Venezuela caps round-robin portion of Caribbean Series with no-hitter vs Nicaragua

Venezuela’s Tiburones de la Guaira ended the round-robin portion of the 2024 Caribbean Series at Miami’s loanDepot park in the most perfect way possible.

Tiburones left-handed pitcher Angel Padron threw the second no-hitter in the history of the Serie del Caribe as Venezuela beat Nicaragua 9-0 on Wednesday.

Padron faced the minimum 27 batters over nine innings and allowed just one baserunner in the game. He retired the first 21 batters he faced, striking out three, before giving up a leadoff walk in the eighth inning to Nicaragua’s Raudy Read. Padron then got Melvin Novoa to hit into a double play and Cheslor Cuthbert to ground out to get out of the eighth.

Padron then stuck out Elian Miranda looking at a 90.6 mph sinker, got Jesus Lopez to line out to second baseman Alcides Escobar and got Omar Mendoza to ground out to shortstop Wilfredo Tovar to seal the effort.

Padron threw 87 pitches, 56 of which landed for strikes.

Prior to Wednesday, the only other no-hitter in the 75 years of the Caribbean Series came during the 1952 tournament, when Cuba’s Tommy Fine did not allow a hit against (ironically enough) Venezuela.

Venezuela opened scoring in the fourth inning when Ramon Flores, who replaced starting center fielder Franklin Barreto, hit a two-out, bases-loaded, seeing-eye single up the middle that deflected off a Nicaraguan player’s glove and into center field. Two runs scored.

Tiburones added runs in the sixth inning when Yasiel Puig scored on an Escobar groundball double play and in the seventh on a Tovar RBI single that scored Odubel Herrera before blowing the game open with a five-run eighth inning that included six consecutive hits to begin the frame.

Flores also made a critical grab in center field on a low line drive off Francisco Peguero’s bat to keep the no-hitter intact. According to Statcast, Peguero’s line drive had a 74-percent hit probability.

The game capped a stellar opening round of the tournament for Venezuela, which went 5-1 over the six-game round-robin portion of the event. Tiburones’ only loss was a 6-2 defeat to Puerto Rico.

Venezuela’s five wins: 3-1 over the Dominican Republic, 4-2 over Curacao, 6-1 over Mexico, 5-4 over Panama and then finally the no-hitter against Nicaragua.

Venezuela joins Panama, the Dominican Republic and Curacao in the semifinals, which take place on Thursday. The championship and third-place games to wrap up the nine-day, 25-game tournament are on Friday.

Final round-robin standings

Venezuela: 5-1 (advances to semifinal)

Panama: 5-1 (advances to semifinal)

Dominican Republic: 3-3 (advances to semifinal)

Curacao: 3-3 (advances to semifinal)

Puerto Rico: 3-3 (eliminated)

Mexico: 2-4 (eliminated)

Nicaragua: 0-6 (eliminated)