Eugenio Suarez would hit a clutch RBI double in the top of the ninth inning that broke the tie heading into the bottom of the ninth. Daniel Palencia would come in to pitch and close things out in 1-2-3 fashion as Venezuela shocked the world.
It was the country's first appearance in the World Baseball Classic championship, and they earned it with a dominant pitching performance. They held USA bats to just three hits, with two of them coming from Bryce Harper himself, one of them being a two-run home run that tied the game in the eighth inning.
It now marks back-to-back World Baseball Classic championship losses for the Americans.
Venezuela's run began after going 3-1 in the Pool stage, with their only loss of the entire tournament being to the Dominican Republic, who the USA beat in the semi-finals.
They would take down the reigning defending champion Team Japan in the quarter-finals (recap here) before defeating the Cinderella team in Italy in the semis (recap here), leading their way to their eventual first WBC title.
Recap and highlights
The first inning was over in quick fashion. After a Ronald Acuna Jr. leadoff single, USA starting pitcher Nolan McLean would force Maikel Garcia into a double play. He would get Luis Arraez to fly out on the second pitch of the at-bat, ending the top half of the inning on just five pitches.
Venezuela starting pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez would go 1-2-3 to start the game, striking out Aaron Judge to end the inning.
On to the second, Venezuela would have another man on base after a two-out single from Ezequiel Tovar, but McLean would force yet another fly out to end another half inning of shutout ball as the rookie continued to deal.
But it continued to be a pitcher duel as Rodriguez would send the USA bats down in 1-2-3 order yet again, retiring the first six bats in the first two innings.
Venezuela would start the third with their second lead-off hit of the game when veteran Salvador Perez singled to right. He had previously gone hitless in his previous nine at-bats in the tournament. Mclean would send down Jackson Chourio on three straight strikes for the first out, but walk Acuna shortly after to put runners on first and second.
Things would get out of hand fast as McLean threw a wild pitch on a 1-2 count to Garcia, advancing the runners to second and third.
Venezuela, as they've been doing all tournament long, took advantage with a sac-fly from Garcia to centerfield that scored Perez from third, making it 1-0, before Arraez grounded out to end the inning.
The USA wouldn't get a runner on base until the bottom of the third when second baseman Brice Turang singled to right field with one out. But Rodriguez would continue dealing, striking out Byron Buxton and forcing Bobby Witt Jr. to fly out to center.
In the top of the fourth, McLean would see three batters and send three back to the dugout in his first 1-2-3 inning of the game.
Rodriguez would follow suit in the bottom half of the fourth, almost completing his third 1-2-3 inning, but would get out of it after four batters, surrendering his first walk of the game to Schwarber.
The Venezuela lead-off bats would continue to be a problem for McLean, as Wilyer Abreu would hit a 414-foot solo home run to deep center field that put his squad up 2-0 in the fifth inning.
Abreu was also the one who hit the go-ahead home run in Venezuela's quarter-finals upset win over Japan that helped them advance. These were his only two home runs of the entire tournament.
McLean would record two more outs before manager Mark DeRosa decided to switch pitchers, bringing in reliever Brad Keller to finish the inning by getting Acuna to ground out.
Roman Anthony would ground out to start the bottom of the fifth, which ended Rodriguez's near-perfect start for Venezuela. He finished the game tossing 4.1 shutout innings, giving up just one walk, one hit, and four strikeouts.
Reliever Eduard Bazardo would come in to finish off the fifth with a combined 1-2-3 inning from the Venezuela pitchers. It would mark the third 1-2-3 inning for the American bats, as they sat with just one hit through five.
Keller would deal during the top of the sixth, sending down Garcia, Arraez, and Suarez on just seven pitches, making it the second 1-2-3 inning for USA pitchers.
Jose Butto would come on in relief for Bazardo in the bottom of the sixth for Venezuela, giving up just a two-out single to Bryce Harper before forcing a Judge groundout to end the inning with no damage done.
The USA would be 3-for-35 with just two walks since the fifth inning of the semi-finals game against the Dominican Republic at that point.
In the top of the seventh, Will Vest would get the call to the mound for Team USA, who would strike out Gleyber Torres on four pitches. Tovar would get his second single of the game following Torres' strikeout, with Arraez grounding into a force out, advancing him to second with two gone.
But Vest would get out of it unscathed, forcing Perez to pop out to right.
After a no-hit seventh inning, the USA's slump since the fifth inning against the DR would increase to a brutal 3-for-38 with three singles, three walks, and 13 strikeouts.
Griffin Jax would get the call to the mound for the USA and go 1-2-3 on just eight pitches, keeping his squad in the game heading into the bottom of the eighth inning as the USA was just six outs away from losing the WBC championship.
After the Team USA bats went 3-for-40 with four walks, three singles, and 14 strikeouts during their slump, it would be none other than Harper who would finally break it with a monster two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning to make it 2-2.
Venezuela reliever Andres Machado would get out of the inning after striking out Judge, which would be his third of the game.
Starting the top of the ninth inning, Arraez would record a lead-off walk, who would be taken out for pitch-runner Javier Sanoja, who'd steal second with no outs.
And it proved to be worth everything as Suarez would bring him home with an RBI double to left-center field to make it 3-2 with no outs.
Garret Whitlock's night came to an end after he forced Andres Gimenez to fly out for the first, as Tyler Rogers was called to the mound and finished the inning without problem.
But it wouldn't be enough as Venezuela closed things out in the bottom of the ninth to shock the world.