Venezuela outduels USA to capture first WBC title

MIAMI — When the most important baseball game in their country’s history was over and World Baseball Classic gold medals dangled around their necks Tuesday night, the members of the Venezuelan national team took the stage in center field at LoanDepot Park and belted every word to “Gloria Al Bravo Pueblo.”

Some cried with the lyrics of their national anthem. The thousands of people still in the stands to celebrate the country’s first WBC title sang with them, tears streaming down so many of their faces too. Once the rousing rendition was over, the winners raised their arms, looked up toward the roof and doffed their caps to the crowd. They hugged and they cried some more. They had toppled the mighty United States 3-2 as heavy underdogs and they understood the feat carried far more meaning than simply winning a tournament as their homeland experiences another round of political turmoil.

“The country needs this happiness with all the things that we’ve gone through,” designated hitter Eugenio Suárez said in Spanish.

It was Suárez who delivered that delight for the more than 40 million Venezuelans back home and in the diaspora with a go-ahead RBI double in the ninth inning off Garrett Whitlock. The hit, the most important in a career that includes 325 home runs over 12 major league seasons, swung the energy inside the building.

A nervousness had been coursing through the pro-Venezuela crowd after Bryce Harper gave a previously dormant U.S. lineup some oxygen with a towering, tying two-run home run moments earlier in the eighth inning. The Venezuelans did not waste time in responding: Luis Arráez worked a leadoff walk against Whitlock before Javier Sanoja replaced him as a pinch runner. Sanoja, a Marlin playing in his home ballpark, is not a prolific base stealer — he went just 6-for-11 on steal attempts last season — but he swiped second base, just barely, anyway.

A battle, meanwhile, was underway between Suárez and Whitlock. It wasn’t until the seventh pitch, an 83 mph changeup that caught too much of the plate, that the clash was decided with Suárez’s line to the left-center field gap. Sanoja, thanks to his daring baserunning, scored easily. Suárez looked into his dugout when he reached second base and pointed to the heavens.

His mother, Rosalía, watched in the stands. She wore a Suárez No. 7 Venezuela shirsey, a headband with the tricolor Venezuelan flag and a pendant with the outline of Venezuela around her neck. Her chest pounded.

“I almost had a heart attack,” she said in Spanish.

The teams entered Tuesday with identical 5-1 tournament records. Venezuela dropped its final Pool D game against the mighty Dominican Republic before consecutive comeback wins over Japan, the defending champion, and Italy, the tournament’s Cinderella entrant, to reach its first WBC final. The U.S. lost to Italy in Pool B play before narrowly defeating Canada and the Dominican Republic to advance to the championship game for the third straight WBC.

The finalists walked onto the field in a single file from each outfield corner to line up along each baseline during an elaborate pregame ceremony that used projection mapping on the outfield turf to recap the tournament, from pool play through the semifinals. The United States, with captain Aaron Judge in front carrying the American flag, strolled in from left field as the home team after winning a coin flip for the edge on Monday. Venezuela, with Arráez as its flagbearer, marched in from right field.

They arrived to play a game between baseball powers when it was impossible to ignore the recent political tumult between the two countries.

On Jan. 3, the United States successfully conducted a military strike to capture Venezuela president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. They were transported to the U.S. and charged with crimes while Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president, became acting president of Venezuela. Maduro and Flores remain in U.S. custody. The team spent the tournament avoiding comments about the situation, but it weighed on their minds to the end.

“This maybe was an example to show everyone that we’re not bad people and we’re fighting to have a united Venezuela again, a Venezuela that is peaceful, a Venezuela that can grow,” Venezuela manager Omar López said. “In all parts of the world, the same things that they say about us, those countries have the same problems, but they look at us like we’re bad people. That was more fuel for me, to demonstrate that this team, working together, we can unite 30 million people.”

The Miami metropolitan area, fittingly, holds the highest concentration of Venezuelan immigrants in the United States with over 250,000 — a population that has sharply increased over the past decade. They were the majority of the 36,190 people in attendance, drowning out the Team USA faithful with screams, chants and instruments. They exploded in the third inning when Maikel Garcia, the WBC MVP after leading the competition with 10 hits, lifted a sacrifice fly off U.S. starter Nolan McLean to score Salvador Perez, who led off with a single, for the game’s first run.

López said he started the 35-year-old Perez over William Contreras, a two-time All-Star in his prime, behind the plate partly because Tuesday could have been his final chance to represent the country. A new insurance provision for this year’s tournament prevented players from having their contracts insured after their 37th birthday. The stipulation kept Los Angeles Dodgers utilityman Miguel Rojas from playing for Venezuela. Perez turns 37 in May 2027.

“The World Series, as everyone knows, is one of the most important championships that the major leagues has,” said Perez, who won the 2015 World Series with the Kansas City Royals. “But when you play for your country, it’s a little bit beyond that. That feeling, the country where you were born and raised, the sacrifices your parents make, the people who helped you. That’s why this means a lot to me and a lot to Venezuela too.”

This was Perez’s fourth WBC, a commitment that spans 13 years and earned him captain status. Wilyer Abreu was one of Venezuela’s players on the other end, making his WBC debut this year. The Boston Red Sox outfielder’s go-ahead, three-run home run to the upper deck was the difference in Sunday’s upset win over Japan. On Tuesday, in the biggest game of his life, he doubled Venezuela’s early edge with a blast to straightaway center field for a solo home run.

The two-run difference somehow appeared too vast for the explosive Americans. Team USA, after scoring two runs in its semifinal win, was lifeless at the plate again. Veteran left-hander Eduardo Rodríguez, coming off posting a 5.02 ERA with the Arizona Diamondbacks last season, shut them down over 4⅓ innings.

Three relievers — Eduard Bazardo, José Butto and Angel Zerpa — followed and kept the shutout intact. Through seven innings, the Americans were 9-for-56 with 21 strikeouts over the past two games. Finally, they received an unexpected jolt in the eighth inning when, after Bobby Witt Jr. worked a leadoff walk, Harper smashed a fat 93 mph changeup from Andrés Machado over the wall in center field.

Harper admired the homer and smoothly launched his bat toward the U.S. dugout. He looked into a camera as he reached home plate, pointed to the American flag on his left sleeve and pumped his fist when touched home. Harper had been 5-for-27 with eight strikeouts in the tournament. The performance drew criticism, as did manager Mark DeRosa’s decision to keep him in the lineup’s two-hole. The faith in the two-time MVP bore fruit. Harper had his WBC moment. Within minutes it was long forgotten.

In the end, after Suárez’s heroics, Daniel Palencia closed the door on a perfect ninth inning with a 99.7 mph fastball to strike out Roman Anthony and ignite an emotional celebration as a stunned Team USA, three years after losing 3-2 to Japan in the 2023 WBC final, watched.

“Obviously I’m not OK with winning silver,” Harper said. “I don’t want to win silver. I want to win gold just like anybody else. But at the end of the night, man, they did it, they won. All the congratulations to them and what they did. They fought hard; they played a great game. I’ve got nothing but respect for them.”

Perez caught the final pitch of this title and leaped in the air. Palencia chucked his glove and pounded his chest. Suárez dropped to his knees. And the party from Miami to Caracas, an unbridled and unifying joy for a nation yearning for some, commenced.

“I’m sure each Venezuelan was watching this game and I’m sure they enjoyed it more than us,” Suárez said. “They deserve it. Venezuela, as a country, everyone who is here, those who are in our country, deserve this and much more. And I’m sure this is a little piece of the happiness they deserve.”