Kent Bewley's News Story Collection

On Tue, Mar 17, Team USA took on Venezuela in the hopes of winning their second World Baseball Classic title ever. Three years before, they were beaten by Japan by a final score of 3-2 at loanDepot Park in Miami on a game-ending strikeout by Shohei Ohtani on Mike Trout. Now behind a new set of stars such as Aaron Judge, Bobby Witt Jr, Bryce Harper and Paul Skenes, the Americans were seeking redemption in the title game against a Venezuela national club who defeated Samurai Japan in a quarterfinal match 8-5 and fought past Team Italy with a 4-2 win in the Semifinal match on Monday night. With a massive Venezuelan crowd in Miami, the US faced another “road” environment on their own soil and would face Eduardo Rodriguez as the starter. Nolan McLean was penciled in as the starting pitcher after a tough performance in the only loss of the tournament for the US to that point against Italy in pool play. It was definitely an interesting matchup between two teams who lost their final game in pool play and had to be runners-up in their respective groups, but they were playing for gold medals and a trophy before the beginning of the MLB season. Who would prevail as champion? Let’s find out.

The game started with Venezuela batting first, with Ronald Acuña Jr hitting a first-pitch single off McLean. But a swift double play occurred with Maikel Garcia, then McClean ended the inning by getting Luis Arraez to fly out with only five pitches thrown in the inning. Rodriguez had a solid 1-2-3 first inning, with another scoreless inning in the second from both pitchers. In the top of the third, McLean gave up a leadoff single to Salvador Perez and after striking out Jackson Chourio, he walked Acuña on a full count. Garcia came up and the first pitch McLean threw was a wild pitch, with Perez and Acuña advancing an extra base. On a 2-2 count, Garcia hit a ball out to center field that was caught by Byron Buxton and it was deep enough to score Perez. The sac fly pit Venezuela on the board first. McLean got Arraez to ground out to end the inning, but it was 1-0 in favor of the “home team”.

In the bottom of the third, the US got their first hit of the game on a single by Brice Turang, but Rodriguez easily got out of the jam. The game was fast moving due to the pitchers mostly dominating the opposing offenses. A two-out walk by Rodriguez against Kyle Schwarber in the bottom of the fourth led to nothing as the American bats were flustered by the stellar pitching of Rodriguez and the cheering of the Venezuelan fans on two strike counts. In the top of the fifth, McLean remained in, but he gave up a deep home run to center field by Wilyer Abreu. McLean was taken out by Mark DeRosa after getting two outs and Brad Keller finished the inning. Rodriguez was taken out by Venezuela manager Omar Lopez after getting one out in the bottom of the fifth, but Eduard Bazardo got the last two outs of the inning. It was now a ten-inning long scoring drought for the Americans since their 2-1 Semifinal win over the Dominican Republic.

Keller pitched a clean top of the sixth, then Harper got a two-out single against Jose Buttó, who got Judge to ground out to end the bottom of the sixth inning. Will Vest entered to pitch in the top of the seventh in his only WBC appearance and he gave up a single to Ezequiel Tovar with one out, but he got Abreu and Perez out to keep this game at a 2-0 score in favor of Venezuela. In the bottom of the seventh, Ángel Zerpa entered to pitch and got Schwarber and Alex Bregman out to start the inning. But Roman Anthony walked and that forced Omar Lopez to take Zerpa out of the game. Andrés Machado came in and got Will Smith to pop out to end the inning. Things were looking pretty grim for the American side as we got closer to the end of this game.

In the top of the eighth, Griffin Jax came in to pitch and he had a stellar 1-2-3 inning. In the bottom half of the inning, Machado returned to pitch and he got Turang to strike out and Pete Crow-Armstrong to ground out for the first two outs. The next batter was Bobby Witt and he took four balls out of the zone for a walk. Up next was Bryce Harper, who has plenty of good experience with hitting home runs in Miami over his major league career. After taking the next pitch for a ball, Harper swung at a changeup from Machado and it flew off the bat into the inside space of the dome pretty high. It was high and far and it went over the center-field wall for a huge two-run shot. Harper had finally provided the scoring drought-ending blast that the Americans were desperate for. The entire bench for Team USA came onto the field pumped up for what Harper pulled off in tying this game at 2-2 with a massive two-run shot. Now Aaron Judge was coming up with a chance to give the US the lead. But he struck out against Machado and the inning ended with the score still tied. Harper had provided an amazing moment, but the only way that the Americans could win this game now was via a walk-off hit. No better way to end this title game than with a game-winning score.

In the top of the ninth, Garrett Whitlock came in to pitch for Team USA in a non-save situation but it was very high-stakes. Arraez was due up first for Venezuela and he was walked on five pitches by Whitlock. Due up next was Suárez, who had some amazing moments in last season’s MLB playoffs for the Seattle Mariners. Reserve shortstop Javier Sanoja was put in as a pinch-runner for Arraez and on a full count pitch Suárez swung at a changeup and it was hit into center field. The ball dropped in and Sanoja sprinted on the base paths all the way to home plate. Suárez went into second base with a clutch RBI double and Venezuela had reclaimed the lead after taking a gut punch the inning before. Whitlock had blown this whole situation and he was removed from the game after getting Giménez to fly out. Tyler Rogers entered the game and got Tovar to pop out for the second out. DeRosa then elected to intentionally walk Abreu and Rogers got Perez to fly out to end the inning. But the damage had been done. A leadoff walk came back to bite the US strong. Now with one last chance in the bottom of the ninth, the Americans needed to counter with a run to stay alive or a walk-off to win the game.

The Venezuelan closer Daniel Palencia entered to finish this game. He was set to face the middle of the US lineup, with Schwarber up first. Palencia struck him out on a 2-2 fastball. Gunnar Henderson entered to pinch-hit for Bregman and in spite of getting a home run in the Semifinal game on Sunday, he popped out to Suárez at third base. The final batter was coming up and it was Roman Anthony, who had hit the game-winning home run against the Dominicans two nights beforehand. Anthony got down 1-2 against Palencia, who threw a 99 mph fireball to strike out Anthony and end the game. Venezuela had won their first World Baseball Classic title ever. Their fans were overjoyed and the Team USA bench was despondent. Another loss in the WBC title game by the final score of 3-2. Pitching mistakes and a deficient offense are what caused this defeat in the title game. And just like three years ago, they were beaten by one run and by the exact same final score. 3-2.

Instead of being on the victory podium in the middle of the field at loanDepot Park, the US players and coaches were awarded silver medals for a second straight time. There were some guys on the 2026 team who were on the 2023 team, most notably Schwarber, Paul Goldschmidt, David Bednar, Will Smith and Bobby Witt. Once again, they had to accept silver medals after shaking hands with the commissioner of MLB Rob Manfred. Mark DeRosa had to wear a silver medal again and he failed to win a second(and potentially a third) WBC title. Instead, it was Venezuela who was celebrating their first title in this tournament’s history. Miguel Cabrera finally achieved as a coach what he couldn’t as a player, a gold medal. So did Victor Martínez. The most valuable player of the tournament was Maikel Garcia, who had ten hits in the entire tournament and some clutch RBIs as well. A fantastic combo of stellar hitting and clutch pitching led Venezuela to this crowning achievement, joining their baseball rivals in the Dominican Republic as nations to have won at least one World Baseball Classic from Latin America. Japan and the United States, whom this Venezuelan squad under Omar Lopez defeated in the knockout stage, have the other titles, with Samurai Japan with three and the Americas still stuck with their 2017 title under Hall of Fame manager Jim Leyland.

The next baseball tournament with major league level players from all areas of the world will occur at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics at Dodger Stadium. There will be six teams who will play in the tournament and three have already qualified in the U.S, Dominican Republic and Venezuela. The next World Baseball Classic will occur shortly after the Summer Olympics either in Mar 2029 or Mar 2030. A new generation of stars will have the chance to compete in the most competitive preseason baseball tournament ever conceived. New memories will be made and maybe a new championship nation will be crowned. But for now Venezuela are the 2026 World Baseball Classic champions and that is a joy to their players, coaches and all of their fans who were there in Miami to witness it and for the millions of Venezuelan citizens watching from thousands of miles south.