Team USA and New York Yankees star Aaron Judge fell short of winning the 2026 World Baseball Classic, losing 3-2 to Team Venezuela on March 17 at LoanDepot Park.
Judge went 0-for-4 on the night as he struck out three times and, as the team leader, received criticism for his play in the do-or-die final.
The Venezuelan pitching kept the U.S. bats quiet for most of the contest, and it wasn’t until a two-run home run from Bryce Harper that the Americans got on the board to level the contest at 2-2.
Nonetheless, the Venezuelans would respond in the top of the ninth with a go-ahead run to take a 3-2 lead. Chicago Cubs‘ Daniel Palencia would close the door on Mark DeRosa and his team to seal the win.
After the loss, Judge spoke to reporters to share his thoughts on the defeat to Venezuela.
“They made their pitches,” Judge told reporters (h/t SNY). “They were working the corners on both sides, and then when we did get a pitch, we either popped it up or hit it on the ground. Stuff like that can’t happen. When you get a pitch to hit, you have to be able to drive it.
“Even if you get one pitch in a game, you have to do something with it. They just went out there, executed their pitches and their game plan, and we couldn’t get anything rolling offensively.”
Yankees’ Aaron Judge on Team USA Falling Short
Moreover, Judge spoke about being the captain of Team USA and falling short of delivering a championship to the U.S., as the Americans failed to win the WBC for a second straight year after losing in the final to Japan in 2023.
“Getting a chance to be the captain of Team USA, my job was to go out there and bring a championship, bring the gold home,” Judge added (h/t SNY). “We didn’t do that, but there’s no pressure. When you got a team like this, just go out there and do your job. That’s what I try to do every single night. And we gave ourselves a shot, but we just couldn’t close it out.”
Mark DeRosa Comments on Team USA Loss
Meanwhile, DeRosa noted that he didn’t want to make excuses for the players, given that the team was coming into this tournament riding positive momentum after its two exhibition games. Still, DeRosa said he would like to see this tournament moved.
“I’m not going to make excuses … it’s early in spring training, guys are getting ready for the season,” DeRosa told reporters (h/t The Athletic). “Eventually, the tournament gets moved, and the guys are in better form pitching-wise. But ultimately, it’s who gets hot at the right time, who gets a big swing. It just seemed like we couldn’t get the offense going the entire tournament.
“We came out of Arizona absolutely smoking the ball in the two exhibition games we played and for what whatever reason, we just couldn’t get it rolling offensively. Even tonight, you look up in the seventh, and they had a two-hit shutout. Hats off to them. For them to battle last night against Italy, for them to use their entire bullpen, those guys to come back out on no rest was pretty special to watch.”
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