The Dominican Winter League Baseball Championship enters its second phase, a round robin tournament between the top four teams of the regular 50-game season. The Aguilas, Estrellas, Toros and Leones qualified for this part of the tourney. In the first round of games, played on Thursday 27, Friday 28, Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 December, saw the Toros waking up, after struggling in the latter part of the regular season; the Leones, who had to scrape through a single game play-off just to get into the semi-final part of the tournament, ran off two straight victories, the Aguilas lost one game before coming back to win on consecutive nights. Perhaps the biggest surprise is the performance of the Estrellas, currently without a win in the round robin. On Sunday, timely hitting by Esteban German, Jose Ramirez and Donell Linares gave the Toros del Este their second win in a row over the Leones del Escogido. In San Pedro de Macoris, an eleventh inning homerun by Joaquin Arias was enough to give the Aguilas a victory, 4-3, over the suddenly vulnerable Estrellas Orientales.
Standings
TEAM
WINS-LOSSES
AVG
GAMES BEHIND
AGUILAS
3 – 1
.750
—
TOROS
3 – 1
.750
—
ESCOGIDO
2 – 2
.500
1.0
ESTRELLAS
0 – 4
.000
3.0
Today’s games, 2 January 2013 and possible starters:
* Estadio Cibao, Santiago de los Caballeros, 7:30pm – Toros del Este (F. Abad) vs. Aguilas Cibaenas (L. Barcelo)
* Estadio Tetelo Vargas, San Pedro de Macoris, at 8pm – Leones del Escogido (E. Valdez) vs. Estrellas Orientales (M. Baez)
For more on ongoing and upcoming events, see http://dr1.com/calendar