CALEXICO, Calif. (KGTV) — The 2025 Serie del Caribe, or Caribbean Baseball Series, started this weekend in Mexicali, Mexico, across the border from Calexico in Imperial County.
Winners of winter baseball leagues in Latin America play in the annual Caribbean Series, which is usually played in either Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela or the Dominican Republic, although last year’s series was in Miami.
These four host countries have been regular participants since 1970, while teams from Colombia, Panama, Nicaragua, Curacao and Cuba have all competed in the series in recent years.
This year, a Japanese team will play in the series for the first time, and Albert Pujols makes his managerial debut for the Dominican Republic.
The week-long event started on Friday at Estadio Nido de los Aguilas in Mexicali, the host stadium for all tournament games.
Dominican Republic catcher and former Padre Francisco Mejia led the team to a 2-0 victory over Venezuela with a single, double, triple, a run batted in, and a run scored. Alexi Amarista, who played for the Padres from 2013 to 2016, went 1-4 with a single for Venezuela.
That same night, Mexico beat Puerto Rico 8-1, led by former Cincinnati Red Billy Hamilton, who went 1-3 with two walks, a run batted in and two runs scored.
On Saturday, the Dominican Republic beat Japan 12-1 behind 38-year-old former Giants pitcher Johnny Cueto, who threw six innings of shutout baseball and gave up only four hits.
Saturday night, Mexico beat Venezuela 2-1 to get off to a 2-0 start in the series. Venezuela, the defending champions, are now 0-2.
Sunday will feature matchups of Japan vs. Puerto Rico at 12:50 p.m. PT and Mexico vs. the Dominican Republic at 5:50 p.m. PT.
After all five teams have played each other, the top four will advance to a single-elimination semifinal round: No. 1 seed vs. No. 4 seed and No. 2 seed vs. No. 3 seed. The winners advance to the championship game on Friday, Feb. 7, at 7 p.m. PT.
The third-place game is Thursday, Feb. 6. at 7 p.m. PT.
The full schedule, live updates, and game results and stats can be found on ESPN.com and all games are being broadcast on MLB Network and streamed at MLB.TV.
