February 6, 2020

By Lewis Rubman

Dominican Republic (4-1) 5 7 0

Puerto Rico (2-3) 4 10 1

Winning pitcher: Jhan Marinez, in relief (1-0, 0.00)

Losing pitcher: Jason García (0-1, 9.00)

Save: Ramón Ramírez(3)

HATO REY, PUERTO RICO–After Mexico’s tidy victory over Colombia, highlighted by Edgar Torres’s seven and two-third innings of one hit ball, played before a sparse audience, last night’s rowdy battle before a near sell out crowd (also rowdy) was a quite a contrast. Not a surprising contrast, but nonetheless a strong one.

The game itself provided internal contrasts. There was some excellent fielding. In the top of the second, Emmanuel Rivera alertly made a strong and accurate throw after his spectacular stop of a shot off the bat of Gustavo Núñez to retire Abraham Almonte at home and keep the game a scoreless tie. There also was some sloppy fielding. In the top of the third, Jack López mishandled a throw, which broke up a double play. Later on in that inning, the Dominicans jumped ahead on Jhordanny Valdespín’s three run homer.

Puerto Rico began a comeback by scoring once in the bottom of the third, on a double by Emmanuel Rivera that drove in López. In the fourth, the hosts played little ball, turning singles, a sacrifice, a walk, and a wild pitch into a 4-3 lead. They would have scored more if home plate umpire David Arrieta’s safe call on Raymond Fuentes hadn’t been reversed on appeal. Valdespín drove in Junior Lake and Rubén Sosa on a double in the fifth, bringing the score to 5-4, and they never relinquished that lead.

The results are in. Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela are in a three-way day for first place at 4-1, while Puerto Rico has earned the last remaining replace in the play-off schedule, bringing up the rear of the qualifiers at 2-3. Colombia and Panama have been eliminated.

Because there is a three-way tie, the complicated tie-breaking rules have come into play. I’ve translated the relevant portions from the Caribbean Professional Baseball Federation’s web site.

“Among three teams who share the same place in the standings with the same won-lost percentage, the the winner of the group will be the one that obtains the best result in the TQB (Team Quality Balance), which is reached by the number of runs scored, divided by the number of innings played at bat, less the number of runs allowed,, divided by the number of innings played in the field (RS/IPO)-(RA/IPD)=TQB.

To calculate the TQB the outcomes of games between the involved teams will be taken into account. If the equality between two or more teams exists, the group’s winner will be the one that gets the best result from the ER-TQB formula (Earned Runs Team’s Quality Balance), which is obtained from the sum of the number of earned runs scored, divided by the number of innings at bat, less the number of earned runs allowed, divided by the number of innings played in the field (ERS/IPO)-(ERA/IPD)=ER-TQB. If the equality between two or more teams continues, the positions will be decided by batting average; and if none of the previous criteria is effective, the standings and classifications will be decided by lot.”

Based on the above, the Series organizers announced at last night’s game the following schedule for tomorrow, now today:

2:30: Mexico vs. Venezuela, with Venezuela as the home team; 8:00: Puerto Rico vs. the Dominican Republic, with the Dominican as home team.