Caracas.- The Tigres de Aragua had another good start from pitcher Guillermo Moscoso to defeat 7 runs for 1 to the Tiburones de La Guaira, this Friday in the duel played at the José Pérez Colmenares Stadium in Maracay for the 2024-2025 season of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League.
The victory was the 13th for the Aragua state team in the current LVBP campaign and ties them in third place in the classification with Magallanes. On the other hand, La Guaira extended its bad moment and lost for the fourth consecutive game. In addition, the team led by Oswaldo Guillén has a 2-9 record in the 11 duels it has played since November 1.
MOSCOSO GAVE A CLASS ON THE MOUND
Moscoso, who turned 41 years old on Thursday, November 14, recorded a dominant outing for the second consecutive week, mixing all his pitches and taking out Guairista hitters with his breaking pitches. He worked five scoreless innings, retiring eight of the last nine batters he faced, out of a total of 17 enemies, only two above the minimum.
“We showed that pitching is the key to this game. All teams have offense with their great hitters, and today we won by pitching. The shifting and cornering were working pretty well, falling into the corners. The hits they hit me were soft,” summarized the ace of the striped team in the post-match interview with the members of the broadcast. 1 Baseball Network.
The Tigrero starter only got on base by Daniel Montaño by walk (as the first batter of the duel), and Wilson García and Yangervis Solarte by singles.
“I came out a little pressured in the first inning, but later I tried to stay behind all the pitches and it went much better,” he explained about the walk to Montaño and the way he adjusted.
“At 41 years old it is not easy, you have to keep working on your physical resistance. That has a lot to do with my age and well experience. The command of the pitches, the change, the curve, the straight in the corners,” added the veteran right-hander, who made 78 pitches, 49 in strikes.
THE TIGERS TOOK ADVANTAGE OF THE GAPS
The home team took advantage of the shortcomings of the Sharks’ starting pitcher, Elvis Araujo, to quickly take advantage. In the first inning, Lorenzo Cedrola hit his first triple of the season and from third base he scored the run of the pool, driven in by a ground ball to Eduardo Escobar’s shortstop.
The harassment of the Aragüeño batters continued and in the second episode they appealed to power to score two more runs. Jesús Aguilar, making his team’s home debut in the LVBP this year, walked. One out later, the slugger scored on rookie JJ D’Orazio’s two-run homer.
A total of three more runs were made by the Bengalis in the third inning to exploit Araujo and take a 6-0 lead. Straight singles by Keyber Rodríguez, Escobar and José “Cafecito” Martínez generated the first of the stretch at the feet of the Aragua shortstop . Next, hits by Yonathan Mendoza and Leobaldo Cabrera produced two more scores.
Rookie catcher JJ D’Orazio turned his first hit in the LVBP into a home run
YANGERVIS SOLARTE BROKE THE BLEACHING
While their Friday night hosts hit hard on offense, the Tiburones sluggers were silenced by Tigres starter Guillermo Moscoso for the first five innings.
The dominance continued when manager Buddy Bailey pulled the veteran right-hander to bring on reliever Jorgan Cavanerio. The right-hander of the cats started the sixth inning quickly and in the seventh he allowed the sharks’ first run in the duel.
Yangervis Solarte with his fifth home run of the harvest was the author of that solitary Guairista career. The veteran utility man who reappeared in the LVBP with the La Guaira uniform was the only one who stood out in the lineup by hitting three of his team’s five hits.
In the lower part of that seventh stretch, the Tigers put definitive numbers to the duel with the sixth homer of the year for José “Cafecito” Martínez.
FROM THE GROUND
Odubel Herrera He left the game at the beginning of the second inning and was replaced by Jonathan Mendoza. According to the Tigres de Aragua, the outfielder felt muscle discomfort in his left calf, which led to him being retired as a precaution… The rookie catcher of the Maracayeros felines, JJ D’Orazio, hit his first hit in the Venezuelan league and The connection was a two-run homer against the Sharks starter, Elvis Araujo…By the way, the young D’Orazio received him for the second week in a row Guillermo Moscosowho praised the work with the mask that debuted last season. “We work very well and we have good chemistry,” commented the pitcher after the meeting… José “Cafecito” Martínez He singled in the bottom of the third inning to reach a string of 13 hits in the 2024-25 LVBP campaign. If the duels of the regular round of 2023-2024 are counted, then the Aragua slugger’s streak increases to 16 because he gave consecutive hits in his team’s last three games, on December 23 and 27 (double game). This was the first game that the Tigres were able to play in the week after the suspensions due to rain, Tuesday and Wednesday, in Maracaibo. On Thursday they had a day off.
IN NUMBERS
In his eighth season with the Tigers, the starter Guillermo Moscoso He put in five innings of work to reach 288.2 career innings with those colors. In addition, he struck out two to add 176 shots fired. This was his second straight start in which he reached the fifth inning without allowing a run and he kept his ERA at 0.00 after 13.2 innings pitched. It must be remembered that the right-hander debuted in the fourth week of the campaign because he served a 12-game ban for violating the LVBP Anti-Doping Program… Meanwhile, the Sharks’ pitching remains in the doldrums and in the four games played so far During the week the opponents scored 33 runs against him. Your opener Elvis Araujo He recorded his fourth consecutive bad start between October 29 and November 15. In that period, he never went beyond the fourth inning, allowing 19 runs in 8.2 innings (19.74 ERA). Playing time was 2 hours and 41 minutes.
