World Baseball Classic: For Eugenio Suárez and Venezuela, WBC victory brings deluge of emotions, singing and tears

MIAMI — They won. They cried. They prayed. They sang. They cried some more.

Venezuela’s 3-2 victory over Team USA on Tuesday in the WBC final was, above all else, a deluge of emotion — for the players, for the fans, for an entire beleaguered nation of 33 million. All tournament long, those on the diamond and in the stands provided a volcano of joyous noise, a fitting soundtrack to a tournament that exists for the fun of it. There was drumming in the dugout, chanting in the seats and dancing in the streets, all very loud and very proud.

That symphony reached its crescendo at 10:36 p.m. local time courtesy of veteran slugger Eugenio Suárez. With the game knotted at two and a runner on second base, Suárez connected squarely with a poorly located Garrett Whitlock changeup. The ball crested gracefully into the left-center gap, finding a clean patch of grass. Runner Javier Sanoja jogged home from second into the waiting arms of his teammates, who had already streamed out of the dugout.

Suárez, upon reaching second, separated his arms above his head to welcome the praises of his rollicking countrymen. Then, and only then, did the hero of the evening and a nation turn his attention to the sky to acknowledge his creator. For three seconds, as the world roared around him, Suárez stayed perched on second base, hollering his thanks to the heavens.

He had much to be grateful for.

“I have a lot of appreciation,” Suárez expressed after the game. “I have to say thank you [to] all the fans coming in here to support our team, our country. It’s been so loud for us. It’s been awesome, the support that we have.”

Venezuela entered this tournament as the most decorated and successful baseballing country to have never won the World Baseball Classic. In fact, across the event’s five prior editions, the South American nation hadn’t even reached the final. Heartbreak and disappointment were its fate year after year, with expectations eternally unmet. Venezuela’s most recent exit, in 2023, was the cruelest: a rip-your-heart-out quarterfinal defeat to Team USA. In that one, Venezuela sat just six outs from the biggest win in its history. Instead, Trea Turner clobbered an eighth-inning grand slam to craft an instant comeback.

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The sting of that memory, for the Venezuelan players, carried more weight than any geopolitical narrative. On Tuesday, they were out for revenge of the sporting kind, plain and simple. That also seemed to be the case for many of the Venezuelans in the building. These fans didn’t need government face-offs or presidential provocations to care more about the World Baseball Classic than their American counterparts.

Numerically speaking, Tuesday’s crowd was split just about even, a decidedly more pro-USA, anti-Venezuela ratio than was in attendance for the semifinal games. But in terms of decibels, the two sides weren’t remotely close.

“The noise here in the World Classic is unique,” Suárez said. “It’s been very, very noisy. The Latin fans really feel and live the support to their teams. They are living this, and this is an extra motivation for us. The Venezuelan fans showed yesterday how passionate the fans are for baseball.”

It certainly helped that Venezuela, playing as the road team, gave its fans something to cheer about in the early going, netting the game’s first run off Team USA starter Nolan McLean via sac fly in the third. Venezuela doubled that lead two frames later on a solo shot to dead center by outfielder Wilyer Abreu.

From there, that slim margin held, thanks to Team USA’s embarrassingly anemic offense, which was held in check by a locked-in Venezuela pitching staff. Multiple times in this WBC, Venezuela has had to play from behind. That wasn’t the case in the final because of 4 1/3 splendid innings from starter Eduardo Rodriguez, who took the start only because Pablo Lopez withdrew from the WBC due to injury and Jesus Luzardo declined to participate.

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The veteran southpaw was unexpectedly brilliant, stymieing a lineup of MVPs and All-Stars with a well-crafted cocktail of 93-mph heaters and 89-mph cutters. Before Rodriguez’s gem on Tuesday, Venezuelan starters had allowed 12 runs across 15 2/3 innings of WBC work. That’s a 6.89 ERA, the fourth-worst mark in the tournament, ahead of only Israel, Czechia and Brazil. But with timely hitting and a dynamite bullpen, Venezuela was generally able to overcome those early deficits. 

Against the USA, it didn’t even have to. For most of the evening, Venezuela clung to that slim 2-0 lead, with a carousel of relievers keeping Team USA at bay.

That came undone in an instant in the eighth inning, after a Bobby Witt Jr. walk brought Bryce Harper to the plate as the tying run with two outs. The Phillies’ star dispatched the second pitch he saw, a middle-middle changeup from Andres Machado, over the fence in center to even the game. It was a trademark moment for the future Hall of Famer, one that would’ve been the highlight of the tournament had the USA found a way to win. Instead, it became a whimsical footnote, thanks to Suárez’s heroics.

Suárez is one of the most universally beloved personalities around the game, a kind and effervescent soul who thrives off human connection. The type of person who has never woken up on the wrong side of the bed, Suárez would offer a warm grin and friendly hello to a raincloud. It’s impossible to imagine him, say, declining to shake an MLB teammate’s hand during an international competition.

He is, in that way, a wonderful encapsulation of what made this Venezuela team special. Relaxed fearlessness. Easy confidence. Passion with a smile. That’s how they played against Team USA on Tuesday, and that’s how they played all tournament.

During the game’s final at-bat, Suárez waited on the dugout railing, a Venezuelan flag in his right hand. When the last out came — a strikeout via closer Daniel Palencia — Suárez hopped onto the diamond and fell to his knees. With his nation’s colors shawled around his shoulders, he once again looked toward the loanDepot roof and whatever higher power might exist beyond it.

In the chaos surrounding him, tears, so many tears. There was screaming and hugging and jumping and all the other revelry that comes with winning, but the emotion was too large to not include crying. It was quite a sight, all those red, tear-tinged eyes.

After receiving their gold medals, the entire Venezuelan team gathered on a podium shaped like the World Baseball Classic logo. The country’s anthem, “Gloria al Bravo Pueblo (Glory to the Brave People),” bellowed from the stadium speakers. The players, many still weeping, belted the words at full roar.

It looked like Suárez and captain Salvador Perez were trying to make sure folks back in Venezuela could hear them. Fans in the stands joined in. Surely, so did those watching at home. It was a rousing rendition, one quite worthy of the moment.

Venezuela, a nation of champions who can’t help but sing along.