The hosts never looked to be in trouble in any of their games. They never trailed, never looked off in any way. They simply dominated, so much so that they did not conceded a single run on the road to the 2023 World Baseball Classic which they have successfully punched their ticket to. They sealed the deal to the tune of a 4-0 win over Brazil in front of their home crowd which has also been instrumental to their success.
The game began as a pitcher's duel. It was in the fourth when things finally got rolling for Panama. It began with former Oriole Johnathan Arauz walking, stealing second and taking third on a subsequent throwing error by catcher Marcio Suzuki. Then the hot prospect for the Dodgers, Jose Ramos, stuck again for a two run homer as he did against Argentina. Another former big leaguer, Allen Cordoba singles in a run in the fifth and Edgar Muñoz homered in the seventh to round out the scoring.
On the pitching side of things, former MLB pitcher Ariel Jurado could not have been much better. He gave one hit over his 5.1 innings of work and struck out six. The bullpen gave up only three more hits and no runs the rest of the way. On the Brazilian side, former White Sox and Padres pitcher Andre Rienzo was strong through three innings put Panama eventually got him in the fourth and fifth innings mainly due to command issues. His final line was four plus innings of work and three earned runs allowed. He only allowed two hits but both were run scoring hits making him pay for walking batters.
Panama are in for the first time since 2009. A country with a long and proud baseball tradition makes a triumphant return to the WBC in dominant style. They will look to make noise at the main tournament itself in 2023 and show why they are the home of legends such as Rod Carew and Mariano Rivera. As for Brazil, they can still join Panama but they must win a second victory over Nicaragua in order to do so. They won the first tilt 4-1 but as we saw in Pool A between the Czechs and Spanish, the first game is just history. Can Brazil make it two appearances in the last three WBCs? We shall see today.
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