Photo credit: @MiLB

MEXICO: 8 | 9 | 0

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: 1 | 8 | 6

By Lewis Rubman
Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico
February 7, 2018

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

Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico–Mexico’s hopes for a Caribbean Series championship died when the Dominican Republic defeated Cuba on Monday. The next day, a large gathering of the team’s fans came to Charros Stadium to mourn that loss and abuse the losers.

Thunderous boos and cat calls showered down from the stands when Mexico’s starting lineup was introduced over the public address system, especially at the mention of manager Benjamín Gil and and Japhat Amador, the burly slugger from the hometown Jalisco Charros who was one of Culiacán Tomateros’ 15 reinforcements for the Series. The only players who escaped this display of the crowd’s displeasure were the starting battery of pitcher Sergio Mitre and catcher Gabriel Gutiérrez.

The booing of the home team’s line up was made even more unusual by the scheduling rules of the Caribbean Series, under which each team in the elimination round plays two games as home team and another two as visitors. In this contest, Mexico played as the visitors, so the team that the home town crowd incongruously was jeering technically wasn’t even the home team. This situation was only one of many that gave a surreal flavor to the night’s events.

It seemed as if the team that had been Mexico on Monday had become the Tomateros de Culiacán on Tuesday. But even this seeming reversion to form was unreal because of the large number of re-enforcements in the Tomato Growers’ roster.

To make matters stranger, the hapless Mexicans soundly trounced the high flying Dominicans, who played as if they were the team that hadn’t been able to win any of its first three games. The Aguilas Cibaeñas made one error in each of the first three innings and a total of six for the game. The Mexicans slugged out all of their eight runs and nine hits in the first seven innings of play. The Mexican attack included a double and homer by the previously heartily abused Amador, who received delirious cheers upon performing these exploits.

It was a game in which the public address announcer, while action was occurring on field during the home — or was it the visitors’? In the half of the seventh, they asked the crowd to please stop dancing and remember that baseball is a game that brings people together, so they should turn their attention to the giant screen where a young man was asking a young woman to marry him. (She said yes!)

As the last out of the game was being made, the public address system played “Cielito Lindo,” wilth its refrain of “¡Ay, ay, ay, ay! Canta, no llores,” “Ay,ay, ay, ay! Sing, don’t cry.”

The crowd joined in.

Mitre got the win with the help of four relievers. Losing pitcher Angel Castro took the loss. Of a total of six Aguilas pitchers, only Rafael de Paula and Cesilio Pimentel escaped without giving up an earned run. They pitched two-thirds of an inning and an inning, respectively.

More inhibited crowds are expected to see the semi final games, to be played later today, with Puerto Rico playing the Dominican Republic in the afternoon game and Cuba and Venezuela duking it out in the night game.