‘South America’s ambush’ Panama defeated the home team and baseball powerhouse Taiwan at the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) and became the protagonist of the first upset of the tournament.
Panama defeated the home team Taiwan 12-5 in the first match of Group A of the tournament held at Intercontinental Stadium in Taichung, Taiwan on the 8th. This is Panama’s first victory in the historic WBC final stage, won after the third WBC challenge.
Panama was eliminated without a win in the first tournament in 2006 and the second tournament in 2009. In 2013 and 2017, they failed to advance to the finals. But this competition was different. At the end of last year, they beat Brazil in the regional qualifiers and advanced to the finals after a long time.
The 20 countries in the finals of this tournament are composed of countries invited (16 countries) based on the results of the previous competition and countries (4 countries) that came up through the preliminaries. Panama is also one of the four countries (Panama, Czech Republic, England, Nicaragua) that struggled through the preliminaries and advanced to the finals.
This day was especially meaningful because it was accompanied by Mariano Rivera (54, former New York Yankees), a legendary firefighter from Panama and Major League Baseball (MLB). Rivera, who holds the record for career saves (652 saves), tied the first pitch before the game.온라인바카라
Rivera is a Yankees franchise star who played only for the New York Yankees from 1995 to 2013 until his retirement ceremony at Yankee Stadium. In particular, during an away game in Minnesota on July 2, 2013, the year of his retirement, he received a wooden chair made from a broken bat as a gift and became a hot topic. He also set a record for being the first ever to be ‘unanimously inducted into the Hall of Fame’ (January 2019).
Meanwhile, ‘Descendants of Rivera’ stormed the mound in Taiwan, the host country, in front of their country’s baseball heroes.
The scene that made two big innings in the 4th and 6th innings was decisive. At the beginning of the 4th inning, when the match was 0-0, 6 hits and 1 walk were tied, and 5 points were immediately scored. With a 12-2 lead up to the 7th inning, a cold game victory (a 10-point difference at the end of the 7th inning and a 15-point difference at the end of the 5th inning) was just around the corner.
In particular, Christian Betancourt, an NC foreign player in 2019, drew more attention by starting as the catcher for the third batter on the day. Bethancourt played an active role on this day with 2 hits, 2 walks, 1 RBI and 1 point in 4 at-bats. 34-year-old veteran shortstop Ruben Tejada, who played nine seasons in the MLB, also did his part, going 2-for-4.