Zero hits zero runs number 56 in national series: Erluis made Blanco in Cienfuegos

In his cultured and captivating work When baseball looks like movies, Norberto Codina, among the magical passages that he tells us about this sport, reminds us of some phrases that made an era in the sport of balls and strikes. One of them was that of the player Damaso Blanco, who made his debut in May 1972 with the San Francisco Giants. He said that “Baseball is a score that everyone executes as he can.”

This Sunday Erluis Blanco took the baton of school director and gave a symphony of pitching that charmed the Cienfuegos bats. After 11 national series, in which he had 22 wins and 16 losses and almost as many strikeouts as walks (242 for 227), he has had his best performance, as he was able to execute one of the most complex baseball compositions: throw zero hits, zero runs .

Which was against Cienfuegos, last place in the standings; that he did it in five chapters because his team, the Alazanes de Granma, gave another concert, but percussion, with the strength of their members, could only pave the way for him, because no one can take away the merit. Completing a challenge like this is always a feat, whatever the circumstances or the opponent.

That was the 56th zero jit zero runs in the Cuban classics and as the ball always keeps its rewards, this came from the same team that had received a match of this type last, because Granma was defeated that way on November 4 of 2020, in the 60th National Series, in a match that was not nine episodes either, since it was the second of a double program, so it was agreed to seven innings.

And Blanco’s did not end in a perfect game, even if it was five innings, because with two outs to go, he walked José Manuel Borroto, the only man who reached the base in the match.

The 15 annotations of the current champions found the complicity of 14 hits with six walks plus two hits by pitchers from Cienfuegos.

With this, its third consecutive victory, Granma reaches 25 wins and is only two games behind the top that Mayabeque and Sancti Spíritus continue to share, after both achieved their fourth consecutive wins. The Hurricanes lost at the height of the seventh by 5-4 against the Guantanamo, but four hits and a base allowed them to make the two decisive ones, driven by a single by catcher Luis Fernández with congested angles. Marlon Vega, from the mound, reached six wins, with a long relief of three and a third, with a hit, a strikeout and a transfer.

The Gallos were worse on the scoreboard, with a 0-4 disadvantage, in the same seventh scene. Until that moment, in six complete Geonel Gutiérrez had not tolerated runs and the offensive balance of the Sancti Spiritus was reduced to two hits. However, Alejandro Escobar opened that act with a home run, decreeing the starter’s departure, and from then on, two walks, a pitch and three other hits, including a double by Moisés Esquerré with the bases loaded, completed a decisive group of six.

The Tigers continue to lie in wait after defeating the Pinar del Rio team in Captain San Luis’s Sunday match, backed by the offensive contribution of the always useful Rubén Valdés (5-3, and two RBIs and another effective pitching work by Luis Marrero, who in six and a third, gave up six hits, with three strikeouts and three walks.

The embrace between Avispas and Alazanes is maintained, as Santiago de Cuba defeated Matanzas again, again by one race. The indomitable also came from below to erase an unfavorable 2-4, with five annotations, in which the same number of cannon shots intervened, including Marcos Fonseca’s home run, with two on board.

The strategy of the Matanzas high command was to relieve Yoanni Yera (six innings, with one clean allowed, eight strikeouts and one walk) to another of his main starters, Yamichel Pérez, left-handed just like the previous one, however, he could only get four out. For Yera, the eight retired by way of strikes confirm him as the most striking out of the season, now with 63.

This situation was taken advantage of by Industriales, a team that, with its second success against Camagüey, is back in the qualifying zone and only half a game behind the Yumurinos. The Leones once again had a solid start from Pedro Álvarez, who equaled Hermes González, from Cienfuegos, as the most winning pitchers of the campaign, both with seven wins. Álvarez pitched eight completes, with five walkouts and gave up six hits, three of them off Leslie Anderson’s bat.

Camagüey is well committed, because now it is behind Holguín, a cast that continues to play a beautiful and very brave ball, which has made it possible for it to swim against the current and now it is only a game and a half away from the classification coast. The Cubs defeated Villa Clara again, in what was their third consecutive smile and the eighth in the last ten appearances on the field. Yordan Manduley linked two rockets, including a tubey, one driven and another recorded, a performance that allowed him to reach an average of 400 and place himself just four points behind the batting leader, Rafael Fonseca from Mayabeque (404).

In that duel the beast that roared the most was Yasiel Santoya, with a record of 4-3, including two doubles and two runs scored.

New subseries will begin this Tuesday, and one of them, the Latin American one, is a classic: Industriales receives Santiago de Cuba.

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