Team USA's big bats come up small in WBC championship loss to Venezuela 

Team USA had the star power. It had the big names. It had the talent. But none of it came through in the biggest moment and when the lights were brightest on Tuesday night in the World Baseball Classic championship. 

That is where Team USA dropped a 3-2 decision to Venezuela, giving Venezuela its first WBC title and one of the biggest moments in the country's baseball history. 

Eugenio Suarez (Cincinnati Reds) delivered the game-winning hit with a go-ahead RBI double in the top of the ninth inning. 

It is not hard to see where things went wrong for the United States — they just could not get enough big hits. Or any hits. 

Team USA's big bats come up small in championship game

Outside of a dramatic two-run home run from Bryce Harper (Philadelphia Phillies) to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth inning, the United States never really mounted much of an offensive threat on Tuesday night. 

In fact, it was downright lethargic. 

Part of it was some of the lineup decisions from manager Mark DeRosa.

DeRosa will have a lot to answer for in this tournament, from not knowing that the United States needed to win its final Group Stage game, to the way he constructed his lineup for the championship game. 

Gunnar Henderson (Baltimore Orioles), Team USA's best and most consistent hitter in the tournament, was left out of the starting lineup due to a left-handed pitching matchup, and he did not get an at-bat until a pinch-hit appearance in the bottom of the ninth inning. That was all managerial malpractice. 

Roman Anthony (Boston Red Sox), arguably the United States' second-best hitter in the tournament, was relegated to hitting in the sixth spot despite coming up with several big hits in the tournament. He should have been hitting higher in the lineup.

Part of it also falls on the players for simply not taking care of their own business and hitting for themselves. Or even coming close to hitting. They struck out 10 times, never had an at-bat with a runner in scoring position and in the end managed just two runs and only three hits in the biggest game of the tournament. 

Alex Bregman (Chicago Cubs), who got the start over Henderson on Tuesday, hit just .143 for the tournament with a .578 OPS. 

Bobby Witt Jr. (Kansas City Royals) managed only a pedestrian .733 OPS, while Harper, even with his big home run on Tuesday, only put up a .624 OPS.

Kyle Schwarber (Philadelphia Phillies) had a strong tournament overall, but he went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts on Tuesday. 

All of them have to take at least some ownership of it. 

But nobody has to take as much for it as Aaron Judge (New York Yankees), who delivered yet another dismal showing in yet another big game. 

For as great of a player as he is, and for as dominant as he can be over the course of a 162-game season, his recent shortcomings in the biggest moments are difficult to ignore. 

You can debate whether this matters as much as a World Series all you want, but it was still clearly a big game that the players wanted to win. It meant a lot to a lot of people for a varying degree of reasons. It was, by some definition, an important game and an important moment. 

And Judge only put the ball in play one time, never hitting it out of the infield an 0-for-4 performance with three strikeouts. 

He is a great player. But the narrative around him in big moments won't go away until he does something to change it. He had more opportunities here. It just produced the same underwhelming result when it mattered most. When combined with all the other no-show performances on Tuesday, and some of the baffling decisions from DeRosa, it all added up into them coming up just short.