The 4th Cuban Baseball Elite League returns to the diamond today with a standings table compressed by the heat of parity, after the Matanzas Cocodrilos lost their unbeaten record and three teams awoke tied for second place.

The competitive temperature of the tournament rose several degrees following a day when the Cocodrilos and the Las Tunas Leñadores bit the dust, opening a scenario where each inning seems written with gunpowder and every victory counts as an emphatic statement.

At the Victoria de Girón stadium, the Matanzas side will try to shake off the hangover of yesterday’s defeat against Holguín, when the Cachorros fired 16 hits and four home runs to win 11-2 and break the perfect run of Eduardo Cárdenas’s charges.

Carlos Barrabí, Lázaro Cedeño, Luis Vicente Mateo and Leonel Moas Jr. cleared the fences on an afternoon when the Matanzas pitching ended up overwhelmed, while Rubén Rodríguez worked five innings of only one earned run.

For the second match-up, Matanzas will hand the ball to Jenier Álvarez, who, in his debut, ended with no decision after allowing five earned runs in 5.2 innings, now seeking to cool down the Holguín bats that roared like unleashed locomotives yesterday.

Holguín will counter with José Luis Braña, a right-hander with little experience as a starter — barely 16 starts in six National Series — who has shown good signs as a reliever and today will have the challenge of navigating much more turbulent waters.

At the Julio Antonio Mella, Industriales will arrive boosted by a 5-2 victory over Las Tunas that allowed them to catch them in the standings, both with records of three wins and two losses.

The Havana side struck thanks to home runs from Yaser Julio González and Ariel Hechavarría, while Alberto Hechavarría signed a winning debut in blue after pitching five innings of two runs, before Fernando Betanzo and Yunier Batista completed the mound lockdown.

Las Tunas’s response will rest today on the arm of Yosmel Garcés, who debuted with a win after allowing just one run in five innings, a performance that placed him as one of the most solid notes of the league’s start.

Industriales, for their part, will bet on Rafael Orlando Perdomo, in need of redemption after a stormy first outing where he endured six runs in just 2.1 innings during the championship’s opening match.

The third match of the day will once again take Artemisa and Mayabeque to the Nelson Fernández, the scene where the Cazadores came from behind to win 7-6 with an attack of 14 hits and a decisive rally in the eighth inning.

Yulieski González’s disciples then manufactured three runs that changed the course of the game thanks to singles from Yansué Moré and Dayan García, plus a sacrifice fly from Raydel Sánchez.

Today, the Artemisa side will trust the supersonic Brander Guevara, owner of an impeccable start this season after walking six immaculate innings with just four hits allowed and seven strikeouts, a performance that still resonates like thunder in the tournament’s summaries.

Mayabeque will try to stop the bleeding of five consecutive defeats with Héctor Bermúdez, a reliever who has allowed two runs in 2.1 innings spread over three appearances and who will now assume the responsibility of starting a game under maximum pressure.

With Matanzas still at the top, but pursued by a pack of contenders who have already shown their fangs, the Elite League enters today, a day where every pitch seems capable of altering the balance of a season that has barely begun and already breathes drama. (Author Boris Luis Cabrera)