Venezuela's Ángel Padrón throws second-ever Caribbean Series no-hitter

[Kevin Barral]

On a night where all Ozzie Guillén needed was to get through this game, Ángel Padrón gave Venezuela all he had and threw a no-hitter against Nicaragua to close out the Round Robin portion of the 2024 Caribbean Series and clinch the number one seed for his country entering the semifinals.

MIAMI, FL—For the second time ever and the first time since 1952, a no-hitter was thrown during the Caribbean Series. History was made on Wednesday night by Ángel Padrón as Venezuela beat Nicaragua by a final score of 9-0 to earn the number one seed for Thursdays' semifinal.

Originally, the plan was for Padrón to go about 3-4 innings, but little by little, it became more apparent that the no-hitter was becoming more of a possibility.

"In the fourth inning I thought about it," said Padrón following the game. "I saw the scoreboard and saw that I had a perfect game, but I think that I stayed calm, told myself that I wasn't going to think too much about it so that my emotions don't get the best of me and that is what I think I did, which was stay focused pitch-by-pitch, hitter-by-hitter and inning-by-inning and well, thankfully it was accomplished."

Padrón went nine shutout innings, allowing zero hits, one walk and striking out four along with throwing 88 pitches. 

Nicaragua's starter was Yoanner Negrin for what would be their final game in the 2024 Caribbean Series as they tried to search for what would be their first and only win of the tournament. Despite giving up three runs, Negrin went five innings, struck out three, gave up eight hits and didn't walk anyone. Negrin provided plenty of length for his team, but at the end of the day, Nicaragua had to go with four relievers.

Ramón Flores had to enter the game midway through replacing Venezuela center fielder Franklin Barreto, who came out due to an injury. Flores popped out in his first at-bat, but in his following one, he drove in the first two runs of the game on a bases loaded RBI single. Flores ended the night going 2-for-4 with two RBIs. He also made a great running catch in center for the final out of the seventh inning that kept the no-no alive.

The final run that Negrin gave up wasn't totally on him. He allowed a base hit to Yasiel Puig, then was taken out and after Leonardo Reginatto also got a base hit, Alcides Escobar grounded into a double play that Puig scored on and gave Venezuela a 3-0 lead.

The Tiburones would go on to score six more runs, including RBIs from Flores, Reginatto, Escobar, Odúbel Herrera, Wilfredo Tovar and Francisco Arcia.

As for Nicaragua, they finish the tournament as the last-place team and the only team without a win, but Ozzie Guillén had a lot of praise and on top of that offered his help to Nicaraguan baseball. Following the final out, Guillén went up to manager Marvin Bernard and gave him a handshake and hug along with before the game, they had a long conversation.

"Following the game, I went up to the Nicaragua dugout to let them know personally how thankful, proud and how good I feel watching Nicaragua competing in these tournaments," said Guillén. "I said it beforehand, we have to help Nicaragua. I spoke to their manager and I told him that I am fully in to do whatever it takes—besides be the manager—to help Nicaragua out as a baseball country." 

With that, Venezuela secures the 9-0 victory and Ángel Padrón secured his no-hitter. He joins Henderson Álvarez (2013) and Edinson Vólquez (2017) as pitchers to accomplish this feat at loanDepot park (Álvarez and Vólquez were both Marlins pitchers at the time).

Venezuela becomes the number one seed in the Caribbean Series and will be the home team for Thursday's 8:00 p.m. game against Curacao. The ballpark roof will be OPEN.

The Dominican Republic will take on Panamá in the 3:00 p.m. semifinal game where Panamá is the home team.

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