'As expected of Samsung ace' Panama Furado, 5 innings of 4K scoreless - Team loses... Venezuela's Heyesus is the winning pitcher [WBC]

*This content was translated by AI.

Ariel Furado (30, Samsung Lions), who throws more innings than anyone else in the KBO League and throws a steady pitch, also pitched well even in his home country Panama national team uniform.

Furado started in the second Group A match of the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) against Puerto Rico at San Juan Iram Bitorn Stadium in Puerto Rico on the 8th (Korea time), throwing only 56 in five innings, pitching three hits, no outs, and four strikeouts.

The opponent was Puerto Rico, which was full of Major League Baseball (MLB) hitters, but Furado widely announced his growth in the KBO League to his home country.

In the top of the first inning, he struck out Willie Castro (Colorado Rockies) with a fastball in the middle, and Eliot Ramos (San Francisco Giants) hit a fly ball to right field and Nolan Arenado (Arizona Diamondbacks) hit a ground ball to shortstop. He deleted one inning in just seven pitches.

In the second inning, Carlos Cortes (Athletics) got a hit to the right, but Darrell Hernais (Athletics) was thrown to right field and Eddie Rosario (Atlanta Braves) induced a ground ball toward second base to end the inning with a double play.

Even after taking the mound in the third inning, he gave up a double to Emmanuel Rivera (Baltimore Orioles), but struck out Christian Vazquez (Minnesota Twins) and Bryan Torres (St. Louis Cardinals) in a row. After catching Castro who met again, he pitched three perfect innings.

There was no support from the batters, but they were solid. In the fourth inning, he also handled Ramos, Arenado, and Cortes simply by pitching to catch them all.

In the top of the fifth inning, Panama's batters finally paid back. Christian Betancourt, who played for the NC Dinos, entered the batter's box with one out and one base, hit an RBI double to right-center and scored an additional RBI with a right-handed hit by Luis Caballero.

Even after taking the mound in the fifth inning after receiving scoring support, he gave up a hit to Ernest, but struck out Rosario on three pitches and handled Rivera and Vazquez with consecutive fly balls to center field to finish the pitch on the day.

However, after Furado went down, he allowed one run immediately in the bottom of the sixth inning, and in the bottom of the ninth inning, he finally allowed a tie by pushing the bases with two outs.

Luis Castillo's sacrifice bunt in the top of the 10th inning, which was a game-winner at second base with no outs, sent the runner to third base, and Caballero's heavy hit drove one run away, but failed to score an additional point.

In the bottom of the 10th inning, Panama, which was on the verge of first and third bases with no outs after a hit by Vázquez, gave up one run, but took a breather by dealing with Cortes, but it was regrettable when Hernais hit a walk-off home run.

Panama lost two games, making it difficult to advance to the quarterfinals, and Puerto Rico cruised to two wins.

In the same group, Canada defeated Colombia 8-2 to secure its first win.

In Group D, Venezuela defeated Israel 11-3 to win two games. Enmanuel de Heysus, who played for KT Wiz in the KBO League last year, took the mound as a starting pitcher in Venezuela and threw 63 pitches in five innings, becoming the winning pitcher with two hits, no outs, eight strikeouts, and one run.

From the sixth inning with a 5-1 lead, Ricardo Sanchez, who played for the Hanwha Eagles from 2023 to 2024, took over the ball and kept two hits (one home run) for two innings.

The Netherlands came from behind to win 4-3 against Nicaragua. Xander Bogaerts (San Diego Padres) made the opportunity with a lucky double that bounced off the third base following a hit by Sedan Raphael (Boston Red Sox) with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning when they were dragged 1-3, and Ozzy Albies (Atlanta Braves) made a walk-off three-run shot to secure the victory.

In Group B, Italy overwhelmingly beat Brazil 8-0. Italy lost one game and Brazil lost two, falling to the bottom of the group.

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*This content was translated by AI.