Team USA assembled maybe the greatest collection of baseball talent ever heading into the World Baseball Classic. They lost. They had a phenomenal mix of MVPs, MVP finalists, Cy Youngs, and talent at virtually every position. Yet, the betting favorites coming in fell short in a thriller against Venezuela.
The Americans didn’t have the deepest lineup. That honor belonged to the Dominican Republic, a team the US beat mere days ago. Still, this was arguably the second-best lineup in the entire sport, and they mustered four runs in the final two games and lost the title.
Star-studded offense fails to show up for Team USA
A roster with Aaron Judge, Bobby Witt Jr., Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, Cal Raleigh, Gunnar Henderson, Alex Bregman, Roman Anthony, and more should’ve been much better. Baseball can be tricky, but generally speaking, talent does win out.
And even if that doesn’t happen, offensive production with that sort of lineup should be a given. Yet, they were silent for 7.2 innings on Tuesday night and fell short of their goal. Even when Bryce Harper broke through with a game-tying home run in the eighth, a win never felt likely. That would’ve required more runs, which the Americans couldn’t muster.
So when Eugenio Suarez doubled home the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth, the game felt over. As it turns out, it was. Far too late, manager Mark DeRosa, who had a pretty abysmal tournament as the Team USA leader, tried to sub in the red-hot Henderson. The US went down in order pretty easily, handing Venezuela its first WBC title.
“What a moment,” Bryce Harper said of his home run that ended up not mattering. “Obviously, I love the opportunity, I love the chance, super grateful for it. I thought if we tied it up right there, we had a really good chance to win that game. But Venezuela and their pitching was great today.”
Harper was pretty absent the entire tournament other than that home run, despite hitting in between Bobby Witt Jr. and Aaron Judge. Judge came up short with three strikeouts in the final as well, though the whole offense mustered up almost nothing for two straight games.
“They made their pitches,” said Judge. “They were working the corners on both sides, and then, when we didn’t get a pitch, we either popped it up or hit it into the ground. Stuff like that can’t happen. When you get a pitch to hit, you got to be able to drive it. If you get one pitch in the game, you got to do something with it.”
Olympics?
Bryce Harper made waves for his comments about the WBC not being the Olympics, which MLB players currently cannot participate in due to the schedule. There is hope that it’ll change in 2028, when the Olympics are in America.
Regardless, this loss will sting for a while. They were called the baseball Avengers for a reason, and they fell short despite Japan losing early and despite beating the Dominican Republic. “I’m always fired up for the Yankees,” Judge said, “but I’m still pissed about this. So, I’m looking forward to the next time we get to throw on the red, white, and blue and take care of business.”
Whether it’s in 2028 at the Olympics or for the next currently unscheduled WBC (either 2029 or 2030), it’s unclear if Judge will be back. This was his first international foray, but he’s 33. He’ll be 36 when the Olympics come around, and he could be 38 when the next WBC happens.
That doesn’t exactly age him out, but this was a good chance for him to play when he’s in his prime and can be the star of the show. Unfortunately, they all came up well short.
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