Spirited Venezuela rallies in 9th to upend USA for 1st Classic championship

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ultimately, 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 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 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 back-to-backs, 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 ⅓ innings in which he allowed just one hit and one walk. 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.

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 not for long.

Once again, in the ninth, it was the jubilance of Team Venezuela that carried and, ultimately, won the night.