Venezuelan League: Games of December 22

Eduardo Escobar goes deep.  La Guaira gets all the runs it needs in the first inning.  Scoring first does Aragua no good.

LA GUAIRA 4, ANZOATEGUI 3 IN LA GUAIRA

Twins:  Eduardo Escobar (Anzoategui) was 1-for-4 with a home run, his fourth.

Anzoategui:  Jose Castillo was 1-for-4 with a home run, his ninth.  Oscar Salazar was 2-for-4 with a double.  Carlos E. Rojas pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit and no walks.

La Guaira:  Alex Cabrera was 2-for-4 with a grand slam, his twenty-first homer.  Salvador Perez (Kansas City) was 2-for-4 with a run.  Henderson Alvarez pitched six innings, allowing one run on six hits and no walks with two strikeouts.

The game:  A walk, two singles, and Cabrera's grand slam gave La Guaira all the runs they would need before anyone was out in the first inning.  Anzoategui got one in the third on an Alexi Amarista (San Diego) RBI single, one in the seventh on the Escobar homer, and one in the ninth on Castillo's home run.  Anzoategui got the tying run on first with one out in the ninth.

ZULIA 7, ARAGUA 3 IN ZULIA

Twins:  Oswaldo Arcia (Aragua) was 1-for-4 with a double and an RBI.

Aragua:  Yangervis Solarte was 1-for-2 with a walk and a double, scoring once and driving in one.  Ronny Cedeno (San Diego) was 2-for-4 with two runs.  Alex Romero was 2-for-4 with an RBI.

Zulia:  Ernesto Mejia (Atlanta) was 2-for-3 with a walk and a home run (his twelfth), driving in two.  Jose Pirela (Yankees) was 1-for-3 with a walk and a two-run homer (his fifth), scoring twice.  Cesar Valdez struck out seven in seven innings, allowing two runs on four hits and one walk.

The game:  Aragua scored first on an RBI single by Romero in the first inning.  Zulia came back with two in the bottom of the first on a run-scoring single by Mejia and a wild pitch and never lost the lead.  Pirela hit a two-run homer in the fourth to make it 4-1 and Zulia added two more in the fifth to go ahead 6-1.  Aragua never got closer than four runs.

LARA 3, MAGALLANES 0 IN LARA

Magallanes:  Reegie Corona was 2-for-3 with a double.  Frank Diaz was 2-for-4 with a double.

Lara :  Mike Moustakas (Kansas City) was 1-for-3 with a double and a run.  Gabriel Lino (Philadelphia) was 2-for-2 with a walk and an RBI.  Roenis Elias (Seattle) struck out eight in six innings, allowing three hits and two walks.

The game:  An RBI groundout and a squeeze bunt scored two in the second for Lara.  Lino singled in a run in the fourth to make it 3-0.  Magallanes did not get a hit until the sixth.  Their biggest threat came in the seventh, when they put men on second and third with two out.