Cardenales tie up series again

Photo courtesy of los Tigres de Aragua

Lara 5 at Aragua 3

W: R. Dorman (4-0, 1.65); L: H. Estrada (0-2, 5.40)
HR: LAR: L. Ugueto (1). ARA: H. Gimenez (3).

Los Cardenals de Lara tied up the series for a second time, taking a 5-3 win over los Tigres de Aragua at Jose Perez Colmenarez Stadium. It's the first time in Venezulan Winter League playoff history that Lara has won a game on Aragua's home turf.

Horacios Estrada (F/A) would suffer the loss for the Cats, giving up 3 runs on 4 hits and 1 walk over 5 innings worth of work.

Lara took the lead in the top of the 4th inning. Marco Scutaro (Toronto) walked with one out, then moved to second on a Jose Lopez (Seattle) single. Robert Perez (F/A) plated Scutaro with a fly ball to center, and Lopez scored on a similar hit by Selwyn Langaigne (F/A).

The Red Birds padded their lead in the top of the 5th when former Miracle Luis Ugueto went yard over the left field wall.

The Tigres took one back in the bottom of the inning, with Luis Maza (LA Dodgers) drawing a walk with two outs, then moving to 3rd on a Ronny Cedeno (Chicago Cubs) single. Raul Chevez (Pittsburgh) plated Maza with a fly ball to left.

Lara added one in the top of the 8th, with Lopez singling, then moving to second on a wild pitch by Jason Karnuth (Detroit) and to 3rd on a single by Perez. Following a fly out to Langaigne, Guillermo Rodriguez (San Francisco) ground out at first, but it was enough for Lopez to cross the plate.

Wilki Gonzalez (Chicgo White Sox) would reach first on a wild pitch by Karnuth, and Cesar Izturis (St Louis) would single to move him to 3rd. Izturis then stole 2nd base. Ugueto would be walked to load the bases, before Scutaro ground into a force out that allowed Gonzalez to score. A fly out and a pop out ended los Cardenales threat, but they already had a 5-1 lead.

The Tigers would attempt a rally in the bottom of the ninth, when Miguel Cabrera (Detroit) singled his way onto base. He'd be replaced by Ramon Castro (F/A) as a pinch runner, but the change in legs was meaningless as Hector Gimenez (Tampa Bay) homered over the center field wall. The Cats could not find two more runs in their bag of tricks however, so the contest when to the Cardenales.

Ugueto was 1-for-3 in the contest with 2 walks, a run and an RBI. Juan Rincon (Minnesota) pitched one inning of relief for Lara, allowing 1 hit and striking out 1.

Cabrera was 1-for-4 in the designed hitter role, Luis Rodriguez (San Diego) was 0-for-4, Alex Romero (Arizona) as 0-for-2 and Maza as 0-for-3 with a walk and a run.

The teams play one more in Maracay before returning to Lara for the remainder of the series.

Boxscore
Log
Tigres de Aragua