The Venezuelan League started last night.  Our randomly selected team to follow in that league is the Cardinales de Lara.

ZULIA 6, LARA 4 IN LARA

Batting stars:  Deiner Lopez was 2-for-4.  Jecksson Flores was 2-for-5 with a double.

Pitching stars:  Luis Oviedo struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up one hit.  Leonel Campos struck out two a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.  Jesus Sanchez pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Grenny Cumana was 2-for-4 with a walk and two RBIs.  Jose Salas was 2-for-4.  Elvis Araujo pitched four shutout innings, giving up two hits and one walk and striking out two.  Danny Rondon pitched two perfect innings and struck out one.

The game:  Zulia scored in the first inning on two walks and an Ali Castillo single.  It stayed 1-0 until the fifth.  Zulia loaded the bases with none out on a Jose Salas single, a walk to Pablo Olivares, and a single by Daniel Brito.  A walk forced home one run, an error brought home another, and another walk forced home a third.  Jorbit Vivas then had an RBI single, making the score 5-0 Zulia.

Lara made a game of it.  They got on the board in the seventh on a hit batsman, a walk, a balk, and a ground out.  In the eighth Flores singled, a hit batsman and a walk loaded the bases, and two more walks forced home two runs, cutting the lead to 5-3.

That was as close as Lara would get.  Zulia scored once in the ninth on two walks and a Cumana single.  Lara got that run back, but no more, in the bottom of the ninth on a walk, a Flores double, and a ground out, but a fly out ended the game.

WP:  Rondon (1-0).  LP:  Nestor Molina (0-1).  S:  Silvino Bracho (1).

Notes:  Molina started for Lara.  He pitched four innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on three hits and four walks and struck out three.

There were fourteen walks in the game.  Lara pitchers walked eight and Zulia pitchers walked six.  Four of the game's ten runs were walked in.

Lara leadoff batter Yordanys Linares was 0-for-5 and struck out four times.  I don't know anything about him, but I suspect that if he continues to do that he won't be the leadoff batter for long.

Lara was 0-for-7 with men in scoring position and stranded nine.  As you can see above, two of their runs were walked in and the other two scored on ground outs.

Record:  Lara is 0-1, tied for seventh, one game behind Zulia and Caracas.

Next game:  Lara is at Zulia this afternoon.