Key events
National Anthems
It’s old school, seems like a per-recorded orchestra versions. I have never heard the Venezuelan anthem before – does this make me a bad person? The US one sounds just like the version they’d play when a TV station would sign off for the night and you wake up all weirded out in the middle of the night on your couch.
Here they come
In the moodily lit Loan Depot park, here the two teams are walking in with their flags, down the foul lines, towards home plate. Aaron Judge is holding the flag for the US, and Luis Arraez for Venezuela. Considering everything that went down this January, it has quite a serious and tense feel to it.
How did the WBC do?
Very well I would say. During a down-time in the US sporting calendar, baseball rose to the forefront during a time when sleepy spring training games barely bring a baseball pulse. Then there’s this from Front Office Sports:
“After Fox Sports posted an overall viewership record during the pool-play round and set a single-game WBC audience record with a U.S.-Mexico contest, Sunday night’s semifinal win by the U.S. over the Dominican Republic averaged 7.37 million viewers. That game on FS1 and Fox Deportes set another milestone as the most-watched WBC broadcast ever on any network in the event’s 20-year history, beating the prior mark of 5.02 million viewers from earlier this month by 47%.”
So this is a tournament that continues to gain momentum off of the 2023 edition that resonated meaningfully on the US domestic front for the first time. The next WBC is scheduled for March of 2030, but there’s a push to add MLB players to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, which would be another boon for the growth of the game.
Venezuela lineup
Not much to see here, just Torres and Tovar swapping in the fifth and sixth spot. Otherwise, this is the lineup that defeated Italy last night to reach the finals. The top three of this lineup have provided the bulk of the Venezuelan offense – the US will have to find a way to slow them down in order to win tonight.
1. Ronald Acuña Jr., RF
2. Maikel Garcia, 3B
3. Luis Arraez, 1B
4. Eugenio Suárez, DH
5. Gleyber Torres, 2B
6. Ezequiel Tovar, SS
7. Wilyer Abreu, LF
8. Salvador Perez, C
9. Jackson Chourio, CF
United States lineup
A few changes as Venezuela throws the lefty tonight – Gunnar Henderson who homered against the DR is out, and the right handed third baseman Alex Bregman is in. Pete Crow-Armstrong, the southpaw center fielder will sit in favor of Minnesota’s Byron Buxton. Otherwise, it’s the same lineup.
1. Bobby Witt Jr., SS
2. Bryce Harper, 1B
3. Aaron Judge, RF
4. Kyle Schwarber, DH
5. Alex Bregman, 3B
6. Roman Anthony, LF
7. Will Smith, C
8. Brice Turang, 2B
9. Byron Buxton, CF
Hola!
Hello and welcome to our rolling, live coverage of the World Baseball Classic final between the United States of America and Venezuela. If it feels like it was just a few days ago that the tournament began, that’s because it was. It’s a short, compact schedule – this will be the 47th game played in just 13 days.
This will be the first time these nations face-off at the WBC, but they did meet back in January in Caracas when the visiting US left pulled off a stunning surprise victory that included the removal of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. That initial confrontation means this game takes on even higher stakes as the underdog South Americans bid to avenge their military defeat and take their first WBC title.
The Americans, fresh off their tight 2-1 win in front of a partisan Dominican crowd in Miami, had a day off yesterday. Meanwhile, Venezuela enjoyed a comeback win over Italy that included 7.2 innings of stellar bullpen work and a seventh inning rally for the win. Venezuela shocked Japan in the quarterfinals, which is without question the biggest upset of this tournament, so they’re riding a wave as they head into this winner-take-all contest.
Eduardo Rodríguez gets the ball for Venezuela. The veteran Diamondbacks 32-year-old hurler doesn’t have sexy MLB stats, but he did put together a couple of stellar seasons in 2018 and 2019 for the Red Sox, pitching in the World Series – albeit badly – when they beat the Dodgers. So does he have big game experience. How did he do in this tournament? He was battered by the DR for five runs, including two homers in 2.2 disappointing innings during his only appearance.
Who is pitching for the United States? Not Jacob deGrom, not Tarik Skubal, not Garrett Crochet, not Max Fried. Instead, it’s 24-year-old still rookie, Nolan McLean. Now, I’m not saying that because McLean isn’t any good. He’s plenty good and he had a fantastic debut in 2025. His future is sparkly, but this is a huge spot and there’s a lot of US pitching talent not on this team and that’s too bad. That said, McLean definitely gets the edge over Rodríguez and is more than capable of shutting down Venezuela.
Statistically speaking, in this event, there’s not much between these teams: they both have surprising numbers in both batting and pitching departments. Of course, the US is favored, and as we said Sunday, they really haven’t hit yet. And surely it’s just a matter of time. Will it be better late than never for the vaunted US lineup?
First pitch is about 8:09 EST and 12:09 GMT, so there’s still time to get your homemade granola and kombucha ready for the big game. In the meantime, email me all your thoughts and feelings and I’ll make you famous.
More to come – stick with us!
David will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s a look at the recent tensions between the two countries in the run-up to Tuesday’s final:
The US will play Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic final on Tuesday, a meeting that comes after recent tensions between the two countries.
In January, Donald Trump ordered a military operation that captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. Since then, the US has launched a war against Iran, during which the American players have paid tribute to their country’s military. Players have saluted each other after victories and the team invited Robert J O’Neill, a former Navy Seal who claims he killed Osama bin Laden, to give a locker room speech. Two of the team’s pitchers, Paul Skenes and Griffin Jax, played at the Air Force Academy and have spoken of the importance of honoring the military.
The choice of O’Neill to motivate the team received pushback as he called men who voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election as “my concubines” and been criticized by some for talking about secret military operations in public.
You can read the full report below:
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2026/mar/17/world-baseball-classic-championship-game-usa-venezuela-live-updates
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