Postseason: Halfway there
The Cocodrilos de Matanzas were left with a 5-2 advantage over the Alazanes de Granma at the end of the eighth when the rain arrived at the Mártires de Barbados stadium. They will have to resume Game 2 tomorrow Sunday. Sancti Spíritus reacted, and the Leñadores came back again.
Sancti Spíritus 2, Pinar del Río 0
Then, what seemed unlikely happened: Pinar del Río's powerful offense was limited by the Sancti Spíritus pitchers, who returned the Game 1 shutout with a 2-0 victory this Saturday in Game 2.
Right-hander José Eduardo Santos became the first pitcher to pitch at least seven scoreless innings this year against the Pinar del Río lineup. How could it happen? This is probably one of your biggest questions, even after seeing Santos tear through the Vegueros lineup and come out unscathed.
Pinar del Río reached runners in the first three innings, but only one reached scoring position. It was Jorge Yoán Rojas in the second inning, after a single by Lázaro Benítez with one out. But then Tailon Sánchez hit a fly ball to first, and Rolando Martínez delivered the final out with a fly ball to left.
Yasser Julio González was the third out of the third inning, flying out to third with William Saavedra at first. Santos dominated the fourth inning in a row. After striking out Jorge Yoán Rojas and Lázaro Emilio Blanco, center fielder Carlos Gómez devoured a fly ball between right and center by Lázaro Benítez.
After four consecutive zeros, Tailon Sánchez opened the fifth inning with a double. The Gallos had a lead of just two runs, a difference on the scoreboard that the Pinar del Río hitters could have erased with a few swings. However, Tailon was thrown out trying to reach third. If he had not challenged the arm of center fielder Carlos Gómez, perhaps Tailon would have scored with Juan Carlos Arencibia's single to center. With two outs and Alexei Ramírez on a 0-1 count, Arencibia was caught stealing at second. Catcher Yadiel Guerra, who remained in the game with pain in his back, threw sitting down and got a key out.
Alexei Ramírez led off the sixth inning with a single that probably would have driven in Arencibia from second. And then William Saavedra, Yasser Julio González and Jorge Yoán Rojas were sent off again by Santos. All three hit fly balls, but failed to do any damage. Santos' last inning was the seventh, where he hit three inconsequential ground balls into the infield. That was all the work: in seven innings, he allowed seven hits, but no runner reached third base. Fernando Betanzos retired the eighth, and Yanielquis Duardo came to the rescue at the bottom of the ninth, getting a grounder into a double play by Yasser Julio González in the key turn of the inning.
With an effective combination of pitching and defense,* Sancti Spíritus needed only two runs to beat veteran right-hander Vladimir Baños, who was a worthy rival for Pinar del Río in Game 2.
*In terms of defensive work, third baseman Lázaro Fernández (recorded 10 pitches, four outs and six assists), catcher Yadiel Guerra and center fielder Carlos Gómez, took the main headlines.
The Gallos leadoff, Rodolexis Moreno, opened the game with a double in the first inning, and scored on a grounder to second by Frederich Cepeda. The second run was in the second inning, on a single by Duniesky Barroso, a bunt sacrifice by Lázaro Fernández — catcher Jorge Yoán Rojas made an error that helped Barroso advance to third—, and an RBI single by Carlos Gómez.
From the third inning onwards, no more runs were scored in the game and, curiously, the only batter who walked was William Saavedra at the beginning of the ninth.
So the series is tied, 1-1. But that is not the only relevant news here, especially if we remember that Pinar del Río won this year's series 3-2 against Sancti Spíritus—the matchup was so close, that both teams ended up scoring 33 runs. The feat to remember was that Pinar del Río received the first shutout playing a playoff game at the Capitán San Luis stadium after 20 years. Industriales right-hander Deynis Suárez had been the last pitcher to shut out Pinar del Río at home.
Suárez's pitching gem was a 5-0 shutout in Game 6 of the 2004 Semifinal series. That night of March 31, 2004, Suárez allowed only three hits to his 32 opponents, struck out nine and walked only two hitters. I remember that game perfectly, and the absolute dominance of Deynis Suárez, mixing his fastball with a curveball that became a nightmare for the Pinar del Río hitters that night at the Capitán San Luis stadium.
That success in Game 6 eliminated Pinar del Río, and the Industriales finished the season by sweeping Villa Clara 4-0 in the final of the 43rd National Series.
Going back to Santos' dominance, there's something else he wanted to highlight: he snapped a four-game losing streak in Game 2 of a Playoff series against Pinar del Río. Precisely, Santos himself was the losing pitcher of the previous Game 2 between Pinar del Río vs Sancti Spíritus in the 61st National Series. The previous success had come from Ismel Jiménez in the 2008 postseason, defeating Vladimir Baños, who is now 2-2 in Games 2 against Sancti Spíritus.
So the return of Santos has oxygenated the Gallos' starting rotation, which will probably be without left-hander Álex Guerra (he is facing a flu attack) and right-hander Yankiel Mauris (he is negotiating an international contract). In his first five starts of the season, Santos pitched to an 8.04 ERA, with 24 hits allowed, nine strikeouts and 13 walks in 15 ⅔ innings. After that terrible start he was moved to the bullpen, and after three reliefs he returned to the starting rotation precisely against Pinar del Río. Santos continued to struggle through the month of May to find his rhythm, but it wasn't until June where he began to stabilize. The timing could not have been more opportune, as the Gallos were looking to qualify in the final three weeks of the season.
Since then, Santos is 4-0 and has pitched for a 2.03 ERA in his last five starts, including this Saturday's success in Game 2 against Pinar del Río. In that period, Santos has recorded a correlation of 19 strikeouts and eight walks. He has allowed just one home run against his last 128 opponents, so the dominance against Pinar del Río's powerful lineup simply corroborates that José Eduardo Santos has been having his best moment this season.
The series will continue next Tuesday at the José Antonio Huelga stadium, with a duel between the right-handed Mario Luis Valle (Pinar del Río) and the left-handed Carlos Manuel Benavides.
Las Tunas 5, Ciego de Ávila 3
Second verse, same as the first: The Tigres de Ciego de Ávila came out ahead on the scoreboard./The starter (this time the rookie Ediel Ponce) got a quality start./And the team reached the seventh inning with an advantage.
With two games like this, a team is supposed to win at least one, but that mystical probability has not worked for the Tigres against the Leñadores of Las Tunas. Ciego de Ávila opened with a 2-0 lead at the beginning of the fourth inning, taking advantage of the inconsistency of the Las Tunas starter, rookie right-hander Yadier Zamora. The Leñadores scored with a sacrifice fly by Denis Peña at the end of the fourth, but an error by second baseman Yúnior Josué Otero allowed Ciego de Ávila to extend the lead to 3-1 at the start of the fifth.
The Tigers did not score the rest of the game. Keniel Ferráz had a magnificent relief of 3 ⅔ scoreless innings, his opponents went 1-for-11, and Alberto Pablo Civil was called upon to get the last out of the game. Ciego de Ávila tried to attack, but was able to put pressure on only the first five hitters in the lineup. From the sixth hitter on, the Tigers hitters went 1-for-15.
It's hard to beat a team like the Leñadores, which tends to have a better balance in the lineup. Although the hitters of the last three shifts in the lineup finished 0-for-9, the vertical power in the Las Tunas offense was unstoppable. After being dominated by the main contender for the Rookie of the Year award, right-hander Ediel Ponce—he pitched six innings, allowing only three hits and one earned run—the Tigers' bullpen and defense collapsed.
Kevin Soto was eaten again, allowing the runs that decided the game. Rafael Viñales drove in the first run of the rally, tying the score at 3-3 at the end of the seventh. Then second baseman Osmani Linares made a key error, and Denis Peña completed the Leñadores' comeback with an RBI single to left.
I think you can see the turning point here: Ciego de Ávila's relievers have blown two leads after being nine outs away from victory, allowing five of the team's seven runs. And, of course, the poor offense has not been able to resurrect itself. It's pretty difficult to win baseball games when a team is 2-for-33 with runners in scoring position.
The result could not be any other: Los Leñadores de Las Tunas have made it halfway to the Semifinal. They have won 10 of their last 11 playoff games against the Tigres de Ciego de Ávila, and the streak extended to the last seven.
