Team USA takes the field tonight in Miami, looking to accomplish a feat only done once in five tournaments.
A thrilling, eventful, breathtaking, and downright awesome showcase of the world’s best players commences tonight as a new champion will be crowned.
The 2026 World Baseball Classic features Team USA vs. Team Venezuela in the championship game.
The United States is looking for its second WBC title (2017) and to bounce back from a 2023 loss in the title game to Team Japan.
Venezuela has never won
the tournament and is appearing in the championship for the first time.
On Sunday, the U.S. defeated the Dominican Republic in one of the most hyped baseball games of the century.
It was the type of game you’ll remember for years. Judge. Soto. Tatis Jr. Schwarber. Machado. Anthony. Guerrero Jr. Witt Jr. Caminero. The list goes on and on.
Featuring lineups that boosted multiple future Hall of Famers, the two teams combined for three runs.
The key reason why? Two Yinzers, and an adopted Yinzer, too.
Paul Skenes took the mound against potentially the greatest lineup he’ll ever face. Skenes delivered 4.1 innings of one-run ball. He allowed six hits, didn’t walk a batter, and struck out two.
The only blemish on Skenes’ ledger was a solo home run by Junior Caminero to begin the scoring in the second.
Tyler Rogers and Griffin Jax kept the DR off the board heading into the seventh. What followed was two Pittsburgh natives closing out the seventh and ninth innings.
Mars alum David Bednar took the ball and found himself in a jam, facing second and third with one out in the seventh. The tying run was 90 feet away. The go-ahead run on second base.
Bednar allowed an Austin Wells double and a Geraldo Perdomo single to bring the top of the Dominican Republic lineup to the plate.
Facing Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. and Diamondbacks MVP candidate Ketel Marte, it would take a Herculean effort to walk off the mound unscathed.
Bednar struck them both out.
Both on 1-2 counts, Bednar deployed two devastating breaking balls to strike out two of baseball’s best players.
Bethel Park alum and Team USA closer Mason Miller shut the door in the ninth. A former pitcher at DIII Waynesburg, Miller came out firing 102 mph fastballs past the DR’s lineup.
A one-out walk to Julio Rodriguez, followed by a wild pitch and groundout to move him to third, created another situation where the opposition had a runner at third base.
Facing Geraldo Perdomo, Miller punched him out to end the game on a 3-2 pitch that looked like a ball, but was called strike three.
The Yinzers, and adopted Yinzer, got the job done.
“It’s what we do as Yinzers. I guess I’m an honorary Yinzer,” Skenes told Pirates insider Jason Mackey on Sunday. “Yinzers are gritty. They do what it takes. (David Bednar) and Mason (Miller) have been doing what it takes.”
Team USA looks for its second championship at 8 p.m. on Fox.
Japan won the inaugural tournament in 2006, followed it up in 2009, and won its third in 2023. The pandemic wiped out the 2021 WBC and delayed it to 2023.
There isn’t a consistent schedule and has fluctuated between three and four years, but has become a must-watch event with increased attention with more stars than ever before.
If there’s anything we’ve learned about the tournament and its newfound popularity, it should be around for generations to come.
