Caribbean Series: Venezuela defeats the Dominican Republic, Mexico falls to Curacao

The Tiburones de La Guaira, representatives of Venezuela, defeated the Tigres del Licey (Dominican Republic) 3-1 this Thursday at the start of the Caribbean Series in Miami, which also saw a defeat for Mexico against Curacao.

Almost 30,000 fans gathered at Miami's LoanDepot Park, the first Major League Baseball stadium to host the tournament, for the duel between the Tiburones and the Tigres. The Dominican Republic is home to the current champion, and the country has won the competition 11 times, the most of any country.

On the other hand, the first day of the Caribbean Series also saw the victory of the Curacao Suns 6-5 against the Mexican Naranjeros de Hermosillo. The representative of Curacao defeated that of Mexico for the second consecutive year.

In the opening match of this Caribbean Series, the first to be held in Miami since 1991, the Criollos de Caguas of Puerto Rico defeated the Gigantes de Rivas of Nicaragua 5x2 .

Return to Miami of the Caribbean Series

For the first time in the history of the Caribbean Series, the tournament, which features teams from the winter leagues in Latin America and the Caribbean, will be played in an MLB stadium, Miami's LoanDepot park, home of the Miami Marlins .

The best teams of the 2023-24 season from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Mexico (Pacific League), Nicaragua, Panama and Curacao will face each other from Feb. 1 to 9 in a round-robin format (each team plays every other team), followed by the semifinals, a third-place game, and the championship game to be played on the final day of the tournament.

In addition to making history with Nicaragua's debut in the event, the Caribbean Series returns to Miami for the first time in more than 30 years, when the tournament was held at the Orange Bowl (current home of LoanDepot park in Little Havana) in 1990 and at Bobby Maduro Stadium in 1991.