Over the weekend, the Dominican Winter League Baseball Championship appeared to jell the standings with the Estrellas and Aguilas on top and the Toros and Gigantes rounding out the top four that will go on to the Round Robin portion of the tournament. This means that for the first time in many, many years, there will be no baseball in Santo Domingo after 21 December.
On Friday night, 7 December, in the Estadio Quisqueya in Santo Domingo, the Leones del Escogido defeated the Estrellas Orientales 8-7 with a dramatic homerun by Ramon Santiago in the eighth inning, the only extra base hit for the Leones in the game. Willy Aybar and Wilkin Castillo brought home five runs in the first inning to give the Leones the lead. In San Francisco de Macoris, the game between Licey and Gigantes was rained out. In La Romana, excellent pitching by Lorenzo Barcelo and good hitting by the second string players such as Oscar Taveras, Francisco Pena, Elian Herrera, Juan Lagares and Juan Carlos Perez gave the Aguilas an 8-4 victory over the Toros.
On Saturday night, 8 December, Licey won the City Championship and sent Escogido into the basement of the standings, 8-4, overcoming a four-run deficit in the seventh and eighth innings. Over in San Pedro de Macoris, the Estrellas climbed back into first place in the standings with a big win over the Toros del Este, 11-3. Excellent pitching and powerful hitting gave the Estrellas an 8-0 lead going into the seventh inning. The victory also gave the Estrellas the Sugarcane Trophy, winning the individual series with six victories. In the other Macoris, San Francisco, the Gigantes del Cibao cut their four-game losing streak and defeated the Aguilas Cibaenas 4-2, giving themselves a three-game cushion over the fifth place Tigres del Licey.
On Sunday, 9 December, Moises Sierra hit a homerun and batted in three runs to contribute to the triumph of the Gigantes del Cibao over the Toros del Este, 6-4, in a game played in the Francisco Micheli Statdium in La Romana. Sierra hit a two-run shot in the second inning to give the Gigantes a 2-0 edge over the Toros. The win gives the Gigantes a 20-22 record, a half game better than the Toros. The Toros have a three-game lead over the Tigres del Licey that are in fifth place. Eight games are left in the regular season. In the Estadio Cibao, the Leones del Escogido kept their hopes alive when they defeated the high-flying Aguilas Cibaenas 8-7, with a dramatic hit by veteran Fernando Tatis who drove in the winning run in the ninth inning. The Aguilas had come back from a 0-7 deficit to tie the game in the eighth inning after getting skunked for seven innings by the Leones pitching staff. With the victory the Leones have a hope of classifying for the Round Robin portion of the tournament. They are three games behind the Toros del Este and 3.5 games behind the Gigantes del Cibao. They have two games each remaining against these two teams. In Santo Domingo, the Estrellas played the Tigres del Licey with most of their star players getting a day of rest. However, Miguel Angel Sano hit a homerun, two doubles and batted in four runs as the Estrellas came from behind and defeated the Tigres 9-5. In the ninth inning the Tigres had a comfortable 5-1 lead when Sano led off with a double. He came around to score and later in that same inning he hit a three-run homerun to cap an eight-run rally by the Estrellas. Colombian Julio Teheran pitched six great innings (0 runs, 8 K, 1 hit, 0 BB) in his last appearance for Licey. He is close to being assured of a starting spot in the rotation of the Atlanta Braves this coming season.
Standings
TEAM
WINS-LOSSES
AVG
GAMES BEHIND
*ESTRELLAS
28 – 15
.661
—
*AGUILAS
27 – 16
.627
1.0
GIGANTES
20 – 22
.476
7.5
TOROS
20 – 23
.465
8.0
ESCOGIDO
17 – 26
.395
11.0
LICEY
16 – 26
.390
11.5
No games scheduled until Thursday, 13 December, due to the All-Star Break.
For more on ongoing and upcoming events, see http://dr1.com/calendar