Caribbean Series 2024: Christian Bethancourt hits go-ahead homer in 3-1 Panamá win

[Kevin Barral]

Final score: DR 1, PAN 3

Panamá heads to the tournament's semifinals with a 5-1 record, with help from the current Marlin who's in the heart of their lineup.

MIAMI, FL —For the Dominican Republic and Panamá, there was not much at stake during Wednesday's game with both teams already advancing to the Caribbean Series semifinals. Despite that, the afternoon pitching duel was worth the price of admission. One team had to eventually pull away and this time, it was Panamá who took the late lead and won.

Panamanian right-hander Ernesto Silva went five innings, gave up one run off of five hits, walked three and didn't strike out anyone. Although the final line seems a bit concerning in terms of no strikeouts, Silva generated a lot of grounders to keep his team in the game. The run that Silva gave up was a Dawel Lugo RBI single, which drove in Emilio Bonifacio.

For the Dominican Republic, Cuban starter Jorge Martinez went five innings, gave up one run off of three hits, walked two and struck out seven. The one run he gave up was a home run to Jhonny Santos, which made it an early 1-0 lead for Panamá at the time.

Lisalverto Bonilla entered the game in relief of Martinez and that's when Panamá regained the lead. Christian Bethancourt, one of the newest members of the Miami Marlins, took Bonilla deep 397 feet to center field for a solo shot. The ball left the bat at 100.7 miles per hour and that was his first career Caribbean Series home run (as well as his first at LoanDepot Park at any level of competition).

Through six games, Bethancourt has a .261/.370/.478/.848 slash line with a strikeout rate of only 11.1%.

Gilbert Gómez's ballclub had their chances to fight back, but went 1-for-12 with scoring position, so Panamá ended up winning the game and finishing the Round Robin portion of the tournament with a 5-1 record. They aren't confirmed as the top seed yet as they await the Venezuela/Nicaragua result on Wednesday night (Venezuela can surpass them with a win).

In either case, Panamá will play in the semifinals on Thursday.

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