The Mexican ninth, commanded by Benjamín Gil, closed its preparation for the Olympic Games with a victory at the Alfredo Harp Helú Stadium
MEXICO — A hit by Jasson Atondo in the ninth inning gave the Mexican baseball team a 4-3 victory over Venezuela on Sunday in their last preparation game before traveling to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Mexico limited the Venezuelans to four hits, who as of Tuesday will begin the search for the last ticket to the baseball tournament of Tokyo in the final qualifier to be held in Puebla, a city in the center of Mexico, a contest in which the Dominican Republic and the Netherlands also participate.
The winning pitcher was the closer Fernando Salas, who withdrew the ninth inning without damage, while the loser was Luis Martínez, who accepted all four Mexican runs in three innings and two-thirds of work.
Venezuela opened the scoring in the fourth inning, when the Mexican manager Benjamin Gil he replaced starter Juan Pablo Oramas, who hung three zeros on the board, to put Ryan Verdugo in.
Verdugo was greeted by a double to right field by Diego Rincones, who advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Engelb Vielma and reached the plate on a Dennis Ortega sacrifice fly that made it 1-0.
In the sixth inning, the Venezuelan offense continued the attack on Verdugo, who started the inning with a single to the right field by Hernán Alvarado and after that came Gorkys Hernández with a home run to central that made it 3-0 on the scoreboard.
Mexico got close to tying in the seventh inning, when he finally had a timely hitting. Luis Martínez started the episode with a passport to Orlando Piña, who reached second base on a single by Alexis Wilson.
Martinez immediately threw a wild pitch that advanced Piña to third and Wilson to second, after which the pitcher again made a mistake by throwing the ball away from the receiver to send Piña to the plate at 3-1.
Leonardo Germán singled to left field to make it 3-2.
Adrián González followed in the eighth inning with the punishment of Luis Martínez by firing a solo homer to right field to tie the game 3-3.
In the ninth, Martínez, with two outs, accepted a double to Germán’s right field and an unstoppable shot from Carlos Figueroa, which took him out of the game to be relieved by Harold Chirinos, who received the “infield hit” from Jasson. Atondo who defined the game 4-3.
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