Baseball, at heart, is a game for kids, and it is certainly bringing out the inner children of even the most grizzled MLB veterans. On Monday night, it certainly did for the entire Venezuela roster, as they are now one win away from winning the 2026 World Baseball Classic after booking their spot in the final thanks to a 4-2 win over Italy.
Venezuela did indeed receive a few plaudits before the tournament began, with some calling them one of the dark horses of the WBC. And they have far surpassed those expectations; they slayed the reigning champion Japan in the quarterfinal, and then they managed to defeat the only unbeaten team in the competition on their way to the final.
After the game, Cincinnati Reds slugger Eugenio Suarez, who got Venezuela on the board on Monday with a solo shot in the fourth inning, expressed how much it means to him for his home country to have made it this far in the World Baseball Classic.
“I'm so happy to be able to do this for my family, for our crowd, our people from Venezuela. They cheer for us all day long, all game long. … It means a lot. I got to say, it's a dream come true right now. I never thought in my life that I'm gonna represent my country and do it in front of our crowd here in Miami, and do it for all the Venezuelans in Venezuela, I feel so happy,” Suarez told Jon Morosi of MLB Network.
“This is beautiful.”
"It's a dream come true right now…"
Eugenio Suárez shares his emotions after Team Venezuela advances to the #WorldBaseballClassic Final 🇻🇪
MLB Network + @CapitalOne pic.twitter.com/fFGs6jmBYr
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) March 17, 2026
The toughest test for Venezuela is about to come on Tuesday night once they take on Team USA. Suarez will have to pull a few heroics off his bag once more, and time has certainly shown that he has clutch home runs in his locker. Can he do it again in the final of the 2026 World Baseball Classic?
