{"id":204465,"date":"2026-03-17T21:56:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T21:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/see-usa-starting-lineup-vs-venezuela-in-world-baseball-classic-championship-game-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T21:56:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T21:56:25","slug":"see-usa-starting-lineup-vs-venezuela-in-world-baseball-classic-championship-game-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/see-usa-starting-lineup-vs-venezuela-in-world-baseball-classic-championship-game-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"See USA starting lineup vs Venezuela in World Baseball Classic championship game – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

Follow WBC championship game live:<\/strong><\/em>Keep up with Team USA vs. Venezuela updates and highlights<\/strong><\/a>
MIAMI \u2014 USA manager Mark DeRosa<\/a>, saying that all egos were checked at the door when the tournament started, made a difficult decision to bench American League runner-up MVP Cal Raleigh once again in his starting lineup for their World Baseball Classic championship game<\/a> against Venezuela<\/a>.
Raleigh has had only nine hitless at-bats in this tournament, and was replaced for the second consecutive game by Dodgers All-Star catcher Will Smith<\/a>, who started for the third time in the last four games. Smith is 3-for-10 in the WBC with a double.
Raleigh said that he\u2019ll need to get plenty of at-bats the final week of spring training when he returns to the Seattle Mariners\u2019 camp in Arizona.
Veteran third baseman Alex Bregman<\/a> also returned to the starting lineup, replacing red-hot Gunnar Henderson, and will bat fifth. Bregman is starting because of his overwhelming success against left-handed Venezuela starter Eduardo Rodriguez. He\u2019s hitting .333 (9-for-27) with three homers and two doubles, striking out only twice.
Byron Buxton, a right-handed hitter, is also starting in center field instead of left-handed hitting Pete Crow-Armstrong. Rodriguez has had the most success against USA DH Kyle Schwarber. Schwarber is hitless against Rodriguez with four strikeouts.
Closer Mason Miller will be available tonight in the bullpen despite his heavy workload.
Starting pitcher<\/strong>: RHP Nolan McLean<\/a> (Mets)
Pitchers<\/strong>
Catchers<\/strong>
Infielders<\/strong>
Outfielders<\/strong>
Our team of savvy editors independently handpicks all recommendations. If you purchase through our links, the USA TODAY Network may earn a commission. Prices were accurate at the time of publication but may change.<\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Follow WBC championship game live:Keep up with Team USA vs. Venezuela updates and highlightsMIAMI \u2014 USA manager Mark DeRosa, saying that all egos were checked at the door when the tournament started, made a difficult decision to bench American League runner-up MVP Cal Raleigh once again in his starting lineup for their World Baseball Classic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":204466,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-204465","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}