Aaron Judge, Mark DeRosa, Team USA Criticized By Fans as Venezuela Wins Historic 2026 WBC Title

Venezuela won the World Baseball Classic on Tuesday after defeating the United States 3-2 in the championship.

Maikel Garcia's sac fly scored Salvador Perez in the third inning to give Venezuela the 1-0 edge before Wilyer Abreu added a solo homer in the fifth for a 2-0 lead.

The United States, which mustered only three hits, tied the game when Bryce Harper smoked a two-run homer to center in the eighth inning.

However, Venezuela immediately responded in the ninth. Luis Arraez drew a leadoff walk, and then Javier Sanoja pinch-ran for him and stole second base. Eugenio Suárez then smacked a double into the left-center field gap for a 3-2 edge.

Daniel Palencia shut down the Americans quietly in the ninth with a pair of strikeouts sandwiched around an infield popup. He capped an incredible pitching performance for Venezuela, which got 4.1 shutout innings of one-hit ball from starter Eduardo Rodriguez to get things going.

This was a tough ending for the United States, and the bats simply didn't show up in this one.

New York Yankees superstar and three-time American League MVP Aaron Judge notably went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, and he finished with just two hits in 11 at-bats overall with five K's in the three-game knockout round. Judge struck out looking to end the eighth inning and the game tied at two.

Judge has been largely tremendous over his decorated career, as a heap of evidence shows, but Tuesday simply wasn't his night.

Fans also weren't thrilled overall with the performance of manager Mark DeRosa, who previously received criticism after admitting he thought the United States had qualified for the knockout round after a 3-0 start when the country hadn't done so yet.

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Of course, there's more to the United States' loss than Judge and DeRosa. The United States' offense was largely dormant in the knockout round and scored just four total runs in the last two rounds. Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts. Only two players had hits for Team USA (Harper had two, and Milwaukee Brewers second baseman Bryce Turang singled).

New York Mets starter and potential future star Nolan McLean was just OK (4.2 innings, two earned runs, four strikeouts), and Boston Red Sox pitcher Garrett Whitlock, who struck out five over three shutout frames in the WBC entering Tuesday, just didn't have it in the ninth en route to taking the loss.

Ultimately, this is a tough defeat for a U.S. team that has now lost back-to-back World Baseball Classic finals by 3-2 scores. The Americans fell 3-2 to Japan in 2023 and have won one of six WBC's overall, taking it all in 2017.