The team representing the Dominican Republic this year – the Leones del Escogido -has played and won all three games so far in the Caribbean World Series in Hermosillo, Mexico. In the first game, on Friday 1 February, the Leones, behind the great pitching of Angel Castro (on loan from the Aguilas Cibaenas) and a timely homerun by Francisco Pena (also on loan) and good relief by TJ Pena (also on loan) plus good hitting from the rest of the team, including Miguel Tejada (also on loan) gave the Leones a 7-2 victory over Venezuela in the first game. The following day, Saturday 2 February, the Leones took on Puerto Rico and came away with a nice 6-2 victory behind good hitting by Jordany Valdespin, Miguel Tejada, Hanley Ramirez and Jose Ramirez.
On Sunday 3 February, the team took 11 innings before they were able to defeat Mexico by a score of 6-5. Ricardo Nanita was the hero, driving in the winning run with a single in the bottom half of the eleventh inning. Dominican teams that have won the first game of the series have won on 17 occasions. Yesterday Miguel Tejada, trying for a swan song with the Kansas City Royals this year, hit a homerun and Hanley Ramirez drove in two more with a double in the fifth. The runs produced by Tejada, playing in his twelfth series are numbers 53 hits and 14 homeruns, both records for the series. Fernando Rodney, who killed the Aguilas in the Dominican Final Series, got dinged for three hits and the tying run in the ninth inning to send the game into extra innings.
http://www.escogido.com/web/
http://seriedelcaribe2013.com.mx
Standings
Team
W-L
Avg.
Games Behind
DOMINICAN REP.
3 – 0
1.000
—
VENEZUELA
2 – 1
.667
0.5
PUERTO RICO
1 – 2
.333
2.0
MEXICO
0 – 3
.000
3.0
Today’s games, Monday 4 February and possible starting pitchers:
* At 4pm in Hermosillo, Mexico – Puerto Rico (Michael Nix) vs. Dominican Republic (Alfredo Figaro)
* The second game will be between: Venezuela (Austin Bibens) vs. Mexico (to be announced)
For more on ongoing and upcoming events, see http://dr1.com/calendar