Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Havana, September 15 – The 64th National Baseball Series is enjoying a break today after its first 10 games, two subseries that left certainties, doubts, and a panorama still in the making for the 16 teams in the tournament.
The Matanzas Crocodiles' dominance sets the tone: nine wins, just one loss, and eight consecutive wins to top the table. Their balance on all three fronts of the game—.320 offensive, 3.68 ERA, and .980 defensive—makes them the strongest team in this start.
The Santiago de Cuba Wasps display the most feared cannon with a .366 average, no less than 20 home runs, and 121 runs in just 10 games, including six knockouts, half of them delivered to the Pinar del Río pitchers. That arsenal, coupled with improved defense (.979), has allowed them to disguise a fragile pitching system that allows 6.69 earned runs per nine innings.
Among the positive highlights, Artemisa also stands out, with only six games played but five wins and a dominant pitching system that allows just one earned run per game.
Industriales leads in strikeouts (76), Holguín in control (3.25 walks per nine innings), and Sancti Spíritus, along with Holguín and Matanzas, shine defensively above .980.
The collective balance reflects an offensive baseball: a global average of .294 and a pitching that allows 5.48 earned runs per nine innings, while the defensive average (.970) is acceptable.
But not everything is bright. Mayabeque is silently struggling with the bat (.217), La Isla's pitching is floundering with more than 11 earned runs and eight walks per game, and Pinar del Río is disappointing with a 9.64 ERA and almost seven walks per outing. Villa Clara's defense (.946 and 18 errors) leads the way, followed by La Isla and Guantánamo.
These technical shortcomings are compounded by discipline issues, early ejections, the use of inappropriate players by some managers, mental errors invisible in the statistics, and ineffective decisions from the benches. These aspects are weighing down the tournament's image at its start.
In the individual stand out the Camagüey’s native Eglis Eugellés, intratable with . 692 as an offensive average, and the home runners William Saavedra (Pinar del Río) and Yoelquis Gibert (Santiago), the latter also leading in runs (20).
From the mound, Fernando Betanzo (Sancti Spíritus) and Osvaldo Acuña (Santiago) have three wins, Michel Cabrera (Holguín) has the same number of saves, José Ramón Rodríguez (Camagüey) leads with 15 strikeouts, and Yunieski García (Artemisa) has not allowed a run in 13 innings.
The standings, after two subseries, are summarized with Matanzas (9-1) in the lead, followed by Artemisa (5-1), Las Tunas, Holguín, and Santiago (8-2), Sancti Spíritus (7-3), and Industriales and Camagüey (6-4) closing the qualifying zone.
Tomorrow marks the beginning of a new chapter in the championship, with new sub-series that will test the consistency of the leaders and the ability to react of those who started behind. (Text and photo: PL)
