THE MONARCH exponent Las Tunas defeated Santiago de Cuba on Thursday and climbed to the top of the 63rd National Baseball Series, with a better average than Pinar del Río.
In their Julio Antonio Mella stadium, the Leñadores won 5×3 in the first hour, with Denis Peña’s home run against the fast closer Reynaldo Álvarez, to tow three runs and leave the Avispas lying on the field. Sixth win for reliever Alberto Pablo Civil.
In the second hour they came out on top 6×5. They were losing 3×5 in the fifth act, but with three hits and two tickets they scored three times. Yunieski Larduet towed two.
Now the Leñadores, who got their sixth successive smile, have a .676 average (23-11), and although they have five games suspended, they are half a game ahead of Pinar del Río (.667, 26-13), which lost 3×6 to Isla de la Juventud. Sixth save for young Yadier Garay, in the marathon nine-game day.
Visiting the Capitán San Luis stadium, the Pineros got good pitching from Roberto Rodríguez, who threw six innings of four hits and three strikeouts to earn his fourth victory. Garay closed the duel. In a losing cause, Pinar del Río’s Alexei Ramírez hit his tenth home run and became the third Cuban player to hit 100 or more homers in national and Major League Baseball series, in which he hit 115 balls out of bounds.
Previously, José Dariel Abreu (184-261) and Yoendris Céspedes (177-165) did it.
In other results, Camagüey won two games against Holguín, both by shutouts of 3×0 and 2×0. Mayabeque also blanked Cienfuegos 4×0, with the sixth hit by Albert Valladares, who threw 7.2 acts with four hits and six walks. He matched Civil. Laza, 3-2 with a home run and three runs, was the standout hitter for the Huracanes of Cienfuegos.
In other matches, Granma and Guantánamo split honours. In the first, the Alazanes left the Indios del Guaso on the field 4×3, who then took revenge 5×2. Ciego de Avila defeated Villa Clara 7×3.
In the evening, Industriales beat Artemisa 7×3 and Sancti Spíritus 9×7 against Matanzas, with Yanielkis Duardo’s eighth save.
