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Cuba... Yes, we can do it!
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Yadel Martí, a colossus
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Cepeda and Pestano set it to music
BY SIGFREDO BARROS—Granma daily special
correspondent—
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico—Cuba has
demonstrated that it can go head-to-head with a team
of Major League players by beating Venezuela’s
super-strong selection, taking that victory in the
opening of the second round of the first World
Baseball Classic.
It was logical that many experts
saw the South American team as the favorite in this
game, with a conglomeration of stars in its line-up,
the presence of a left-hander like Johan Santana on
the mound, and the hefty score racked up by Puerto
Rico against the Cubans in the game on Friday.
But, just as manager Higinio
Vélez said before the game – what happened against
the Puerto Ricans could happen to any team, the
slate is clean – the Cuban team went out onto the
field without any complexes and with their
characteristic fighting spirit, and fought for every
out, inning by inning, until they achieved a victory
that could be called historical.
From Saturday night, the coaching
team’s decision was to give the ball over to Yadel
Martí, a very resourceful pitcher, whose strategy
was to work with borderline throws and to be extra
careful with homerun-hitters like Bobby Abréu,
Miguel Cabrera and Víctor Martínez, none of whom had
a hit for the entire game.
Santana – considered to be the
American League’s best left-hander, with 238
strikeouts last season – has a 96-mph fastball, an
88-mph slider, and a deadly 81-mph change-up. But
two of the Cuban team’s rookies, Yoandy Garlobo and
Ariel Borrero, were not impressed, and brought in
the runs that marked his second defeat in the
competition, first with a line drive along right
field, and the second with a hit to left field.
Yadel pitched masterfully, to the
extreme of allowing no hits for four innings,
leaving three men with their bats in the air (he
struck out No. 4 batter Miguel Cabrera twice), and
allowing three walks, not because of lack of
control, but to prevent any big hits.
With the fifth inning, the
Venezuelans hit two consecutive singles – by Magglio
Ordóñez y Ramón Hernández, the second with the
right-hander’s 71st throw, 42 of them through the
strike zone. Higinio then appealed to Lazo, who made
the situation even more complicated by not being
able to get an out on any base with Edgardo
Alfonso’s bunt.
But the giant from Pinar del Río
is made for tricky situations. He worked his arm to
the limit to take care of business, landing the
first two outs with fly balls to Cepeda’s glove, and
the last one by paralyzing Carlos Guillén with a
97-mph fastball.
That raised the team’s spirits
even more. And with Santana’s replacement (67
throws), relief pitcher Giovanni Carrara – one of
the best in his league – entered the game. But he
will remember that inning for all of his life, given
that a little bit of everything happened: from a
ground ball that escaped the hands of Golden Glover
Omar Vizquel and went into his shirt; to a homer by
Frederich Cepeda that went zooming through right
field, and surely had all of Cuba on the edge of
their seats.
Not much more would have been
needed. But the Cubans went out onto Hiram Bithorn’s
field yesterday ready to wipe out the image of their
game against Puerto Rico. And, so as not to leave
any doubt, Pestano came out of his slump with his
second hit of the afternoon, a slammer similar to
that by the outfielder from Sancti Spíritus; later
on, in the eighth, Paret, Michel and Urrutia hit
singles that racked up an unnecessary coup de grace.
Lazo took care of the rest,
taking out seven of the last eight batters he faced,
and permitting a homerun by No. 9 batter Endy Chávez.
It’s a victory that opens the
possibility of classifying in this difficult group,
a veritable “Caribbean Series,” as all of the Latin
American journalists here are saying. |
