Tag Archives: Venezuelan Winter League

Keeping Track

Lara Recaps: Games Three and Four

As we are catching up, the recaps will be shorter.  We hope to get back to full recaps tomorrow.

LARA 7, MARGARITA 6 IN LARA (11 INNINGS)

Sunday

Cesar Izturis hit a two-run triple to bring Lara back from a 6-5 deficit in the eleventh.  Yonathan Mendoza was 2-for-2 with three walks and Joantvel Segovia was 2-for-5 with a double.  Yordanys Linares hit a home run.  Starter Williams Perez lasted just 2.2 innings, allowing four runs (two earned) on four hits and two walks and striking out two.

LARA 6, MARGARITA 2 IN MARGARITA

Tuesday

Yonathan Mendoza's RBI triple in the eighth broke a 2-2 tie and Lara scored three in the ninth to put it away.  Gabriel Moreno was 3-for-5 with two doubles.  Mendoza was 2-for-5 and had a double to go along with his triple.  Ex-Twin Logan Darnell started and pitched four innings, giving up an unearned run on three hits and a walk and striking out two.

Record:  Lara is 3-1, in first place in the West Division, a half game ahead of Magallanes.

Next game:  Lara is at Zulia tonight.

Keeping Track

Lara Recap: Game Two

LARA 10, ZULIA 4 IN ZULIA

Batting stars:  Jecksson Flores was 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, and two RBIs.  Joantgel Segovia was 2-for-4 with a triple.  Osman Marval was 2-for-4 with a walk and two RBIs.  Yordanys Linares was 2-for-4 with two RBIs.  Yonathan Mendoza was 2-for-5 with a double and two runs.  Rene Reyes was 2-for-5.

Pitching stars:  Raul Rivero pitched 4.1 innings, giving up two runs on three hits and no walks and striking out two.  Vicente Campos retired all five men he faced, striking out two.  Yapson Gomez pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Oscar Campos was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer.  Jorbit Vivas was 2-for-4.  Christian Fernandez pitched two shutout innings, giving up only a walk.

The game:  It was actually scoreless through four innings.  In the fifth, however, Lara broke through.  Segovia led off with a triple and Gabriel Moreno followed with an RBI single.  Moreno stole second and scored on Mendoza's double.  A popup was the first out, but then Cesar Izturis singled to put runners on the corners.  Linares then singled home a run and Flores doubled home another, making it 4-0 Lara.

Zulia cut the lead in half in the bottom of the inning, as Grenny Cumana doubled and Campos hit a two-run homer.  In the seventh, however, Lara took control.  Two walks and a Linares single loaded the bases with none out.  Flores singled home one run, Marval singled home two, and a sacrifice fly made it 8-2 Lara.  Lara added two more in the eighth on singles by Mondoza and Deiner Lopez, an RBI double by Edward Barboza, and a sacrifice fly.  Zulia got single runs in the eighth and ninth but never threatened to get back into the game.

WP:  Vicente Campos (1-0).  LP:  Cesar Jimenez (0-1).  S:  None.

Notes:  Lara had sixteen hits.  Everyone had at least one hit and six of their players had two.  Even the one substitute that used, Barboza, had a hit.  Thirteen of the hits were singles and the other three were doubles.

The wind was two miles an hour in from left.  Living where I do, where a fifteen mile an hour wind is considered normal, that sounds wonderful.

Record:  Zulia is 1-1, tied for third with three other teams, one game behind Caracas.

Next game:  Lara hosts Margarita this afternoon.

Keeping Track

Lara Recap: Game One

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.

Keeping Track

Off-Season’s Greetings: The Wrap-up

A listing of how our Twins lads fared in winter leagues.  I'm listing batters with at least thirty at-bats and pitchers with at least ten innings.  Batters are listed in order of OPS and pitchers are listed in order of ERA.

BATTERS

Kennys Vargas (Aguilas, Dominican and Mayaguez, Puerto RIcan):  .245/.394/.480 in 102 at-bats.
Logan Wade (Brisbane, Australian):  .282/.333/.523  in 149 at-bats.
Willians Astudillo (Anzoategui, Venezuelan):  .329/.371/.477 in 222 at-bats.
Gregorio Petit (Caracas, Venezuelan):  .299/.359/.449 in 107 at-bats.
Aaron Whitefield (Brisbane, Australian):  .292/.364/.425 in 106 at-bats.
Brock Stassi (Jalisco, Mexican):  .234/.387/.364 in 107 at-bats.
Leonardo Reginatto (Margarita, Venezuelan):  .285/.326/.331 in 172 at-bats.
Jermaine Curtis (Hermosillo, Mexican):  .161/.278/.226 in 31 at-bats.

PITCHERS

Tyler Kinley (Licey, Dominican):  2-1, 0.47, 0.84 WHIP in 19 innings.
Adalberto Mejia (Gigantes, Dominican):  2-0, 3.43, 1.33 WHIP in 21 innings.
Anderson Munoz (Zulia, Venezuelan):  1-0, 3.45, 1.34 WHIP in 15.2 innings.
Anthony Marzi (Margarita, Venezuelan):  0-2, 4.32, 1.41 WHIP in 33.2 innings.
Omar Bencomo (Margarita, Venezuelan):  5-7, 4.42, 1.51 WHIP in 75.1 innings.

This concludes our winter league coverage for this year.  Hope you enjoyed it.  It looks like minor league seasons begin April 5.  God willing, we'll be there to cover them.