Sunday, December 23, 2007

Tigres back in win column, and in playoffs

Tigers
Photo courtesy of los Tigres de Aragua


La Guaira 4 at Aragua 6

W: H. Bonilla (1-1, 2.54); L: N. Acosta (0-1, 3.12); SV: F. Butto (15)
HR: ARA: M. Aviles (6).

Los Tigres de Aragua bounced back in front of a home town crowd Saturday, taking a 6-4 win over the visiting Tiburones de La Guaira.

Aragua opened the scoring in the bottom of the first. with one out, Ronny Cedeno (Chicago Cubs) was hit by a pitch. A throwing error by Nibaldo Acosta (Arizona) on the pick off attempt saw Cedeno to 2nd. Miguel Cabrera (Detroit) hit for a single, but moved to 2nd on the throw, which also scored Cedeno. Hector Gimenez (Houston) drew a talk before Mike Aviles (Kansas City) doubled to bring in Cabrera.

Los Tiburones took one back in the top of the 2nd with Jorge Velandia (Pittsburgh)and Edward Bellorin (Colorado) hitting back-to-back singles off starter Henry Bonilla (LA Angels). Following a line out by Liu Rodriguez (F/A), Gregor Blanco (Atlanta) hit a sac fly to bring in Velandia.

The Tigres added an insurance run in the bottom of the 3rd, with Aviles going yard over the center field wall.

Bonilla would work six innings for the Tigres, allowing the one run on six hits and three walks while striking out 3.

The Cats would add two more runs to their total in the fifth. Following a ground out by Cedeno, Cabrera singled and moved to 2nd on a while pitch. Gimenez then doubled him in, and a second double by Aviles pushed Gimenez over the plate. Kendy Batista (Texas) would come in to replace Acosta at that point for La Guaira, getting a pair of former Miracle, Alex Romero (Arizona) and Luis Maza (LA Dodgers), to ground out to end the inning.

Jose Guanchez (F/A) replaced Bonilla on the mound at the top of the 7th and promptly allowed a double to Blanco. Denny Sandoval (Philadelphia) and Alex Sanchez (Chicago White Sox) hit back-to-back singles with scored Blanco. Following a pitching change that saw Minnesota's Oswaldo Sosa take over the mound, Oscar Salazar (Baltimore) then doubled to bring the runners. Sosa would get the next three batters out however, ending the Sharks rally.

The Tigres found their final run of the evening in the bottom of the inning, when Cedeno singled then stoled 2nd base. Cabrera's single plated him, to make it 6-4 Aragua.

Cabrera, who played 3rd base, finished up the game 3-for-4 at the plate with 2 runs and 2 RBIs. Luis Rodriguez (San Diego) was 0-for-5 in the lead off position. Romero and Maza were both 0-for-4.

Sosa worked 1 inning allowing 1 hit and strike out 2.

The win puts the Tigres four game behind Caribes de Anzoategui with four games left to play. The two teams rematch on Sunday at 4:00 PM AST before the league takes a 3-day holiday break.

The win on Saturday combined with a twin bill sweep of los Aguiles de Zulia by los Cardenales de Lara puts the Tigres into the round-robin style playoffs for their sixth consecutive season.

Boxscore
Log
Tigres de Aragua

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