The Tigres de Ciego Avila will today seek to regain the top spot in the third edition of the Elite League of Cuban Baseball, in their third clash with the Alazanes de Granma at the Mártires de Barbados Stadium in Bayamo.
To make the leap to the top, the team led by Olympian Danny Miranda will have to beat the eastern horses for the third time this week and hope that leaders Leñadores de Las Tunas fall to Vegueros de Pinar del Río at the Estadio Capitán San Luis.
The day before, they won 5-2 in a challenge where Frederich Cepeda hit the 2,502nd hit of his career to equal the all-time lead with Danel Castro of Tunas.
For this game, the feline team management announced José Isaías Grandales to take the mound, a pitcher who was selected as the best of the first two particular subseries and who, in addition to recording two victories, has barely scored four clean runs in 19.1 innings.
For the Alazanes, César García, one of their trump cards, will take the mound, although he has accumulated a couple of failures this season.
Meanwhile, the Leñadores, who do not want to share the tournament throne, will use their star Dariel Góngora to try to win the weekly battle against the Pinareños, after yesterday’s narrow 8-7 victory.
The left-hander has a 1-1 record and has allowed just five runs in 15 innings, where he has left nine batters with the carbine on his shoulder.
In the opposite dugout he will have Yunieski García, a pitcher who has a couple of losses and has not yet been able to impose his quality this season.
Finally, the Avispas de Santiago de Cuba, defeated the day before by Industriales de La Habana by a score of 9-7 on a late home run by Ángel Hechavarría, will be looking to even the score between the two.
They will start Osvaldo Acuña, who has a 2-0 record, against José Ernesto Pérez, who will be making his first start of the season.
The Elite League of Cuban Baseball shows Las Tunas in first place with a record of 10 wins and five losses, followed by Ciego de Avila (9-6) and ahead of Industriales (8-7), Santiago de Cuba (7-8), Pinar del Río (6-9) and Granma (5-10). (Author Boris Luis Cabrera)
