MIAMI – Eugenio Suárez flung his head back and looked up into the rafters. The sound bouncing off loanDepot park’s steel roof washed over the Venezuelan designated hitter as he held out his arms and motioned for more.
More noise. More love. More joy.
2026 World Baseball Classic
Final presented by Capital One
• Champs! Venezuela beats USA in final
• Box score: Venezuela 3, USA 2
• Maikel Garcia named Classic MVP
• '26 Classic All-Tournament Team
• Final bracket, full results
• Complete coverage
Suárez’s RBI double in the top of the ninth gave Venezuela the go-ahead run in an electric 3-2 triumph over the titanic Team USA in the World Baseball Classic championship game Tuesday night. It was an emphatic exclamation mark on Venezuela’s first title in this tournament, a fitting representation of what this nation means to baseball and vice versa.
“We are family here,” Suárez said on the FOX broadcast during the on-field celebration. “That’s why we play with passion, with love. Because we feel that jersey, we feel our country in front of us. That’s why this is a lot for us as players, as people, as human beings and as Venezuelans. Now, we are the champions.”
On a night in which every out was ecstasy and every run an eruption, Eduardo Rodriguez tamed one of the greatest lineups ever assembled, while the Venezuela players brought the energy, Wilyer Abreu’s huge fifth-inning blast brought the power, Suárez’s clutch double brought the final edge, and the strong Venezuelan contingent within a boisterous crowd of 36,490 brought the volume.
“Long live Venezuela,” manager Omar López said.
It was a message that resonated – loudly.
The fans proudly waving their yellow, blue and red flags had plenty to celebrate, plenty of reason to dance in the aisles. Though the game was perpetually close, Venezuela was in control most of the night, save for when Bryce Harper shook Team USA out of its flat funk at the plate with a mammoth, game-tying two-run blast in the bottom of the eighth.
“What a moment,” Harper said. “I love the atmosphere and I love the chance. Grateful for it. We tie it up right there, and I thought we had a great chance to win that game.”
Ultimately, though, that late comeback by the Americans only further fueled the emotion of the moment for Venezuela, which quickly put together that ninth-inning run against reliever Garrett Whitlock with Luis Arraez’s leadoff walk, pinch-runner Javier Sanoja’s stolen base and Suárez’s line drive that found grass deep in left-center field.
That clutch knock from Suárez wrestled back control for a Venezuela team that had it early and often.
Salvador Perez, the heart and soul of the Venezuelan WBC team he has played for in each tournament since 2013, looped a leadoff single in the third and, one out later, Ronald Acuña Jr. drew a walk. A wild pitch from Nolan McLean left both runners in scoring position, and Venezuela capitalized with tournament MVP Maikel Garcia’s sacrifice fly that made it 1-0.
Later, in the fifth, it was Abreu, whose massive three-run home run was the highlight of the Venezuelan win that eliminated defending champion Japan from this tournament. This time, McLean left a fastball over the middle, and Abreu launched it 414 feet over the center-field fence to give his team the 2-0 edge.
Venezuela came into this final with the distinct disadvantage of playing on back-to-back nights, especially after needing 23 outs from the bullpen to get past Italy in the semifinals. And though Rodriguez has had great successes in the big leagues, his more recent track record – including not only an ERA north of 5 over the last two seasons with the Diamondbacks but a struggle of a start against the Dominican Republic earlier in this tournament – made for an iffy matchup.
And yet, E-Rod was incredible on this night, taming the U.S. bats for 4 1/3 innings in which he allowed just one hit and one walk.
“Different variations of the heater, good changeup, kept the guys off balance, worked both corners, cutters, sinkers, four-seamers in to the righties,” Team USA manager Mark DeRosa said. “He's a good pitcher.”
He then handed it off to the bullpen, which, much like a night earlier, was efficient in its execution. When José Buttó got Team USA captain Aaron Judge to roll over on a slider to strand a runner in the sixth, his Venezuelan teammates leaped out of the dugout to applaud the enormous out.
“When we did get a pitch, we either popped it up or hit it into the ground,” Judge said. “Stuff like that can’t happen. When you get a pitch to hit, you’ve got to be able to do something on it.”
But as flat as it has looked at times in this tournament and in its first three trips to the plate in this one, Team USA’s All-Star-laden lineup finally showed some life with two away in the eighth.
With Andrés Machado on the mound, Bobby Witt Jr. drew a walk. And after taking a first-pitch changeup for a ball, Harper swung hard at the next one and then flung his bat in the air as the long fly ball cleared the center-field wall.
The Americans in the stands were sent into hysterics, and the game was tied at 2.
“Just tried to enjoy the moment, the atmosphere, everything,” Harper said. “It was very loud in there tonight.”
But the loudest cheers were saved for the ninth, when Suárez came through at the plate and when Venezuela closer Daniel Palencia finished off Team USA on the mound.
“Nobody believed in Venezuela,” Suárez said. “But now we win the championship. It’s a celebration for all the Venezuelan country.”