Mexico had won all five of its games in the Caribbean Series, making it the favorite to win the 2025 Caribbean Series. Mexico’s Charros de Jalisco team manager Benjamin Gil had said that while they were the favorite going into the playoff, they were going up against the Dominican Republic, the team that had won the most championships, including three in the past five years.
The DR had lost to Mexico and Puerto Rico in the first round.
So it was, on Friday, 7 February 2025, the Leones del Escogido delivered and first-time Dominican team manager Albert Pujols (a Cooperstown Hall of Fame member) was able to celebrate winning his first Caribbean Series championship. Pujols had taken the challenge of directing the Escogido Lions. The Escogido had not won a Caribbean Series championship since 2013. For the Escogido, it was their fifth champion’s trophy and the 23rd by a Dominican team. Since 2021, a Dominican team has alternated every year winning the Caribbean Series.
The victory on Friday, 7 February was a very exciting 1-0 win over previously unbeaten Mexico, the host team. Some 17,000 fans were present at the Mexicali Ballpark, where the Charros de Jalisco were expected to defeat for a second time the Leones who had faltered against Puerto Rico and lost to the Charros just a few days before.
However, baseball is a fickle game, and the Leones managed to put men on first and third with no outs in the third inning. Veteran Major League star, Robinson Cano, who now plays ball in Mexico during the summer, came to bat. A ground ball to the shortstop initiated a routine double play, with the man on third scored. At the time, this early in the game, this was a standard strategy. However, the outstanding pitching of Esmil Rogers, who turned out to be the MVP of the series, silenced the Mexican bats.
In the ninth inning, Mexico filled the bases with no outs, but reliever Jimmy Cordero was able to get the three outs for the victory.
There were several milestones. This was the first time that Escogido had won in Mexico. Manager Albert Pujols added this series win to his Dominican Professional Baseball Winter League (Lidom) championship, both in his first season as a manager in baseball. Esmil Rogers threw six innings and gave up just the one hit (and only) for Mexico. Relievers Joe Corbett and Ulises Joaquin threw the seventh and eighth innings. The Dominican team put three players on the All Star Team of the Caribbean Series –Francisco Mejia, Yanmaico Navarro and Kelvin Gutierrez. Esmil Rogers was voted the Most Valuable Player of the 2025 Caribbean Series.
Read more:
MLB
MLB
MLB
Listin Diario
Listin Diario
El Caribe
El Caribe
Wikipedia
10 February 2025