, the party was very Latin.

At 10:30 a.m. outside the ballpark, more than 90 minutes before first pitch, fans arrived as music from Elsen Pro, Bacilos and Carlos Vives blared over giant speakers. At a gas station across the street from one of the parking garages, someone was selling Venezuela jerseys, caps and flags, all packed up into a couple of duffel bags that were serving as display cases.

Inside, fans cheered from the very first pitch. Many had their phones out to grab video of the team being announcing, taping what was being shown on the huge screen in center field. The upper deck was almost entirely empty, but the lower deck — especially on the third-base side, the one where Venezuela’s dugout was — was bustling.

“Venezuelan baseball fans are very motivated and involved with everything that happens with the team,” said Nelson Zurita, a Venezuelan who calls Chile home but flew to Miami for the tournament. “They are aware of every transaction in the anticipation to the Classic. The country will always be focused on sports but especially baseball. … The players do not want to mix politics with baseball, but the country is completely behind them.”

There were no signs of protests outside the ballpark Friday; there was a presence of police officers and sheriff’s deputies, but that seemed largely for standard security and traffic-control reasons. Fans were going through the usual sorts of ticket-checks and bag searches that are in place for Miami Marlins games and other events at the ballpark.

WBC officials said the night game Friday — Nicaragua vs. the Dominican Republic — was a sellout, with more than 35,000 people in the ballpark. The announced attendance for the Venezuela-Netherlands game was 19,542.

“The presence of this team provides some relief from the everyday political stress,” Zurita said. “The emphasis instead is on the Classic. Baseball breathes new life.”