The Alazanes team Granmawhich represents Cuba in the Haarlem Baseball Week, in the Netherlands, suffered its third loss in a row in the tournament on Monday, when it fell to the United States team.
The people from Granma, who traveled with various reinforcements on his payrollfell to the North Americans with a score of 2×0 in a match in which they could not hit with runners in scoring position, while their rivals took full advantage of the only slip by right-hander José Ramón Rodríguez.
The Americans barely connected two hits to the Camagüeyan, both in the third inning, but these hits served to propel two men who had entered circulation by bases by ball towards the plate and were, in the end, decisive, according to the review of the website Cubadebate.
The rest of the game, of only seven innings, Rodríguez walked it without setbacks, at a rate of six strikeouts and no other runs allowed, but his teammates could not help him from the batter’s box.
? Positive work by José Ramón Rodríguez who only allowed 2 hits and gave 6 K to the batch ??
The ? forced to win tomorrow against ?? to continue dreaming of reaching the second stage of the tournament.
?? Daniel Combi#LiveThePassion #HonkBalWeek pic.twitter.com/AkOAE7SIDN
– Tele Rebelde (@tele_rebelde) July 11, 2022
The Alazanes gave only four hits and took 11 strikeouts, seven of them with runners on base, refers to the official report. The greatest Cuban threat occurred in the fourth inning, when they loaded the bases, but were unable to score against pitches from starter Tanner Hall, who closed the inning by striking out Carlos Benítez and Iván Prieto.
Then, in the sixth inning, it was reliever Teddy McGraw who, with fastballs over 96 miles per hour, left three Granmenses unable to connect while two others waited in scoring position.
Finally, those from Cuba were whitewashed by pitchers from the North and now sleep at the bottom of the standings with three setbacks in three outings. They had previously lost to the Dutch hosts (5×1) and to Japan on Sunday (4×3), a game in which their victimizers came from behind to leave them wanting.
Now, the Alazanes are forced to beat Curaçao and Italy —both with a record of one win and two losses— in the closing stage of the elimination phase and wait for other results that guarantee a place in the semifinals. Failure to do so would undoubtedly be a disastrous result for the Cuban national champion.
