McLean Rebounds With Solid Outing in WBC Finale

Nolan McLean‘s first start of the World Baseball Classic didn’t go as planned. He gave up a pair of home runs and was pulled after just three innings, getting charged with the loss in Team USA’s 8-6 defeat at the hands of Italy. On Tuesday night, McLean took the mound with a chance to give the Americans a gold medal, and while the team fell short, his results were encouraging.

McLean’s first pitch of the night was drilled up the middle for a single by Ronald Acuña Jr., but the threat was quelled swiftly as the righty induced a double play from Maikel Garcia and a flyout from Luis Arráez. McLean got his first two strikeouts of the night in the second inning, getting Eugenio Suárez on a sweeper and freezing Gleyber Torres on a curveball. After a single by Ezequiel Tovar, McLean retired Wilyer Abreu on a pop out to end the inning.

McLean ran into trouble in the third inning, giving up a single to Salvador Perez and walking Acuña. After a wild pitch evaded Will Smith, Garcia drove home the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly. McLean was able to limit the damage by getting Arráez to ground out to second base.

McLean rebounded with a 1-2-3 fourth inning, which included his fourth strikeout of the night, locking up Torres on a down-and-away sinker. Abreu punished one of the few mistake pitches from McLean to start the fifth inning, clubbing a home run over the center field fence to extend Venezuela’s lead. McLean induced a flyout from Perez and a pop out from Jackson Chourio before being relieved by Brad Keller. McLean threw 63 pitches on the night, 44 of which were strikes.

As he displayed in Grapefruit League play, McLean’s velocity was up across the board on Tuesday compared to his 2025 marks. His sinker averaged 96.8 mph (94.8 in 2025), his four-seamer averaged 98.1 mph (95.8 in 2025), his sweeper averaged 86.7 mph (85.3 in 2025) and his curveball averaged 82.4 mph (80 in 2025). The fastest pitch McLean threw in 2025 was 98.4 mph, and he exceeded that mark seven times on Tuesday, topping out at 99.2 mph. McLean most frequently threw his sweeper in the game, generating six whiffs on 17 swings. He also did a good job at limiting hard contact, allowing an average exit velocity of just 83.2 mph. While his effort was all for naught, McLean did what he could to keep Team USA in the game.

“Whenever you go down 2-0 it’s tough, but I thought Mac threw the ball great,” Bryce Harper said after the game. “He’s a special talent. He’s going to be a special talent for a long time.”

McLean has 10 days before his projected first regular-season start of the year, which will come on March 28 against the Pirates. While his tournament run wasn’t perfect, he got to experience pitching in a playoff atmosphere and generated some positive results.

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