Cleveland Sports Forum

I'm assuming Tony did not see the ballgame. It's pretty tough to limit the damage when you give the opposition a six out inning. If it weren't for the six outs in the third, I'm pretty sure he would have cruised through four innings of scoreless baseball.

WINTER BASEBALL

Carmona throws four innings in debut with AC

He becomes a factor in the success of the Eagles 6-1 Against Licey

Santo Domingo

In a showdown among pitchers with major league status, Fausto Carmona took the lion's share of Ubaldo Jimenez. Carmona pitched 4.0 innings in his debut to become a factor in the Eagles beating the Tigers by the score of 6-1 against Licey, in a match held at the Quisqueya Stadium.

During his time pitching, the lanky right hander allowed three hits, just one run and struck out two. The only round they scored was in the third inning.

Meanwhile, Carmona solidly acted during his four innings, Jimenez was unfortunate laboring 2.1, allowed three hits, the same number of runs, walked two and gave striking out four.

AGUILAS CIBAENAS .-

The rumor last night at Quisqueya Stadium was that Miguel Tejada would be entering action between the 27th and 29th which coincides with the start of the round robin tournament.

ESTRELLAS

Among the most luminous of the Estrellas team is Felix Pie, who with 21 RBIs and has scored as many joing the 20-20 club. Until last night's game had logged 44 hits, marking the first time that he exceeded 40 in his seven years in the league ...

CARACAS .-


The Caracas Lions are going through their best moment of the first season winning five games in a row thanks to the awakening of the lion's offensive. Since Sunday Caracas has been able to reverse an adverse situation and the inspiration of bats like Guzman, Aguilar, Cabrera and Vogt have been the spark for the lions and are back in the race for the last playoff spot.

If this is Jiminez' career line in the Dominican:

a lifetime record in the Dominican League of 1-2, with an average ERA of 6.1

I really don't care what stats he posts this winter either.

Magellan does not throw the towel with Ezequiel Carrera

He won permission from Cleveland, but the management will try to extend it

by Carlos Alberto Zambrano

MARACAIBO .-

The Magallanes Navigators will not throw in the towel with the loss of outfielder Ezequiel Carrera. Carrera initially received the permission of the Cleveland Indians to play however he has been asked to stop his activities with the Navigator. A report learned that management will attempt to extend the permission for Carrera to continue playing. In fact, although he remains inactive, Carrera traveled with his companions to Maracaibo, where Magallanes disputed a series of two meetings. Carrera has a swollen fingers on his right hand after hitting last week. This year Carrera is averaging .270 in 152 at-bats, .349 OBP and .408 in slugging. He has two homers, three doubles, six triples, 14 RBIs, 23 runs scored and 12 stolen bases.

With the recent swing in the standings, The Leones are no longer challenging their arch-rival Magallanes Navigators for the fifth and final playoff spot, they are looking up at the Anzoantegui Caribes. Under the guidance of Julio Franco, the Caribes won the league championship last year. They had a decent lead in the standings this year and looked like they would defend their championship but a series of recent losses have changed things and now Julio Franco is taking a lot of criticism. Now, the Caracas Leones only trail the Caribes by 1 1/2 games and will be playing the Caribes this evening riding a five game winning streak that has brought them back into serious contention for that last playoff spot.

Julio Franco Fired

Julio Franco: "My players were unhappy"

Julio Franco was the Caribbean champion last year

Carlos E. Ramirez

21/12/11 - 04:42 pm

PUERTO LA CRUZ / CARACAS .-

Surprisingly Julio Franco ended up being laid off. Franco is the fourth manager to lose his job this season. Discrepancies in policies between the Caribs of Anzoategui and Franco was the apparent reason for the decision. "Perhaps we should have done this long before," said team manager, Samuel Moscatel. The decision came amid a crucial Caribes loss to the Lions this series. Julio Franco: "My players were unhappy? We were like a family, "he said. Given the assumption that there was discontent in the dugout, the coach expressed his surprise: "I did not know why management says the players were not happy because they were ... What I do know is I will continue my goal: to be manager in baseball , "he said.

WoW! I'll have to admit that I never saw that one coming.

PRESS

The Board of the Caribes of Anzoategui BBC this afternoon decided to lay off from office the manager Julio Franco due to poor performance of the club during the December period in which they recorded 11 wins 5 losses leaving the Caribes fifth in the standings. Likewise, Ariel Prieto appointed as interim manager for the rest of the campaign. Prieto held the position of bench coach and has spent four seasons working with the Eastern currency.

[Hmmmm! 11-5 record in December. Tough Crowd!]

The Caribes bounced back with a five spot in the home half of the first to take a 5-4 lead but the Leones added a pair of runs in the top half of the second to retake the lead at 6-5. Asdrubal Cabrera walked in the first and rode home on Vogt's slam and then followed the walk up with an rbi basehit in the top of the second.

One heckuva ballgame tonight. The Leones picked up a single run in the fifth and another in the seventh to take an 8-5 lead while holding the Caribes scoreless over the next seven innings. In the bottom of the ninth, trailing by three, a pair of back to back leadoff doubles cut the lead to 8-6. A base on balls placed runners of first and second with no outs. A sacrfice bunt advanced both runners. A ground ball out to second plated the second run of the inning cutting the lead to 8-7. The runner on second advanced to third on the play but with two out now. The game ended on a foul pop to first. Leones hung on to win 8-7 and cut the lead for fifth place to 1/2 game. Big difference between being 1/2 game behind for the last playoff spot or 2 1/2 games behind. Huge win for Leones, their sixth in a row and still clawing and scratching. That was a great job by the second Caracas relief pitcher getting the last three outs of the inning after the first three batters reach base safely.

Last week I wouldn't have given Caracas a prayer of making the playoffs. I'd say that six game winning streak was just what the doctors ordered.

Zulia becomes the second Venezuelan team to qualify for the playoffs. Only three more openings available.