Los Gigantes del Cibao defeated the Toros del Este 4-2 on the last day of the regular series of Dominican baseball at the Francisco A. Micheli Stadium.
With the win, the Giants (16-14) captured the regular series, taking on the winner of the play-in between Lions and Stars. Plus, they finish with an 8-7 mark on the road, winning the respective series ahead of the Bulls 4-2. For their part, the Bulls (16-14) finish the season in third place, leaving their home record at 9-6.
The bullfighters will take on the Aguilas in the semi-finals that start in Santiago on January 2. The series will be the best of 7 games.
With the game 4-0 in favor of the Giants at the end of the eighth inning, the Bulls got a discount when Cristhian Adames crawled down with runners on third and second base, the man on third base detached himself from the pentagon and scored. Then, Jorge Mateo singled to drive into the runner in the third to narrow the home team’s deficit to 2.
Yamaico Navarro had 3 of Toros’s 10 hits, raising his batting average to .361, assuming the league title. His first batting championship is in Dominican baseball. With his torrid offensive performance in the current game, Navarro expanded his line-up of consecutive hitting games to 10 and his line-up online games to 24.
Giant starter Richelson Peña (0-0, 2.35) went without a decision after throwing 4 innings in which he gave up 4 basehits, walked 4 and struckout 3.
The victory went to Edgar Santana (1-0, 3-18), who threw 2 scoreless innings of 2 strikeouts.
Cuban Jorge Martínez (2-1, 2.45), took the loss after giving up 4 runs, including 3 unearned in one inning and two-thirds in which they had 4 basehits, switched to 2 and struckout 3.
Martinez was followed by relievers Frankie De La Cruz with two 1/3 innings of a hit and a strikeout. Next, lefthander Anthony Gose took the mound and threw two non-run innings with two strikeouts. Jhan Maríñez worked two scoreless innings with two strikeouts AND Pedro Payano, a flawless inning.
The Giants took charge of the game in the same first inning and after two outs, when Moisés Sierra found a runner on second base and hit an RBI-single from the first run of the game.
The visitors extended their lead early in the second inning when starter Jorge Martinez made a wild pitch with the bases loaded and then, another time with the bases loaded, Juan Francisco singled to bring in two more runs.
The Bulls got a discount at the end of the eighth, when Cristhian Adames crawled through the initial with runners on third and second base, the runner from third base broke away from the pentagon and scored. Jorge Mateo then singled into the third runner to narrow the deficit of the home team to 2.
For the Bulls, Yamaico Navarro hit 5-3, Jeimer Candelario 5-3 and Peter O’Brien 3-1 with a run scored.
For the Giants, Ronald Guzman went 3-1 with a run scored, Juan Francisco 4-1 with an RBI, Moisés Sierra 4-1 with an RBI and Kelvin Gutierrez 4-2.