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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.

Photo credit: cubadebate.cu

CUBA: 6 | 11 | 0

PUERTO RICO: 3 | 6 | 1

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

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

Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico–Fraternal rivals Cuba and Puerto Rico faced each other Tuesday afternoon in a duel to better their place in the pecking order of the Caribbean Series semifinals, which will begin Wednesday afternoon.

The contest that was closer than its final score of 6-3 would indicate.

Puerto Rico’s representative, the Caguas Criollos, drew first blood with Anthony García´s home run off Cuban starter Ulfrido García that left the park just over 330 feet from home and the left field fence. It was his first round tripper of the tourrnament.

In the top half of the third, Frank Morejón homered, his second of the Series, off Caguas starter Jake Fisher’s 0-2 offering to even the score for the Granma Alazanes (Sorrels), Cuba’s representative in this week long battle of champions. It also was his first four bagger of the Series.

Each team tallied twice in the fifth frame. Morejón brought Carlos Benítez in from second with a rule book double to left and then advanced to third on Raúl González’s fly to right. An infield single to short by Roel Santos brought the Cuban catcher home with his team’s third run. The Criollos quickly wiped out the Cubans´ advantage with back to back homers into the left field bleachers by Rubén Gotay and the right field bleachers by David Varona, the first circuit blast for both them in this year’s Caribbean Series.

Caguas had a chance to make a definitive statement in the bottom of the sixth. Anthony García led off with a single to right. Rusney Castillo pinch hit for designated hitter Johnny Monell, fouled off the first pitch and then sent García to third with a single to right center. With runners on the corner and nobody out, manager. Carlos Martí called on Lenadro Martínez, a lefty like Ulfrido García, to pitch to switch hitting Rubén Gotay, who had homered in the previous episode. Between them, they worked the count to three and two before Martínez got Gotay to hit a grounder to shortstop Yordan Manduley behind second base, where he fielded it, stepped on the bag, and fired to Guillermo Avilés to complete the double play and preserved the tie.

Martínez completed his relief assignment in the good old fashoned way by entering the game, as he did in the sixth inning and shutting Puerto Rico out until its 27th batter was retired four innings later. He did this on 47 pitches, 27 of which were strikes.

The Criollos’ failure to capitalize on their opportunity in the sixth cost them dearly. They had brought Luis González in to pitch the sixth and replaced him with Joe Colón, the first right handed hander for either team, to pitch Cuba in the top of the seventh. Colón retired the first to Sorrels he faced, but then walked the dangerous.Morejón on four pitches before serving up a pitch that ninth place hitter Raul González whalloped into left field for a tie breaking double.

Righty Andrés Santiago took over for Colón in the top of the eighth, hoping to keep the Cuban lead at a single run. Instead, he allowed two Alazanes to cross the plate. Manduley started things with an infield single that could just as well have been scored as an error by shortstop Jesmuel Valentín. Madnuley continued to profit from sloppy Caguas fielding when Jonathan Morales´s passed ball enabled the Cuban shortstop to advance to second. Cepeda loaded the bases with a single to left, and Avilés drove them in with a double to left that sent Yoelkis Céspedes, running for Cepeda, to third. A cameo appearance by Alfred Despaigne was wasted by an intentional pass that set up an inning ending double play. But the damage was irreparable. Martínez continued his mastery over Puerto Rico’s batters, and the Cubans won by three.

The practical effect of Tuesday afternoon’s contest on the semi final schedule depends on the result of the Tuesday night game between Mexico, who will be fighting for pride in an attempt to salvage one victory in its horrendous Caribbean Series, and the Dominican Republic, who will be fighting for a second or third place berth.

Game time is 8:00 pm CT and 6:00 pm PT.

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).