Photo credit: @MiLB

CUBA: 1 | 7 | 1

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: 7 | 13 | 1

By Lewis Rubman
Zapapan, Jalisco, Mexico
February 6, 2018

Sports Radio Service is the only Bay Area outlet covering the 2018 Caribbean Series.

Zapapan, Jalisco, Mexico–Last night’s one sided game between Cuba and the Dominican Republic, like yesterday afternoon’s between Puerto Rico and Venezuela, was short on dramatic tension; but contain a variety of interesting episodes and determined that all four teams would advance to the semifinals of this year’s Caribbean Series.

They also helped clarify where each team would stand in the seeding chart. Puerto Rico’s margin of victory was five runs, and they eliminated Mexico from the tournament. Aguilas Cibaeñas’ six-run victory affects their position against all the other remaining teams because the run differential is a major tiebreaking factor.

One of the similarities between yesterday’s games was that in each of them, a player took a licking and kept on ticking. In the matinee, it was Caguas catcher. Jonathan Morales, who was taken out at home in the third inning by Rafael Ortega’s aggressive base running. In the nightcap, it was was the Dominican’s Abitail Avelino, who was on third base in the fifth and broke towards the plate just in time to be plastered in the stomach by teammate Junior Lake’s hard line drive. Both victims stayed in the game.

Fan interference would have been an important factor in the Granma Sorrels’ loss if the Aguilas (Eagles) hadn’t blow the game open a few innings later. The incident occured with Cuba at bat in the top of the fourth, trailing 1-0. Roel Santos led off the inning with a drive into the right field corner and ended up on third base when the ball rebounded away from Ronny Rodríguez. But Santos was sent back to second when a video replay determined that a fan had reached onto the field and deflected kept Rodríguez from fielding the ball cleanly. Yordan Manduley´s infield hit to third failed to advance Santos, and the Aguilas starter, Bryan Evans, late of UC Davis and most recently with the Tacoma Rainiers, got Yurisbel Gracial to hit into a double play and struck out Cuban star Friederich Cepeda.

Cuba eventually scored on a Santos home run into the right field bleachers, but that was their only run off of Evans, who threw seven complete innings, the furthest into the game of any start so far this series. Wirfin Obispo shut Granma out on one hit in the eighth, and Juan Grullón did the same to them in the ninth. The great Alfredo Despaignes’ return from his calf injury in that inning, even though he only flied out to center, may turn out to be a turning point in the series.

The public address announcer treated the presence of Yasiel Puig in the stands as a major event, several times referring to the controversial Dodger as an idol. It was that kind of a game!

The real story was Evans’ stellar outing and the Dominican team’s hitting. In addition to Lake’s home run, they got two doubles from Avelino–the one that eventually put him in harm’s way in the fifth and another in the sixth–and one each fron Edwin Espinal and Juan Carlos Pérez, as well as a triple from Luis Valenzuela.

Bryan Evans got the win; Cuban start Bladimir Baños, the loss.

The current standings:
Team. W. L. Run Differential

Dominican. 2. 1. -2

Puerto Rico. 2. 1. +5

Cuba. 2. 1. -3

Venezuela. 2. 2. +6

Mexico. 0. 3. Eliminated.

Tomorrow sees Cuba and Puerto Rico face each other at 2:00 pm CT (noon PT). Mexico will try to save face against the Dominican Republic at 8:00 pm CT (6:00 pm PT).