{"id":529756,"date":"2026-03-18T00:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T00:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/529756\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T00:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T00:29:09","slug":"expect-a-festive-world-baseball-classic-final-crowd-as-the-us-plays-venezuela-at-an-uncomfortable-political-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/529756\/","title":{"rendered":"Expect a festive World Baseball Classic final crowd as the US plays Venezuela at an uncomfortable political moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI — After nearly getting eliminated in the group stage last week, the United States plays Venezuela for the World Baseball Classic championship on Tuesday night in a game with political overtones.<\/p>\n

Aaron Judge, Roman Anthony and Kyle Schwarber lead a U.S. lineup seeking to win the Americans’ second title and first title since 2017.<\/p>\n

“Putting U.S. on your chest and going out there and competing obviously means the world,” said Nolan McLean, a 24-year-old rookie pitcher who starts for the U.S. against Eduardo Rodr\u00edguez.<\/p>\n

\"United<\/p>\n

United States’ Will Smith (left) during a World Baseball Classic game, March 7, 2026. Venezuela Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. (right) during a World Baseball Classic game, March 16, 2026.<\/p>\n

(AP Photo\/Rebecca Blackwell) | (AP Photo\/Ashley Landis)<\/p>\n

Venezuela, headed by All-Stars Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr., Maikel Garcia and Luis Arraez, seeks it first championship in the sixth edition of an event that launched in 2006. Miami and its suburbs have a large Venezuelan population, and the team has had a festive fan presence at loanDepot park.<\/p>\n

“As Venezuelan players, we are playing for our country,” Garcia said after Monday night’s 4-2 semifinal win over Italy. “And, of course, putting Latin America in a high position, showing that we have great baseball, we have great talent.”<\/p>\n

Players and coaches avoided discussing the political turmoil between the U.S. and Venezuela, heightened since the U.S. military captured Venezuela President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro in January.<\/p>\n

“We’re here to speak baseball,” Acu\u00f1a said. “Our country deserves the game tomorrow.”<\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump referenced Venezuela’s tournament advancement in a social media post, writing: “Good things are happening to Venezuela lately! I wonder what this magic is all about? STATEHOOD, #51, ANYONE?”<\/p>\n

Venezuela upset three-time winner Japan 8-5 on Saturday in its first semifinal since losing to South Korea in 2009.<\/p>\n

“This is the responsibility that I take to give joy to my country,” manager Omar L\u00f3pez said. “It was the dream that I shared with everyone, to be in this situation.”<\/p>\n

Mark DeRosa is managing the U.S. in the tournament for the second time after losing 3-2 to Japan in the 2023 final, a game that memorably ended with Shohei Ohtani striking out then-Angels teammate Mike Trout. The Americans beat the Dominican Republic 2-1 on Sunday on homers by Gunnar Henderson and Anthony to reach the championship.<\/p>\n

“I feel like we haven’t played our complete game yet,” Henderson said.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI — After nearly getting eliminated in the group stage last week, the United States plays Venezuela for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[238188,23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-529756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-238188","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}