2026 WBC championship: Takeaways as Venezuela stuns Team USA - ESPN

Venezuela has won the 2026 World Baseball Classic!

With a thrilling 3-2 victory Tuesday night, Venezuela clinched its first WBC title behind brilliant pitching performances and big hits from Wilyer Abreu and Eugenio Suárez. Despite a clutch two-run homer by Bryce Harper that tied the score in the eighth inning, Team USA couldn't hold on, failing to bounce back from its loss to Japan in the 2023 finale.

Here are our takeaways — and the key moments — from the conclusion to yet another exciting tournament.

Venezuela 3, USA 2

Throughout the World Baseball Classic, no American hitter struggled quite like Bryce Harper. So to see his storybook swing in the bottom of the eighth inning — a majestic 432-foot tying home run to dead center field off Venezuela reliever Andres Machado — felt like an indelible moment, not just in his career but in the story of this United States team that was primed to shake off its offensive deficiencies and capture a championship. It would not be. Eugenio Suárez's go-ahead RBI double a half-inning later proved the decisive blow and rendered Harper's homer a stroke of greatness that simply wasn't surrounded by enough of it from his teammates. The U.S. lost because of an offense that mustered just three hits and, aside from Harper, never got a runner past first base. It was the appropriate ending for a team that never found an offensive rhythm, a disappointment that made Harper's swing the ultimate could've-been. — Jeff Passan

Eduardo Rodriguez was nails when Venezuela needed him badly. Manager Omar López said he woke up Tuesday with texts from three different major league organizations imploring that he not use their relievers on back-to-back days after he needed six to beat Italy on Monday. López