MIAMI — They sat in the clubhouse late Tuesday evening still numb, with several stars so distraught that tears streamed down their faces.
Team USA spent only two weeks together, but they bonded quickly in Arizona, hung out for 10 days in Houston, and by the time they reached Miami, it felt like they’ve been teammates their entire careers.
This is why it stung so badly, losing 3-2 to Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic title game. Several players were so angry that when they were given their silver medals on the field, they yanked them off their neck before even getting back to the locker room at loanDepot Park.
“It hurts, it really hurts,” said USA designated hitter Kyle Schwarber, who struck out three times. “I always say you expect to win a baseball game when you walk out of the room, and to not have that to have that happen? It hurts.
“But give credit to Venezuela.”
The USA players conceded afterwards that as badly as they wanted to win, they didn’t deserve to.
They produced just three hits against six different Venezuelan pitchers night.
They scored just four runs in the last 21 innings of the tournament.
They didn’t even have a single runner in scoring position for the last 14 innings.
Sure, it’s not like the grief of losing the final game of a World Series or postseason game, saying good-bye to your teammates that you’ve been with for six months and won’t see again until spring training. But it’s pretty damn close. Pitchers like Matthew Boyd of the Chicago Cubs, Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers and Clay Holmes even left their spring-training camps to return to the USA team, wanting to be together one final time.
“Obviously, disappointment,” said USA captain Aaron Judge, who thanked his teammates in a clubhouse speech. “You know, hats off to Venezuela for going out there, doing their thing, playing a great, clean ball game, and coming away with the win. But obviously you’re disappointed.
“We came here, all of us put on this uniform, signed up to go out there and get a gold medal, and we fell short of that.”
If it wasn’t excruciating enough just losing the championship game, the Americans had to stand around and watch Venezuela wildly celebrate their first WBC title while waiting for the medal ceremony. They stood in silence, lined up to receive their silver medals from commissioner Rob Manfred and union chief Bruce Meyer, with several almost taking it immediately off their neck.
Harper, who hit the dramatic game-tying two-out, two-run home run in the eighth inning – calling it his second-greatest homer behind only his game-winning homer in 2022 to clinch the National League pennant – stopped standing in line. He walked over and congratulated nearly half of Venezuela’s teams with hugs.
“I just feel like in those moments, I mean, it’s like the Olympics or anywhere else, right?,” Harper said. “I’m really happy for them. Obviously, I want to win…but in that moment, it’s not about me. It’s about us in our game. They had a great tournament. …
“I’m not OK with winning the silver. I don’t want to win silver. I want to win gold, just like anybody else. But at the end of the night, man, they did it. They won. I’ve got all of the respect for them and what they did.
“They’re on top.”
This wasn’t a case of Team USA being overconfident. There were no tiebreaking rules or anyone misspeaking. It was an elimination game, just as it was when they beat Canada in the quarterfinals and the Dominican Republic in the semifinals.
While USA manager Mark DeRosa was told by the San Diego Padres that he couldn’t use closer Mason Miller unless it was a save situation, the loss had nothing to do with pitching restrictions. Venezuela was playing by the same rules, with manager Omar Lopez saying he received messages from three teams instructing him not to use their relievers this game. While USA even had a day of rest, Venezuela was playing back-to-back nights after beating Italy in the semifinals Monday.
Mark DeRosa explains why he didn’t use Mason Miller in tied ninth inning
USA manager Mark DeRosa says he was ‘honoring the Padres’ as the reason why he didn’t use Mason Miller in the tied ninth inning of the WBC Championship,
Sports Pulse
“We were feeling at home,” MVP Maikel Garcia said. “There were more Venezuelan fans than American fans. We were used to this at stages, but not the American players. And that was clear during the game.
“There is no favorite in baseball. Look at Italy. Italy was underestimated, and they made it to the semifinals. …We showed the whole world that in Venezuela, we have talented players, and we know how to play ball. …
“God just gave it to us because our country,” Garcia said, “they need this. A lot of Venezuelans aren’t out of Venezuela, and they need this. And we need this too.”
Winning the game also was a financial windfall for the Venezuelan players and federation. They received a $2.5 million bonus for winning the game, and walked away from the tournament with $6.75 million. It will be divided equally between the players and the federation, giving the players about $112,500 apiece.
But that’s chump change on a team filled with stars. They just desperately wanted that gold medal, particularly after losing to Japan in the last WBC in 2023. They’ll likely meet up again in the summer of 2028, with MLB players expected to play in the Olympics for the first time.
“Baseball is in a really good spot,’’ Harper said. “There’s a lot of young talent in all countries. I think the world saw that baseball is a great game. It’s a lot of fun to watch, and the cultures from every other country and ours. It’s one of the best sports in the world, and to be able to bring them together, and teams together, players together, to do that these last two weeks has been a blast.”
The players, leaving loanDepot Park nearly two hours after the game, boarded the team bus and headed back to their hotel. They will pack their bags, and return to their spring-training camps Wednesday. The players who train in Arizona will be provided a charter flight by MLB to Phoenix.
The 2026 season starts in a week, but for these players, they’ll have to overcome a severe emotional letdown. It’s tough to play for your country in front of a raucous sellout crowd one night, and be returning to Surprise, Ariz., the next, like Bobby Witt, Garcia and Salvador Perez of the Kansas City Royals.
“It was action-packed out there,’’ Judge said. “It was incredible getting a chance to see all of the fans coming out. They’re cheering. They’re screaming. They’re on their feet from the very first pitch. So, I loved it.”
Judge then paused, took a deep breath, and exhaled.
“But,” he said, “I’m still pissed about this.”
