What seemed like a sad night for Mexico turned into a pachanga that started Thursday night and ended around 2am on Friday with the triumph of the Tomateros de Culiacán About the Anzoátegui Caribs of Venezuela through four runs of three in 10 innings, en route to the semi-finals of the Mazatlán Caribbean Series 2021. By the way, the Venezuelans were left on the field.
Juan Carlos Gamboa donned the heroic suit by connecting the unstoppable winner in the bottom of the 10th inning, setting a spectacular return from Mexico that trailed 3-0 in the eighth set.
In this way, Mexico closes the Round Robin stage with a 3-2 record, including two consecutive victories. Venezuela was 1-4 in their participation in the Teodoro Mariscal Stadium, which was eliminated along with Colombia.
Now, Mexico will play in the semi-finals against Puerto Rico next Friday at 8 PM, while Panama will face the Dominican Republic at 3 PM. The winners will go to the grand final on Saturday at 8 p.m. Sinaloa time.
CAREERS
Danry Vásquez put Vinto Tinto up front in the third inning with one out on the board, with a kilometer and a lone homerun over the right field, whose ball fell into the second stand, something that has been seen very little in the Teodoro Mariscal Stadium.
Venezuela increased its lead to 3-0 in the fifth with two more runs: Luis Sardiñas and Danry Vásquez hit the center, and Jesús Sucre drove in first with a grounder to second base. Next, Ali Castillo sent Vasquez home with a single to the center.
For Mexico, it was not seen where, his attack was colder than the North Pole, due to the throws of the lefthanded Logan Darnell, who, until the good news of the Tomateros, stopped taking the mound for the eighth inning, who benefited the TRI on attack from reliever Pedro Rodríguez and drawing:
Everything was written with two outs, José Guadalupe Chávez reached on an infieldhit through the middle, Ramiro Peña was hit and Sebastián Elizalde drove in Chávez with a single to the left; Still, Joey Meneses Peña and Elizalde doubled to the right for 3-3.
The winner for the Tomateros came in the bottom of the tenth inning when Ramiro Peña started at second base as a designated runner of courtesy, as it was the last of the ninth inning with a strikeout. Note that this was the first game of the current Caribbean Series to go into extra innings and therefore this rule was applied.
Then the first batter of the set, Sebastián Elizalde, walked and José Cardona singled to the right to fill the house, Efrén Navarro raised briefly to the left, Isaac Paredes made contact with the front line for the second out, but Juan Carlos Gamboa reacted with a goal in the middle and Peña scored the final 4-3.
Pitchers
Edgar Arredondo started for Mexico and held four and two-thirds innings with six basehits, three earned runs, one base and three strikeouts, keeping his ERA at 5.79. They replaced Aldo Montes, Arturo López, Jesús Castillo Ripalda, Derrick Loop, Sasagi Sánchez, Alberto Baldonado and Carlos Torres (winner).
Logan Darnell started on the mound for Venezuela, which threw a great seven-inning game with seven hits and six chocolates, leaving his ERA uncontaminated. Pedro Rodríguez, Yapson Gómez, Silvino Bracho, left-handed Liarvis Breto (loser) and José Ascanio helped him.