PANAMA CITY -- With a team that wasn't even supposed to be in the tournament, Panama beat Cuba 3-1 on Sunday to win its second ever Caribbean Series and first since 1950.

Panama was represented in the tournament for the first time since 1960 only after the Caribbean Professional Baseball Leagues moved the series out of Venezuela because of security concerns shortly before it began. With Panama hosting, the Toros de Herrera were invited to play as a guest.

The only previous Panamanian team to win the tournament was the Carta Vieja Yankees, who did it in 1950 with a roster full of American players.

This win adds to what already has been a big year for Panamanian baseball -- countryman Mariano Rivera became baseball's first unanimous Hall of Fame selection in January. Rivera was in attendance for the first night of the tournament.

Despite winning this year's tournament, it's still uncertain whether Panama will play next year in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Panama lifted the trophy after playing in the country's first Carribean Series since 1960. BIENVENIDO VELASCO/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Allen Cordona and Elmer Reyes drove in runs in the bottom of the first inning against Freddy Asiel Alvarez and added a run in the seventh on Rodrigo Vigil's hit.

Carlos Benitez produced the Cubans' only run of the game in the fifth inning.

"There are no secrets. I had 29 warriors with a lot of talent and every day they gave me their best," Panama manager Manuel Rodriguez said. "When you play baseball in this way, you are going to get the titles and this win will help the baseball in Panama."

Javy Guerra, a shortstop in the minor leagues with the San Diego Padres, was named the most valuable player of the tournament.

The Cubans won their last title in 2015 and were looking to add a fourth championship on Panamanian soil, where they were the champions in 1952, 1956 and 1960. </s> Panama was only in the Caribbean Series because it was a secondary hosting choice, but it went ahead and won the entire thing Sunday.

According to the Associated Press (h/t ESPN.com), Panama defeated Cuba 3-1 in Sunday's championship game to clinch the country's first Caribbean Series title since 1950 and second in its history. It was the first time the nation was in the tournament since 1960.

The AP explained Panama was only included in the field because the series was moved from Venezuela to Panama for security concerns, opening up a guest invitation.

"There are no secrets. I had 29 warriors with a lot of talent and every day they gave me their best," Panama manager Manuel Rodriguez said, per the AP. "When you play baseball in this way, you are going to get the titles and this win will help the baseball in Panama."



It was quite the underdog story, and the home fans were in a celebratory mood after the victory:

Panama reached the final with a 1-0 victory over Puerto Rico on Saturday, while Cuba defeated Venezuela 3-0. It was a notable win for Cuba, seeing how it lost in the semifinals the three previous years after winning the Caribbean Series in 2015.

However, Panama prevailed in Sunday's title game, and the AP noted shortstop Javy Guerra was named the tournament's MVP.

Guerra is a minor leaguer in the San Diego Padres' system and played 13 games last season for the major league club. He slashed .125/.263/.125 with an RBI and three walks in those 13 contests.

This victory also stands out for Panama because the 1950 team that won the tournament, the Carta Vieja Yankees, did so with a roster of American players, per the AP. </s> PANAMA CITY — Former big leaguer Manny Corpas closed out Panama’s 1-0 victory over Puerto Rico on Saturday night, setting up a championship game against Cuba in the Caribbean Series.

The Panamanians are playing in their first final since 1960, when they lost to Cuba. Panama has one Caribbean Series title, won in 1950.

Panama was a late host for the tournament after it was moved from Venezuela for security concerns.

Oriel Caicedo, who previously pitched in Atlanta’s minor league system, pitched 5 1/3 innings of three-hit ball for Panama. Corpas, who had 19 saves for Colorado in 2007, worked the ninth.

Cuba won the Caribbean Series in 2015 and has lost in the semifinals the last three years. </s> The Western Journal has not reviewed this Associated Press story prior to publication. Therefore, it may contain editorial bias or may in some other way not meet our normal editorial standards. It is provided to our readers as a service from The Western Journal.

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Former big leaguer Manny Corpas closed out Panama’s 1-0 victory over Puerto Rico on Saturday night, setting up a championship game against Cuba in the Caribbean Series.

The Panamanians are playing in their first final since 1960, when they lost to Cuba. Panama has one Caribbean Series title, won in 1950.

Panama was a late host for the tournament after it was moved from Venezuela for security concerns.

Oriel Caicedo, who previously pitched in Atlanta’s minor league system, pitched 5 1/3 innings of three-hit ball for Panama. Corpas, who had 19 saves for Colorado in 2007, worked the ninth.

Cuba won the Caribbean Series in 2015 and has lost in the semifinals the last three years.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards. </s> LOS ANGELES — There is a remarkable spirit in the Puerto Rico national baseball team, the one that played Monday into the World Baseball Classic final. With that spirit, there is a showman, one that plays to the crowd that is present and calls to the people of their island. Thought inferior to neighboring teams not long ago in the Dominican Republic, in Venezuela, in Cuba, in America, the Puerto Rico baseball franchise has grown into the place of Molina, of Lindor, of Baez, of Correa, others, men — most of them young — so that the game suits them, and they, it. Maybe they do lack the numbers of players. But, then, they only require nine at any one time.

They play, for one, as if there are no consequences in defeat. As though the greater regret would be in not having a hell of a time doing it, whatever the outcome, even when the outcome is most important of all.

And now the team that only lost in the WBC final four years ago is again the team that is maybe better than you thought, that wins on small deeds in a tournament designed to expose small deeds, to turn them into catastrophe, that throws friends and strangers into two weeks of chaos and dares them to play ball.

Puerto Rico beat the Netherlands, 4-3, in 11 innings at Dodger Stadium. They are 7-0 in the tournament. They won on a walk-off sacrifice fly by Eddie Rosario after WBC rules placed runners at first and second to start the 11th, after the Dutch rolled into a double play with the bases loaded in the top of the inning.

“It means a lot,” said Carlos Correa, the 22-year-old Houston Astros shortstop turned third baseman for this event, “because Puerto Ricans have gone through a very difficult situation currently and we were able to unite our country. … We have united the country through sports.”

Also, through personality. Through blond heads. Through razor-sharp baseball that typically has no place in March. Through a big ol’ party that for three or four hours becomes a ballgame.

“I think,” Netherlands manager Hensley Meulens said, “they’re the strongest team we’ve faced in the tournament.”

So, the first inning Monday night. Seems like forever ago, granted. Given it ended 2-2, no blood, it would hardly be worth a mention, except for it being among the stranger and cooler innings ever, and except it began with the Netherlands conducting itself as if it had never heard of Yadier Molina and ended with the entire Puerto Rican team conducting an aerobics class at home plate, only with patriotism. Like they flash-mobbed the WBC, the tournament that provides the rare games on U.S. soil in which players grant each other their baseball emotions, their baseball cultures. Want to flip a bat? Go. Want to scream to the heavens? Louder, dude. Want to expose your chest, Superman style? It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Nelson Cruz.

Which is, among other things, what makes the WBC so charming. So watchable. So … fun.

Anyway, they had a flag. They did jumping jacks. They clung to each other and danced in circles. They rubbed their own yellow hair and their neighbor’s yellow hair, all of it yellow for the benefit of this tournament. By opening day there’ll be some pretty serious conversations to be had about roots.

As we were saying, this was in the first inning.

Correa homered to tie the score, 2-2, off a curveball from Rick van den Hurk that hung for so long the dry cleaners were within their rights to keep it.

If you didn’t know the score or the inning, and had just wandered up the hill from Echo Park because, why not, there were plenty of empty seats, you might’ve believed Puerto Rico had won on a walk-off home run. In actuality, there had been all of four outs recorded, Netherlands had just thrown its 16th pitch, and the folks who were here hadn’t yet completely untangled the whole Curacao-Netherlands-Aruba connection.

And that wasn’t the half of it, it being the first inning.

I don’t know if the WBC has “annals” yet. They’re only four tournaments into this thing and honestly it’s hard to remember much about any of them, beyond a vague sense they happened. Still, Yadier Molina’s first inning was annals worthy.

Andrelton Simmons, Dutch leadoff hitter, reached first on an infield single. Then Xander Bogaerts was hit with a pitch in the back. Jurickson Profar, up next, squared around and withdrew his bat and then Molina had the ball in his mitt and Simmons was about 15 feet off second base. Molina, who could’ve run the ball out and tagged Simmons he was so far off base, instead picked him off with a throw. Molina moment No. 1.

No longer in a position to bunt, Profar singled to right field. He was very pleased about that. The Netherlands was rallying. So he curled around first base as the throw from right field went to the plate, then turned and threw his arms in the air, encouraging the light crowd to rally up for his squad, and shouted something encouraging to his bench, this all as he trod confidently back to first base. At which point Molina flung the ball to first baseman T.J. Rivera, who tagged the distracted Profar on the right thigh for the second out of the inning. At which point Profar stopped gesturing and shouting and stared into space, presumably thinking, Well that just happened. “For me, that was the game,” Puerto Rico manager Edwin Rodriguez said. “That first inning that Yadi Molina did what he did, for me, that was the game. Again, Yadier Molina came to play.” A disaster for the Netherlands. Right up until five pitches later, when Wladimir Balentien crashed a home run to left field for two runs, which was only the start of it. The start of a game in which neither could shake the other, not until the last ball was in play, not until Puerto Rico had raised its flag again.
In baseball, the Toros de Herrera become the first Panamanian team since 1950 to win the Caribbean Series as they defeat the Leñadores de Las Tunas of Cuba 3-1 in the final.