Venezuelan View: Games of 12/28

Aragua twice loses two-run leads.  Big innings carry Anzoategui and Caracas.  Errors and wild pitches are important in Margarita.

LA GUAIRA 5, ARAGUA 4 IN ARAGUA (10 INNINGS)

Twins:  Oswaldo Arcia (Aragua) was 1-for-4 with a walk and a double, scoring once.  Edgar Ibarra (Aragua) faced two men and gave up hits to both of them, but was not charged with any runs.

La Guaira:  C. J. Retherford was 3-for-5 with two doubles and a home run (his eleventh), scoring three times.  Jamie Romak (Dodgers) was 1-for-2 with a double and two RBIs.  Heiker Meneses (Boston) was 2-for-3 with a walk and a run.

Aragua:  Ramon Castro was 2-for-4 with a home run.  Wilson Ramos (Washington) was 1-for-5 with two RBIs.  Yangervis Solarte was 3-for-4 with a run.

The game:  Ramos' two-run single put Aragua up 2-0 in the first inning.  A sacrifice fly put La Guaira on the board in the second and Retherford's homer tied it after four.  Castro homered to give Aragua a 3-2 lead in the fifth and a wild pitch made it 4-2 after six.  In the seventh, Romak delivered a two-run double to tie it again.  Each team put a man on third in the eighth but could not score him.  In the tenth, Hector Sanchez came through with an RBI single to give La Guaira its only lead of the game at 5-4.  Arcia led off the bottom of the tenth with a double, but the next three batters struck out.

ANZOATEGUI 11, LARA 3 IN ANZOATEGUI

Twins:  Eduardo Escobar (Anzoategui) was 0-for-2 with two walks, scoring twice and driving in one.

Lara:  Elvis Escobar (Pittsburgh) was 2-for-5 with a home run.  Mario Martinez (Boston) was 1-for-4 with a double, scoring once and driving in one.  Deryk Hooker (Oakland) pitched two perfect innings.

Anzoategui:  Gustavo Molina was 2-for-4 with a three-run homer (his third) and two runs.  Niuman Romero was 3-for-4 with a walk and scored three times.  Jose Castillo was 4-for-5 with two RBIs.

The game:  Elvis Escobar led off the game with a homer to put Lara up 1-0.  It was their only lead of the game.  Castillo's two-run single made it 2-1 Anzoategui after one.  A sacrifice fly and a three-run homer by Oscar Salazar made it 6-1 after two.  In the sixth, Martinez had an RBI double and Gabriel Lino (Philadelphia) a run-scoring single to cut the lead to 6-3, but in the eighth, Anzoategui got a three-run homer by Molina and a two-run single by Luis Nunez to put the game out of reach.

ZULIA 4, MARGARITA 0 IN MARGARITA (GAME 1--SCHEDULED 7 INNINGS)

Zulia:  Jose Pirela (Yankees) was 2-for-3 with a triple, scoring twice and driving in one.  Freddy Galvis (Philadelphia) was 2-for-3 with two runs.  Alex Torres (Tampa Bay) pitched six innings, giving up two hits and two walks with four strikeouts.

Margarita:  Wilfredo Tovar (Mets) was 1-for-2 with a double.

The game:  In the fourth, Pirela tripled in a run and scored on an Ernesto Mejia (Atlanta) single to give Zulia a 2-0 lead.  They scored two more in the sixth on two wild pitches.  Margarita's biggest threat came in the third when Tovar led off with a double, but he did not advance past third.

ZULIA 3, MARGARITA 2 IN MARGARITA (GAME 2--SCHEDULED 7 INNINGS,--ZULIA WAS DESIGNATED THE HOME TEAM)

Margarita:  Junior Sosa (Pittsburgh) was 1-for-3 with a triple and a run.  Gerson Montilla (Arizona) was 1-for-3 with a double and an RBI.

Zulia:  Hernan Perez (Detroit) was 1-for-2 with a walk and a double, scoring once.  Luis Ugueto was 1-for-3 with a double and a run.  Yeiper Castillo pitched three innings, allowing one run on one hit and no walks with two strikeouts.

The game:  Margarita made two errors in the first inning, allowing Zulia to get a pair of RBI ground outs and take a 2-0 lead.  Montilla doubled in a run in the fourth to cut the lead to 2-1, but a Juan Apodaca (Texas) RBI single made it 3-1.  Sosa tripled and scored on a ground out to make it 3-2 in the fifth, but Margarita did not get another man on base the rest of the game.

CARACAS 15, MAGALLANES 3 IN CARACAS

Magallanes:  Carlos Maldonado was 1-for-3 with a walk and a home run, scoring twice.  Endy Chavez (Seattle) was 1-for-3 with two RBIs.  Adonis Garcia (Yankees) was 2-for-4 with a double.

Caracas:  Alex Gonzalez was 4-for-4 with a double, scoring twice and driving in five.  Henry Alejando Rodriguez (Cincinnati) was 1-for-5 with a walk, scoring four times and driving in one.  Victor Garate struck out six in five innings, allowing two runs on four hits and one walk.

The game:  Gonzalez singled in a run in the first to give Caracas a 1-0 lead.  A four-run fourth made it 5-0.  Magallanes got two in the fifth on Chavez' two-run single, but Caracas scored nine in the bottom of the fifth to put the game out of reach.  They got three singles, two doubles, three walks, and a two-run homer by Gregorio Petit.