Aragua scored two in the sixth to take a 2-1 win over Margarita in Margarita.

Lastings Milledge and Luis Hernandez each had two hits.  Sergio Perez (Houston) went five innings, giving up a run on two hits and a walk to get the win.  Jose Rada (St. Louis) struck out five in 2.1 perfect innings.  The save went to Victor Moreno, who retired the only man he faced.

The Bravos were led by Frank Diaz, who had two hits.  Yusmeiro Petit took the loss, giving up two unearned runs on six hits and a walk in 5.1 innings.

Around the league, Rene Tosoni was 1-for-4 and Jairo Perez was 0-for-3 with a walk and a run as Lara defeated Zulia 5-0.  Deolis Guerra pitched 1.2 innings for Magallanes, giving up a run on three hits and a walk while striking out two in 1.2 innings as Magallanes lost to La Guaira 6-5 in 11 innings.

Aragua travels to Margarita tonight.

The Venezuelan Winter League starts today.  There are eight teams in the league.  The teams are Aguilas de Zulia, Bravos de Margarita, Cardenales de Lara, Caribes de Anzoategui, Leones del Caracas, Navegantes del Magallanes, Tiburones de La Guaira, and Tigres de Aragua.

Once again there are a lot of Twins players on the roster for the Tigres de Aragua.  They are Cesar Ciurcina, Jhon Garcia, Edgar Ibarra, Jose Mijares, Miguel Munoz, Josmil Pinto, Oswaldo Arcia, Joe Benson, Jon Goncalves, and Yangervis Solarte.

It is unclear, however, which of those players will actually play or when they will play.  Rosters in winter leagues are different.  There are fifty-five players currently on the Aragua roster.  Players come and go.  Some are there for a couple of weeks, some are there for a month, some stay all season.  It seems logical that there would be an "active roster" of people who are actually available to play on a given night, but if it exists it is not easy to find.  As one follows the league, one gets the impression that if a good player just happened to show up in the fifth inning, they'd hand him a uniform and send him onto the field.

We hope at least a few of the Twins players will always be around at any given time, so that following Aragua will be more interesting to us.  If not, well, it's still baseball, and it will still be something to help us through the long winter months.  Let's play ball!