On March 17, 2026, Venezuela made history as they battled their way to the first World Baseball Classic championship win in Miami, beating the loaded Team USA roster 3-2 in a thrilling game to wrap up the pre-season tournament.
The World Baseball Classic is a baseball tournament hosted every four years in a chosen city. It features MLB players as well as international players not associated with the MLB. 20 countries are separated into four pools of five teams. Each team plays every other team in its pool once. When all the games are over, the top two teams in each pool advance to the next round. The remaining teams play in a single-elimination style tournament until one team wins.
The winners out of Pool A were Canada, with Puerto Rico coming in second. Pool B featured Italy first, with the favorite United States coming in second after a loss by Italy. Pool C had Japan in the number one spot, with Korea taking the second. The Dominican Republic was the Pool D winner, as Venezuela came in second. The teams that advanced to the semi-finals were the Dominican Republic, which faced Team USA, and Venezuela, against Italy. The United States beat the Dominican Republic in a close 2-1 game, and Venezuela earned a win, beating Italy 4-2.
The final between the projected winner, Team USA, and the underdog Venezuelan team was a close game, which came down to the ninth inning and threatened to go into extra innings. Venezuela had a 2-0 lead from a sacrifice fly from Maikel Garcia to bring home a run in the third and a solo home run from Wilyer Abreu in the fifth inning. The game really got going when Bryce Harper stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the eighth inning to deliver two home runs to tie the game. Venezuela in the ninth inning then regained the lead with a single from Eugenio Suárez and brought the runner in second home to give Venezuela a 3-2 lead, which they carried through to the end of the game to win the World Baseball Classic!
The United States had a rough showing in the tournament despite being the fan favorite. They first had a disappointing loss in the qualifying round, losing 8-6 to Italy, despite their late-game surge. This loss raised questions about whether they could really win the entire tournament. They still managed to pull through in the rest of the games to be second to Italy in their qualifier, barely moving on. Italy’s performance was a huge shocker in the tournament, as it first beat the United States. They went undefeated as they beat Puerto Rico, which, in recent years, has been better than Italy. Their luck ran out against Venezuela in the semi-final. Venezuela came into the tournament as a huge underdog, but despite this, they beat Japan in the World Baseball Classic in 2023. They had many missing stars on their team due to insurance issues and injuries, such as Jose Altuve and Pablo López.
This World Baseball Classic has been an amazing introduction to the MLB season and has had everything, including close games, underdog wins, and huge upsets. We can’t wait for the next one in four years!
