Caribbean Series: Dominican Republic Spoils Japan Breeze Debut, Wins 12-1

MEXICALI, Mexico – Veteran Major Leaguer Johnny Cueto took the mound for the LIDOM champion Leones del Escogido on Saturday afternoon and threw BB’s.

Unfortunately for the Japan Breeze, the Dominican hitters made it look like their pitchers were throwing BP, and the Leones cruised to a 12-1 win to improve to 2-0 at the 2025 Serie del Caribe.

The Breeze held off the Leones del Escogido until the top of the third inning, when Jose Marmolejos lifted a sacrifice fly to right fielder Ren Tachioka, who slid in the right-center gap to make the catch, resulting in Socrates Brito scoring to take a 1-0 lead. During Junior Lake’s at-bat, Yamaico Navarro scored on a passed ball to extend the lead to 2-0. 

Japan Breeze starter Shuto Sakurai, who played parts of four seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars and Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, was wild, and his first wild pitch, thrown during Francisco Pena’s at-bat, was stopped by catcher Yamada Satoh using his mask, and the umpires sent Kelvin Gutierrez in to score and make it 3-0. Sakurai’s difficulties lingered, and he threw another wild pitch in Pena’s at-bat, allowing Lake to score and make it 4-0. 

Japan Breeze manager Alex Ramirez pulled Sakurai after three, and reliever Masahiro Fukuda took the mound for the top of the fourth inning. Sakurai threw three innings, allowing three hits, three earned runs, five walks, and striking out one. 

Changing pitchers did little to change the results on the field, and the Leones del Escogido’s offense plated their fifth run of the game in the top of the fourth when Brito hit a soft line drive single to left field, scoring Luis Liberato to give the Dominican Republic a 5-0 lead. Navarro’s line drive single to center field send Gustavo Nunez to extend the lead to 6-0. Another sac fly from Marmolejos sent Robinson Cano home to make it 7-0.

“Every day we come, have focus, the training,” Marmolejos said following the game. “Obviously we got the scores in our favor. …We put together a great game, and going in tomorrow, we have to stay, keep that focus on what we control. It’s our, how we prepare before the game, and knowing that we have a good opponent tomorrow, and that’s it, focus on what we have in front of us.”

“If we are going to lose this way, the Dominican Republic is a very competitive team that has all the tools,” said Japan Breeze manager Alex Ramirez in Spanish following the game. “One cannot hide what happened today. Actually, what I can say is that they are very motivated to play, they know the potential that Caribbean sport has.“

The Breeze scored their lone run in the bottom of the fourth when Yuta Hamada’s hot grounder to third was thrown away by Gutierrez, allowing Jin Yamamoto to score.

The Leones del Escogido offense kept pounding away against the Breeze’s pitchers, adding another in the fifth on a bases-loaded walk to Navarro, and one in the sixth when Sandber Pimentel launched a homer into the right center field seats, the first homer of this Caribbean Series, to make it 9-1.

They tacked on three more in the top of the ninth, starting with a triple by Jonathan Guzman that scored Socrates Brito. Cristhian Adames drove in Guzman with a single on the next pitch, and later scored on a wild pitch to make it 12-1.

Johnny Cueto allowed one run on four hits, striking out two and walking none to earn the win for the Dominican Republic.

“For us, all of us, it’s been a blessing having [Johnny Cueto] with experience and the clubhouse, what he was able to do down in the Dominican, especially down in that stretch when we needed to start pitching the most. He gave us so many skills,” Leones manager Albert Pujols said of his starter. “Our offense seemed like it played at the right time also to help every starting pitcher on our team.”

The Japan Breeze staff combined to allow 12 runs on 15 hits, handing out nine walks and striking out three. While the Japan pitchers early in the game struggled, two relievers, Yamato Ota and Dai Kato, each threw a perfect inning.

“I’m going to cover up what happened today and what we all had the opportunity to see it. The players were a little nervous,” Ramirez said. “But that’s part of the game. It’s their first time too. We understand them that way. I think that tomorrow will be much better.”

All of the 2025 Caribbean Series games are played at El Nido de los Águilas and are broadcast live on ESPN Deportes and MLB Network through the championship game on February 7. 

The Japan Breeze will play their second game of the 2025 Caribbean Series against the 2024-25 champion of the Liga de Beisbol Roberto Clemente in Puerto Rico, the Indios de Mayaguez on Sunday, February 2 at 3:50 p.m. EST on ESPN Deportes and MLB Network. The Leones del Escogido will play the 2024-25 Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacifico champion, the Charros de Jalisco, on February 2 at 8:50 p.m. ET on ESPN Deportes and MLB Network.