Tigers Star Trio Claims World Baseball Classic Title with Venezuela

Tariki Skubal got the headlines. But it was his Venezuelan teammates that walked away with the title at the World Baseball Classic on Tuesday.

Team Venezuela beat Team USA, 3-2, as the country won the tournament’s title for the first time. The team included three Tigers — second baseman Gleyber Torres, starting pitcher Keider Montero and reliever Emmanuel de Jesus.

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Two Tigers were on the losing U.S. team. Along with Skubal was reliever Will Vest, who was added to the team in the quarterfinals.

Team Venezuela Wins WBC

TEAM VENEZUELA 🇻🇪
CHAMPS 🏆#WORLDBASEBALLCLASSIC pic.twitter.com/1hDTJWcI5V
— World Baseball Classic (@WBCBaseball) March 18, 2026

Torres was the only member of the Venezuelan trio to play in Tuesday's championship. He started and played at second base. But he went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts.

Torres played in six games entering the title game and slashed .286/.412/.357 with an RBI. His performance in Tuesday’s game dropped his batting average to .250.

De Jesus pitched in two games for Venezuela and won both games. He had a 1.23 ERA and allowed three hits and one earned run in 7.1 innings. He struck out 11 and walked one.

Montero pitched two games for Venezuela. He did not factor in a decision and had a 4.15 ERA. He struck out three and walked three in 4.1 innings.

All three were in the dugout when Venezuela recorded the final out and celebrated their first WBC crown.

Skubal only pitched in one game, though he flirted with straying from his one planned start after experiencing the WBC for the first time. He ultimately decided to return to spring training to continue his build-up but returned to join his teammates for the semifinals and championship game in the dugout.

In his one start he pitched three innings, gave up two hits and one run. He walked none and he struck out five. He gave up a leadoff home run.

Vest joined Team USA for the quarterfinals as part of the team’s pitching pool but didn’t pitch in either the quarterfinals or semifinals. He did appear on Tuesday. He entered the contest in the seventh inning and allowed one hit. He also struck out a hitter. He ended the tournament with a spotless ERA.

Other Tigers that participated in the WBC included Woo-Suk Go (Korea), Duque Hebbert (Nicaragua), Kenley Jansen (Netherlands), Jahmai Jones (Korea), Hao Yu Lee (Chinese Taipei) and Carlos Lequerica (Israel)

Previous WBC champions include Japan (2006, 2009, 2023), the Dominican Republic (2013) and the United States (2017).