Puerto Rico greets Michael Hernandez after his HR

Day 3 began with the matchup of Mexico against Puerto Rico. Mexico was looking to keep pace with the Dominican Republic and win their second game and Puerto Rico was looking to avoid going 0-3. Puerto Rico sent 37-year old veteran Bill Pulsipher to the mound. Pulsipher relies on excellent location and changing speeds and those types of pitchers had succeeded so far in the Caribbean Series. Mexico sent minor league veteran Travis Blackley to the mound, who just signed with the NY Mets. The Aussie rarely throws two fastballs in a row and relies mainly on breaking pitches. However the breaking pitches were not working for Blackley early on.

The game began with a misplay in left field by Luis Cruz (he ran in and the ball was over his head) on a ball hit by Jesus Feliciano (Mets). After a hit by Luis Figueroa, leftfielder Miguel Abreu (Orioles) delivered an RBI double. First baseman Randy Ruiz (Blue Jays) followed with a two-run single. Blackley gave up five consecutive hits to start the game and was losing 3-0 before finally getting an out. It took 36 pitches for him to get through the first inning. The second inning started out the same for Blackley, but after allowing two straight hits, he found a groove and struck out Abreu and Ruiz to end the second inning. A 1-2-3 third inning followed for Blackley as he needed just 42 pitches to get through the 2-4 innings while he struck out four. Blackley’s troubles began again in the fifth as he allowed two straight hits, which ended his afternoon. Francisco Campos came on in relief and struck out both Ruiz and Edgardo Baez to end the threat.

Pulsipher on the other hand, was cruising along until the fourth inning when his defense failed him. With second and third and nobody out, Mexico’s Ruben Rivera hit a ground ball to short that was bobbled by Angel Sanchez. His throw to first appeared to be in time but Rivera was ruled safe and a run scored. After Pulsipher induced a double-play groundout, second baseman Figueroa committed an error on an inning-ending ground ball and another run scored. All-in-all, Puerto Rico committed three errors in the fourth to let Mexico cut the lead to 3-2. However in the sixth, DH Michael Hernandez ripped a two-run homerun off Campos in the sixth to give Puerto Rico a 5-2 lead. Despite giving up a run in the ninth, veteran Saul Rivera (Indians) completed the save after Pete Parise (Cardinals) dominated in his three innings of relief (allowing just 1 hit while striking out 4).

Venezuela fans

The night game pitted two heated rivals: the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. It was a battle of the young Venezuelan Atlanta Braves prospect (Jose Ortegano) against the veteran Dominican (Nerio Rodriguez). Ortegano was stellar as he carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning and he threw just 46 pitches through four innings. Rodriguez had his struggles as he threw a lot of pitches, but he only allowed third baseman Oscar Salazar’s two-run blast in the third inning.

In the sixth inning, Ortegano began to run out of gas. After a leadoff walk to Pablo Ozuna, centerfielder Freddy Guzman collected the Dominican’s first hit. Shortstop Ramon Santiago (Tigers) followed with an RBI single. That would be all for Ortegano and in came Edgar Estanga (Blue Jays), who with the bases-loaded got Fernando Martinez (Mets) to pop up and end the inning. This was the second time that the Dominican Republic had the bases-loaded and did not score. In the seventh inning, the Dominicans scored against reliever Darwin Cubillan to tie the game. With new reliever Edgar Alfonzo in, Guzman stole home with the go-ahead run. The pro-Venezuela crowd was in disbelief.

The Dominican Republic had another bases-loaded opportunity in the eighth, but Victor Mendez grounded into an inning-ending double play. Down by just one run in the ninth, the crowd got loud to get behind their Venezuelan’s, but Dominican closer Dario Veras set them down in order to earn the save.

The win improved the Dominicans record to 3-0 and dropped Venezuela to 1-2 and into a three-way tie with Mexico and Puerto Rico. With just three games left, the Caribbean Series appears to be again going to the Dominican Republic. Today Puerto Rico will go against the Dominican Republic in the afternoon and Mexico will face-off with Venezuela in the night game; both are rematches of Day 1.