Panama rallies to win Caribbean Series third-place game
Catcher Ivan Herrera hit a go-ahead home run in the seventh inning to lead Panama to a 5-4 win over Curacao in the third-place game of the Caribbean Series on Friday at Miami’s loanDepot park.
Herrera, who made his MLB debut last season with the St. Louis Cardinals, ambushed a firstpitch cutter over the heart of the plate from Curacao’s Cody Mincey and sent it 384 feet to left field to give Panama the lead for good.
With just the championship game between the Dominican Republic and Venezuela left to play Friday night, Herrera leads the tournament with three home runs and 10 RBI.
The home run completed Panama’s comeback to take third place in the seven-team tournament.
Panama fell behind 4-1 after three innings before chipping away at its deficit. Panama got within one run of Curacao with a two-run fourth inning on a Ricardo Cespedes RBI groundout and Joshwan Wright RBI single. Wright then tied the game with a sacrifice fly in the sixth before Herrera hit his home run.
Johan Camargo scored two runs for Panama.
After both teams swapped runs in the second inning, Curacao built its initial lead with a threerun third inning capped by Jonathan Schoop’s 363foot home run against Panama starting pitcher Heitor Tokar that clanked off the left-field foul pole.
Panama’s bullpen settling things down from there. Samuel Burgos tossed 4 2⁄3 shutout innings while Panama’s offense rallied and then Ronald Ramirez followed with two-thirds of a scoreless inning of his own to get Panama through the eighth. Severino Gonzalez capped the game with a shutout ninth for the save.
HOW PANAMA, CURACAO GOT HERE
Panama went 5-1 in round-robin play to get the No. 2 seed in the semifinals but lost 4-1 to the Dominican Republic on Thursday.
This was just Curacao’s second year participating in the Caribbean Series. The country’s went 2-5 in the qualifying stage of the 2023 tournament, held in Venezuela.
This year, Curacao advanced to the semifinals after going 3-3 in the round-robin portion, capped by a win over Puerto Rico on the final day in a win-or-go-home game. Curacao lost 6-2 to Venezuela in the semifinals to end the tournament playing for third place.
TOP PERFORMERS FROM EACH TEAM
Panama
Herrera: In addition to the three home runs and 10 RBI, Herrera hit .357 and scored four runs.
Wright: The infielder hit .375 (9 for 28) with one double, five RBI and two runs scored in seven games played.
Jhonny Santos: The center fielder hit .304 (7 for 23) with one double, one triple, two home runs, four RBI and seven runs scored. He also drew five walks and struck out just three times.
Allen Cordoba: The outfielder hit .314 with one double, one triple, one home run, five RBI, six runs scored and three stolen bases.
Ramirez: The lefthanded pitcher tossed 6 1⁄3
shutout innings over five relief appearances, giving up just three hits.
Burgos: He tied for the team-lead in innings pitched (8 ⁄ ) and pitched
2
3
to a 2.08 ERA.
Curacao
Juremi Profar: The first baseman hit .429 (9 for 21) with one double and four RBI.
Wladimir Balentien: The outfielder and designated hitter hit .333 and led Curacao with five runs scored.
Schoop: While he only hit .219, he had a teamhigh five RBI and was one of two Curacao players with multiple home runs (Balentien was the other).
Juan Carlos Sulbaran: The right-handed pitcher posted a 0.96 ERA over two starts, giving up just one earned run over 9 1⁄3 innings.
Mincey: While he struggled in the thirdplace game, Mincey threw a tournament-high 13 2⁄3 innings and still posted a 3.29 ERA over his three outings.