Puerto Rico's MLB Power Too Much for Panama

In the World Baseball Classic, the regular rules of international baseball do not apply for many teams. Usually missing their MLB talent, teams that would normally be heavy favorites outside of Asia and Cuba such as USA, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico are usually non-existent in the tournaments.

This exact reason was why the WBC was created, and also it gives the perennial baseball powerhouses a chance to level the playing field against the professional-stacked teams that go to the Olympics. Puerto Rico has a surprising amount of Major Leaguers, and they were all on display against Caribbean rival Panama tonight.

Going into the game with home-field advantage, Puerto Rico had a bit of a challenge with Panamanian starter Bruce Chen. Chen was effective over four innings, giving up 2 runs on four hits, surrendering three walks and also striking out three. However, while Chen was good, Puerto Rican starter and MLB veteran Javier Vazquez was better. Over four and 1/3 innings, Vazquez surrendered only four hits and a walk while striking out three.

Against Chen, Puerto Rico powered up. Journeyman slugger Carlos Delgado hit a towering home run to right field. The solo shot gave PR a 1-0 lead. From then on, it was the Ivan Rodriguez show.

The one usually called "Pudge," Rodriguez went deep in the bottom of the fourth to double PR's lead to 2-0. Before that, in his first at-bat, Pudge singled and then stole second. In his third at-bat, he doubled and scored when Chicago Cubs catcher Geovany Soto lsaced a double himself. In his fourth at-bat, the long-time catcher struck again, this time with a towering three-run blast to right-center. Pudge drove in four of Puerto Rico's seven runs, and also scored once himself.

Panama, on the other hand, couldn't get anything going against the Puerto Rican pitching. After Vazquez departed after his outing, Nelson Figueroa went 2 and 2/3 innings of no-hit ball, then Rivera and Guiterrez came in and allowed one hit combined over the last two innings. Panama, by contrast, sent 6 pitchers into the game, and Nieto and Medina were the only two that didn't surrender any runs.

Latin NPB players who took part in this game were Hiram Bocachica of the Saitama Seibu Lions and Julio Zuleta of the Chiba Lotte Marines. Bocachica was 0-for-1 with a walk and a strikeout, while Zuleta wore the collar, going 0-for-4.

Panama, with the loss, now faces a tall task in taking on the Dominican team that was upset earlier in the day by the Dutch, while Puerto Rico takes on the upstart Netherlands.