On the evening of Friday, 9 November, the “Eternal Rivals” – Licey and Escogido – dueled at the Quisqueya Stadium in Santo Domingo. This time, the Leones del Escogido were defeated by the Tigres del Licey, 3-2. Cuban import Donell Linares once again provided the key hit by driving in the winning run as Licey won its second game in a row and sent the Leones into the cellar. The Leones scored first and led 2-0, but in the fifth the Tigres got back a run and scored the winning runs in the eighth. Jerickson Profar, from Curacao, went 3-4 and drove in one the tying run. In Santiago, the Aguilas Cibaenas won a pitchers’ duel, 2-1 with an outstanding five-inning relief stint from Angel Castro and opportune hitting from catcher Francisco Pena, who went 3-3 with two doubles and drove in the winning run. In La Romana’s Francisco Micheli Stadium, the Toros blasted the Estrellas Orientales 10-4, aided by a triple and single from Eugenio Velez, for their first victory over the Estrellas this year.
On Saturday, the Gigantes del Cibao defeated the Tigres del Licey in a game played in the Julian Javier Stadium in San Francisco de Macoris. The Gigantes came back from a 4-1 deficit to win 5-4 with a run in the bottom half of the ninth inning, thanks in large part to two errors by Licey. The game was a pitchers’ duel until the sixth inning when Licey scored three runs. In a long day, the Estrellas Orientales defeated the Leones del Escogido twice. In the first game of the double header, the Estrellas won 5-2 and in the second game the score was 1-0 with outstanding pitching from Omar Javier and Dereck Hankins. In the day’s other game, the Toros del Este defeated the Aguilas Cibaenas 4-1 in the Francisco Micheli Stadium in La Romana.
On Sunday, the rookie from Curacao, Jerickson Profar, saved the day for the Tigres del Licey, hitting a walk-off homerun in the ninth inning to give the Tigres a 5-4 win over their “Eternal Rivals”, the Leones del Escogido. The individual series is now 3-2 in favor of the Tigres. In San Francisco de Macoris, an epic battle that went into extra innings took place between the Gigantes del Cibao and the Aguilas Cibaenas. Only a dramatic homerun by Oscar Taveras in the eleventh inning saved the day for the Aguilas, in a fight for first place with the Estrellas Orientales. Batters Oscar Taveras, Omar Luna and Miguel Tejada all had three hits. In San Pedro de Macoris, the Toros del Este were able to defeat the Estrellas Orientales 10-4, coming from behind, with Willie Otanez and Jose Ramirez leading the offense.
Standings
TEAM
WINS-LOSSES
AVG
GAMES BEHIND
AGUILAS
13 – 8
.619
—
TOROS
12 – 8
.600
0.5
ESTRELLAS
13 – 9
.591
0.5
GIGANTES
10 – 11
.476
3.0
LICEY
8 – 12
.400
4.5
ESCOGIDO
7 – 15
.318
6.5
Tonight’s game is at the Tetelo Vargas Stadium at 8pm. The Toros del Este will play the Estrellas Orientales once again.
For more on ongoing and upcoming events, see http://dr1.com/calendar