The Cuban team debuted with victory at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile by edging Colombia 4-3 in front of the 322 spectators who gathered at the Parque Bicentenario stadium in Cerrillos. Cuba got on the board first in the first inning when they combined singles by Roel Santos, Erisbel Arruebarruena and Dayan García to open with 1-0 lead.
Colombia quickly answered the score in the top of the second when their cleanup hitter Carlos Martínez launched a homer to left field off Cuban starter Yoennis Yera. At the end of the third, the Antilleans added two scores via a Roberto Baldoquín homer to leftfield to open the inning, while Luis González grounder with the bases loaded drove in the third run for the Cubans.
The Colombians would quickly tie the score in the fourth after a double by Carlos Arroyo and a home run by Fabián Petruz. Yera could not get out of the fourth inning and fellow Matanzas native Renner Rivero closed the inning by inducing a game saving double play, after the southpaw left runners on the corners.
🏆 Juegos Panamericanos, Chile🇨🇱 2023 🌎
🏟 Estadio: "Bicentenario de Cerrillos, Santigo de Chile"
📆 Fecha: 1
🏆 Etapa: Round Robin
🇨🇴 COL 0 1 0 2 0 0 0
🇨🇺 CUB 1 0 2 0 1 0 xC H E
🇨🇴 COL 3 7 1
🇨🇺 CUB 4 8 0 pic.twitter.com/7Lz4WWLd9u— Círculo de Espera (@CirculodEspera) October 20, 2023
The Cuban go-ahead run would come at the conclusion of the fifth when Luis González,Yasniel González and Andrys Pérez loaded the bases via singles, this would lead to a Yadil Mujica ground ball to first base bringing in the González.
Rivero (2.1 IP, 2BB, K), Yankiel Mauris (0.1 IP) and Frank Abel Álvarez (1.0 IP, 2K) closed the show by pitching 3 ⅔ innings of scoreless relief for Cuba. No of the Cuban hitters went for multihits in the game and Armando Johnson’s squad left 10 runners stranded on the bases in the contest.
Cuba will play again this Sunday at 02:00 PM against Venezuela and will close the Qualifying Phase in Group B against Brazil, on Tuesday at 06:30 PM. The Cubans has not won a Gold in the Pan American Games since Rio de Janeiro in 2007, in Lima 2019 they recorded their worst performance by finishing sixth in the tournament.
Boxscore:
1. Roel Santos (CF): 3-1, R, BB
2. Roberto Baldoquín (3B): 4-1, R, HR, RBI
3. Yoelkis Guibert (RF): 4-1, R
4. Erisbel Arruebarruena (SS): 3-1, HBP
5. Dayan García (DH): 3-1, RBI, HBP, K
6. Luis González (LF): 2-1, R, RBI, BB
7. Yasniel González (1B): 3-1, K
8. Andrys Pérez (C): 2-0, BB
9. Yadil Mujica (2B): 2-1, RBI, BB
Lanzadores:
Yoennis Yera: 3.1, 6H, 3ER, 4K
Renner Rivero: 2.1 IP, 2BB, K, W (1-0)
Yankiel Mauris: 0.1 IP
Frank Abel Álvarez: 1.0 IP, 2K, Sv (1)