{"id":107130,"date":"2026-02-06T20:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T00:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/sin-categoria\/tomateros-de-culiacan-to-the-caribbean-series-final-2026-eliminate-leones\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T20:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T00:38:11","slug":"tomateros-de-culiacan-to-the-caribbean-series-final-2026-eliminate-leones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/nationals\/tomateros-de-culiacan-to-the-caribbean-series-final-2026-eliminate-leones\/","title":{"rendered":"Tomateros de Culiac\u00e1n to the Caribbean Series Final 2026: Eliminate Leones"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Tomateros de Culiac\u00e1n to the Caribbean Series Final 2026<\/h2>\n\nZapopan, Jalisco \u2013 Los Tomateros de Culiac\u00e1n, representing Mexico, secured their place in the 2026 Caribbean Series final after defeating the Leones del Escogido of the Dominican Republic with a score of 9-4. The semifinal match took place at the Pan American Stadium this Friday.\n\nThe Mexicans&#8217; offensive demonstrated their power by connecting 13 hits, highlighting a crucial home run by Dominican Esteban Florial in the fourth inning. This hit changed the course of the game, establishing an advantage that Culiac\u00e1n maintained until the end.\n\n\n<p>This triumph marks the Tomateros&#8217; second consecutive victory over the Dominican team, following their match in the last round robin. With this result, the Mexican team repeats the feat of the Tigres del Licey in 2012, who also reached the final after finishing second in their local league.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Key Moment: Florial&#8217;s Home Run<\/h3>\n\n\nThe Lions took the lead early in the game. In the second inning, a double by Franchy Cordero and a single by Marcos Hern\u00e1ndez put them up 1-0. Then, in the third, they took advantage of walks and a defensive error to extend the lead to 2-0.\n\nHowever, the fourth episode marked a turning point. With two outs and runners in scoring position, the Dominican manager decided to change starting pitcher Oscar de la Cruz, bringing in Kenny Hernandez to face Florial. The outfielder didn&#8217;t fail and hit a home run that turned the scoreboard 3-2 in favor of the Mexicans.\n\nFrom that moment on, Culiac\u00e1n dominated the game. In the sixth inning, they added two more runs, combining singles and a sacrifice fly by Al\u00ed Sol\u00eds. The offense continued in the seventh, manufacturing a cluster of four runs that practically sealed the victory.\n\nThe Lions tried to react, loading the bases in the sixth inning and scoring a run on a walk to Gustavo N\u00fa\u00f1ez, but they failed to capitalize on their opportunities.\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Performance in the Mont\u00edculo<\/h3>\n\n\nDavid Reyes started the game for Culiac\u00e1n, pitching four innings and allowing two runs. Anthonny Gose earned the win as a reliever, while Kenny Hern\u00e1ndez took the loss.\n\nBy the Escogido, Oscar de la Cruz pitched 3.1 innings before being relieved in the fourth episode. The Dominican bullpen could not contain the Mexican offense in the final innings.\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Waiting for the Rival<\/h3>\n\n\nWith this victory, the Tomateros advance to Saturday&#8217;s grand final and await the winner of the match between the Cangrejeros de Santurce from Puerto Rico and the Charros de Jalisco, also from Mexico.\n\nThe Sinaloa team will now seek to be crowned champion of the 2026 Caribbean Series, after an outstanding offensive performance at the crucial moment of the tournament.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tomateros de Culiac\u00e1n to the Caribbean Series Final 2026 Zapopan, Jalisco \u2013 Los Tomateros de Culiac\u00e1n, representing Mexico, secured their place in the 2026 Caribbean Series final after defeating the Leones del Escogido of the Dominican Republic with a score of 9-4. The semifinal match took place at the Pan American Stadium this Friday. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":107131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[997],"tags":[2688,175,3905,11718],"class_list":{"0":"post-107130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nationals","8":"tag-caribbean-series","9":"tag-final","10":"tag-jonron","11":"tag-tomateros"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}