{"id":6768,"date":"2026-03-18T16:52:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T16:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/6768\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T16:52:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T16:52:22","slug":"venezuela-beats-aaron-judge-and-team-usas-star-studded-roster-in-wbc-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/6768\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela beats Aaron Judge and Team USA’s star-studded roster in WBC final"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Aaron Judge walked slowly back and forth in the United States dugout Tuesday night while Venezuelan players shed tears and fell to their knees to celebrate the country\u2019s first World Baseball Classic title.<\/a><\/p>\n

Venezuela won the World Baseball Classic for the first time, rebounding from a blown eighth-inning lead to beat the United States 3-2 Tuesday night on Eugenio Su\u00e1rez\u2019s tiebreaking double in the ninth. Thousands of people, many of them children, gathered at public plazas in Caracas to watch the game, many dancing and waving Venezuelan flags. (AP Video by Juan Arraez, Andry Rincon and Brayan Antequero)<\/p>\n

Other players from the Americans\u2019 $320 million roster stood frozen for several minutes before receiving their silver medals. Bryce Harper, who hit a tying homer in the eighth inning, went over to shake hands with Team Venezuela players before leaving the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn those moments, it\u2019s like the Olympics or anywhere else,\u201d Harper said. \u201cI\u2019m really happy for them. Obviously, I want to win no matter what. That\u2019s what I play for, is to win a championship and a goal medal. But in that moment it\u2019s not about me, it\u2019s about us and our game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team USA brought its most loaded roster ever to baseball\u2019s premier international event, but the Americans lost their second straight WBC final after winning the championship in 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously disappointed,\u201d Judge said. \u201cAll of us put on this uniform to go out there and win a gold medal. We fell short of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. produced just three hits Tuesday night and four runs over the final two games of the WBC \u2014 well short of offensive expectations for a roster of players who combined for 382 home runs and 1,111 RBIs last MLB season.<\/p>\n

Three years after losing to Shohei Ohtani and Japan in 2023, the Americans were again disappointed, this time by an energetic Venezuelan team<\/a> led by All-Stars Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr., Maikel Garcia and Luis Arraez.<\/p>\n

Venezuela won the World Baseball Classic for the first time, defeating the United States 3\u20132 on Eugenio Su\u00e1rez\u2019s tie-breaking double in the ninth inning.<\/p>\n

Left-hander Eduardo Rodr\u00edguez mowed down the Americans\u2019 fearsome lineup with measured ease on Tuesday, leaving the colorful celebration to his teammates who met him with claps as he stoically exited the mound in the fifth. <\/p>\n

Rodr\u00edguez fanned Judge \u2014 the U.S. captain went 0 for 4 \u2014 twice among four strikeouts and held the Americans to just one hit over 4 1\/3 innings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to make any excuses for us,\u201d said United States manager Mark DeRosa. \u201cI think at the end of the day … it\u2019s early in spring training. Guys are getting ready for the season. Eventually I think the tournament gets moved and I think the guys are in better form pitching-wise.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut ultimately it\u2019s who gets hot at the right time, who gets a big swing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Americans have won just one title in six iterations of the tournament. DeRosa indicated that the U.S., which has received more buy-in from marquee MLB position players over the years, is still lacking the same commitments from star pitchers.<\/p>\n

Reigning two-time AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal participated this year but made just one start<\/a> in pool play in order to stick with his ramp-up schedule for the regular season with the Detroit Tigers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think every position player wants to play in it,\u201d DeRosa said. \u201cI think from a pitching standpoint, everybody\u2019s at different stages in their career. You\u2019ve got to get buy-in from the team. You\u2019ve got to get buy-in from the player. You\u2019ve got to get buy-in from the agent. I think everybody in their heart … wants to do it. It\u2019s just, what\u2019s the timing of where they are at in their career?\u201d<\/p>\n

Venezuela\u2019s bullpen gave up only two hits, including Harper\u2019s two-run homer over the center-field fence against Andr\u00e9s Machado in the eighth. <\/p>\n

Arraez walked against Garrett Whitlock starting the ninth and pinch-runner Javier Sanoja stole second just ahead of catcher Will Smith\u2019s throw, then came home on Eugenio Su\u00e1rez double. Su\u00e1rez spread his arms wide and pointed to the sky at second base while teammates streamed from the dugout to greet Sanoja at the plate.<\/p>\n

It signaled another brutal finish could be coming for the U.S., which lost the 2023 WBC title game when Ohtani struck out Mike Trout to win it for Japan.<\/p>\n

The American roster was made up of players who have combined for more than 2,300 home runs and 419 saves, and nine of them have played in a World Series. <\/p>\n

But they never quite displayed the full extent of their offensive firepower. They hit .250 over seven games with 44 runs, 10 homers and 40 RBIs.<\/p>\n

DeRosa said he was surprised by the lack of offense \u201cbecause of the names at the back of the jersey, but not surprised because of where they\u2019re at in spring training.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s my answer,\u201d he added. \u201cI really don\u2019t have a rhyme or reason to why. I just think you\u2019re either hot or not in a seven-game blast like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the U.S. beat the Dominican Republic 2-1 in the semifinals, DeRosa said he was still waiting for his team to break loose at the plate.<\/p>\n

That will have to wait another three years.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This story has been corrected to show Eduardo Rodr\u00edguez pitched 4 1\/3 innings, not 5 1\/3 innings. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Aaron Judge walked slowly back and forth in the United States dugout Tuesday night while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2014,5359,2520,3113,219,2163,5355,5353,818,817,4917,8,5364,218,5356,4180,5357,4254,4255,5478,9,5479,1946,1468,1199,2332,7,4514,537],"class_list":{"0":"post-6768","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-aaron-judge","9":"tag-andrs-machado","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-bryce-harper","12":"tag-central-america","13":"tag-detroit-tigers","14":"tag-eduardo-rodriguez","15":"tag-eugenio-suarez","16":"tag-fl-state-wire","17":"tag-florida","18":"tag-garrett-whitlock","19":"tag-headlines","20":"tag-javier-sanoja","21":"tag-latin-america","22":"tag-luis-arraez","23":"tag-maikel-garcia","24":"tag-mark-derosa","25":"tag-mike-trout","26":"tag-mlb-baseball","27":"tag-mlb-spring-training","28":"tag-news","29":"tag-ronald-acua","30":"tag-shohei-ohtani","31":"tag-south-america","32":"tag-sports","33":"tag-tarik-skubal","34":"tag-top-stories","35":"tag-united-states-olympic-team","36":"tag-venezuela"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116251219873270774","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}