Reliever Gabriel Arias had an emergency start and put on a hero suit when he threw 5.0 solid innings to head a two-run shutout of the Tigres del Licey over the Estrellas Orientales on Saturday-evening the 19th, at the stadium of Estadio Tetelo. Vargas from San Pedro de Macorís.
On the offensive side, the last Licey-import, Wynton Bernard, hit a homerun and single, scored both runs and Emilio Bonifacio drove in first with a sacrifice fly and was the lone winner that Arias (2-1) and his henchmen needed Dany Jiménez and Lisalverto Bonilla, who gave up nine basehits but didn’t walk and the defense was flawless, for the second Bengal victory in line, both against the greens, after six consecutive losses.
During the remainder of the Saturday night of Dominican winter baseball 20220-21, Don José Manuel Fernández, In Memoriam, defeated the Giants of Cibao de Toros del Este 10-1 in San Francisco de Macorís; and the Águilas Cibaeñas won a career 11-9 over the Leones del Escogido in the capital.
The Tigers’ tenth win (10-15) keeps them with a breath of life in their sleek ambitions to qualify, but they can’t afford to lose any of the five remaining games.
Now, instead of the Giants (12-12, level with the Stars in third place), it is the Chosen One (14-15) who should pass Licey in his attempt to reach fifth, less than three games from the fourth, to go to a mini playoff. The blues are 2.0 games behind the reds, who will play their last game against the Bulls in the capital next Sunday. Águilas and Toros are tied at the top at 15-12.
Licey will have a crucial double game against the Águilas in Santiago next Sunday from 2pm in the afternoon, sending veteran Ervin Santana in the first and young Jean Carlos Mejía to the mound in the second.
The game
The coaching staff led by Luis Sojo had appointed prospect Deivi Garcia to play against the Greens on Saturday, but had to call on veteran reliever Gabriel Arias, who gave up only four hits, struckout one and did not go over. In the fifth, he had his biggest difficulty when he gave up a single with one out, retired the next and then hit the infield, but the next one dominated. Dany Jiménez took over responsibility in the sixth, being tagged with one hit in each inning, but struckout four batters, two per inning. Lisaberto Bonilla gave up two basehits in the eighth and one in the ninth, but without consequences. He blew two for his first save of the season.
The Bengals scored their first in the third inning, when Wynton Bernard hit a batter for third, defender Ronnier Mustelier made a throwing error and the batter moved to second base. He moved to third base on a pitch by the forward of Sergio Alcántara and scored on a sacrifice fly by Emilio Bonifacio.
In the fifth, with two batters out, Bernard hit a huge four-corner stick over the midfield fence in All-Star starter and underdog Andy Otero to set the final score. Otero pitched 5.0 innings on three hits and two strikeouts. Forrest Snow with a 2.0 inning, Ergar E. Garcia (1.0) and Diógenes Armengó (1.0) finished from the east mound and struckout seven batters in the last four innings.
Sergio Alcántara and brothers Emilio (the captain) and Jorge Bonifacio completed the five hits that Licey was able to score, apart from Bernard’s homerun and single.
Between Rainel Rosario and Ronnier Mustelier, they rented six of the nine irrecoverable of the stars, three each. Domingo Leyba, Lewin Díaz and Gustavo Núñez took care of the rest. All nine were straightforward.