Venezuela wins their first World Baseball Classic championship, United States settles for silver again

When the 2026 World Baseball Classic started, there were a few favorites to win the tournament, including the United States, Japan, and the Dominican Republic. However, in the end, the last team standing was Venezuela, as they took down Team USA 3–2 on Tuesday night. Behind clutch hitting and pitching, Team Venezuela captured its first-ever WBC title in Miami in what could be considered one of the biggest upsets of the tournament.

On this episode of Baseball Bar-B-Cast, Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman recap all the action from the championship game that saw the Venezuelan side shut down the all-star-studded lineup that the United States assembled in hopes of winning its second WBC title. Despite some late heroics from Bryce Harper, it was Eugenio Suárez who delivered the game-winning knock in the 9th inning before Daniel Palencia shut the door in the 9th.

Later, Jake and Jordan discuss why this was such a meaningful win for Team Venezuela, including highlighting a special moment for future Hall of Famers Salvador Perez and Miguel Cabrera, and the bond between tournament MVP Maikel García and Ronald Acuña Jr. They then get into where things went wrong for Team USA and why it might take a little while for the team to get this bad taste out of its mouth.

1:29 – WBC championship game recap
24:14 – Bryce Harper’s moment
27:36 – Venezuela’s comeback inning
34:18 – What this means for Venezuela
51:23 – How did things go wrong for USA?
1:00:23 – Defense for DeRosa

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