[jksander]

MAY 17, 1963 . . . Unbelievable! We were all ready agains to start the game this evening, and another round of heavy rain rolled through and they decided to postpone the game, and we’re tentatively scheduled to play two games tomorrow if the weather will permit.

MAY 18, 1963 . . . The weather appears to be cooperating for the first game of the afternoon, temps in the low 80s with a mix of sun and clouds and a decent breeze. Ludovic Peltier (5-5, 3.76 ERA, 91.0 IP, 49 K’s, 1.43 WHIP) had an extra day’s rest, so he’s ready to go against their ace Edwin Rodriguez (5-3, 1 SV, 4.34 ERA, 26 K’s, 1.66 WHIP) as Cienfuegos’ Cubanos come to town for three. And the hits in this one did not come easily. Logan Holmes picked up a double to start the bottom of the fifth, but we left him stranded and stayed scoreless, but Peltier did the same to them in the top of the sixth. Bottom of the inning, Flores was walked and Victor Diaz hit a double to put both in scoring position, With two outs and Flores and Diaz still in scoring position, Jose Colon walked the bases loaded, but yet again we couldn’t get a run to score and went into the seventh still knotted 0-0, and it stayed that way into the stretch. With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Jose Castro hit a double, but was tagged out trying to steal third. Peltier struck out the first two batters he faced in the top of the eighth, put a runner on first, and then got the out we needed as this game entered high blood pressure territory! We popped out three in a row in the bottom of the eighth, sending the game into the ninth still without a run scoring. They got their third-baseman on base with a double, but a groundout to first held him there, and their next batter struck out swinging. But with two outs, their second-baseman Rico Zarate got a shot into left and drove in a run to put them on the board. A shallow hit into right made it 2-0, giving us work to do in the bottom of the inning. With two outs, Jose Colon got a hit into center left, getting himself another double, and Logan Holmes thought he had a hit, but their left fielder made a spectacular diving catch to end this as a 2-0 loss.

Peltier gave us all he had, allowing eight hits, four walks and two earned runs with seven strikeouts in the complete game loss, dropping his record to 5-6 but improving his ERA to 3.60. They outhit us 8-6, getting them to drop when it counted. Colon had a hit and two walks, and leadoff man Jose Castro hit twice.

Not much time to lick wounds, we had to come back out for game two! Juan Ortiz (2-2, 1 SV, 6.81 ERA, 22 K’s, 2.03 WHIP) pitched against Jose Herrera (8-4, 4.79 ERA, 112.2 IP, 45 K’s, 1.57 WHIP). Amd for us, this game started out eerily like the last one as our scoreless innings streak continued to lengthen. With two outs in the bottom of the fifth Jonathan Gonzalez hit a double that gave us our first runner in scoring position all game, but Cantimori batted out to the centerfielder to complete our 14th scoreless inning in a row as the game remained a 0-0 tie heading into the sixth. Cienfuegos hit a home run off Ortiz for just their second hit of the damned game, giving them a 1-0 lead in the top of the seventh. We got two on base by walks in the bottom of the inning, but Gonzalez hit into a double play to keep us scoreless, and they added two runs in the top of the eighth to go up 3-0 on us. Can we even dream of a rally at this point? No. Bottom of the eighth, two runners in scoring position, and we ground out to first to end the inning. At just 119 pitches, Ortiz stayed in to take the hit, getting us out of the inning unblemished, so at least we didn’t get shellacked. Then we saw hints of light ... Colon picked up a single, and with one out Brisset pinch-hit for Ortiz, getting a hit into deep center, driving them both into scoring position! Gonzalez popped out to left, but Cantimori finally got one to slip past second base and into the outfield, scoring a pair off a single after 17 scoreless frames! But Victor Diaz was called out on first after a controversial call and an infield hit, ending this one as another disappointing 3-2 loss.

Ortiz fell to 2-3 with a 6.07 ERA, but he only allowed six hits, four walks and three earned runs, striking out eight batters through 142 pitches. We outhit the Cubanos 7-6 but continued to struggle to get hits in bunches, a disappointing result considering how that’s been our bread and butter all year, not having great pitching performances with few hits. Cantimori led the team with two hits and an RBI, while Colon got a hit, a walk and scored a run.

One of our up-and-coming young pitchers, a 16-year-old international discovery named Chris Shay from Bermuda, recently was named the #36 prospect in the Cuban Dominican Baseball Association. He’s incredibly young and inexperienced, but our scouts say he’s adaptable and hard working, so it will be interesting to see if he matures as he develops. Right now he’s working with our trainers in the up-and-coming international complex.
 
MAY 19, 1963 . . . We’ve handed Cienfuegos a 2.5 game lead in the division, though we remain tied with Santa Clara at 22-19 and could really use this head-to-head win as we reach the season’s midpoint. Juan Guzman (7-4, 4.27 ERA, 111.2 IP, 47 K’s, 1.58 WHIP) got the start, facing Izzy Ochoa (5-5, 5.75 ERA, 87.2 IP, 52 K’s, 1.76 WHIP). Cienfuegos wasted no time, hitting an RBI double to put them on the board, though Guzman pitched well and kept them from starting a rout. They added another in the top of the third, but we loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning with two outs, and Flores got a hit into right that scored two and tied it up! They hit a two-run homer in the top of the fourth to get the lead back, however, and we knew it was going to take coordinated hitting power to get through this one without a sweep. They hit Gonzalez with a pitch to load the bases for us, one out, in the bottom of the fourth. Cantimori hit a sac-fly to center right that scored a run, and Victor Santos hit a deep shot into the left corner, driving in three with a triple to send us into the top of the fifth with a 6-4 lead! The Cubanos picked up a run in the top of the sixth, but Victor Diaz knocked one in for us with a double in the bottom of the frame, and Santos did the same to make it a three run lead. Colon doubled to add another, and we went into the top of the seventh leading 9-5. Edward Aguirre came in to pitch with two men on and two outs in the top of the seventh, getting a quick out at first to end the inning still leading by four, a really good high leverage moment that kept the game from suddenly tightening up. We added a run in the bottom of the seventh, off a sac-fly by Santos, but they got two runs back in the top of the eighth on a triple, and an RBI single cut the lead to two with Juan Diaz warming up in the bullpen. Aguirre got us out of the inning at long last, but his night was over. Diaz came out and got us three quick outs in the top of the ninth, however, and that was all she wrote! We won this one in the end 10-8.

Guzman improved to 8-4 with an 11-hit, five walk, two strikeout, three run game, lasting 6.2 innings and dinging his ERA up slightly to 4.41. Aguirre came in and gave us 1.1 innings with five hits and three earned runs, getting our first hold of the season and blowing up his ERA again to 4.76. But Diaz came through in a clutch situation, pitching brilliantly in the ninth -- no hits and a strikeout -- to earn his first save, improving his ERA to 5.68 for the year, a game we really needed to win. They outhit us 16-11, so it was great to turn that around on them -- Victor Santos being our team’s sparkplug this evening with two hits, a walk and five RBIs. Logan Holmes is starting to come back down to earth, getting a hit, a walk and a run on the ground but his average has dropped to .436 through 30 games.

We’re now alone in second place with a 23-19 record at the season’s midpoint, trailing the 25-17 Cubanos by two games. We face Pinar del Rio’s Roosters on the road for the first time (see their field below) starting Tuesday, followed by a three-game set at Santa Clara (22-21).