Ciego de Avila team seeks to consolidate leadership in Cuban baseball

The Tigres, from Ciego de Avila, will go out this Sunday on their home turf for a success that would have several individual and collective connotations for the team that leads the standings in the Cuban baseball season.

If they succeed against Matanzas, they would complete the sweep in the five-game sub-series against one of the best teams of the last decade and extend their winning streak to eight games.

Individually, the starter announced for Sunday's game, Dachel Duquesne, is looking for his fourth victory in the campaign, which would put him first in that ranking, in addition to being his 96th victory in baseball championships on the island.

The team led by the 2004 Athens Olympic champion, Dany Miranda, leads the standings with a 10-1 record after beating the Cocodrilos 20-7 and is one of the five teams that threaten to apply a clean sweep in this week's matchup.

Also, the teams of Camagüey and Granma, with seven and six wins in a row, respectively, will go out today to finish off their rivals, Guantánamo and Holguín.

The Toros knocked out the Indians 11-1 yesterday and will rely on one of their main cards in the rotation, José Ramón Rodríguez, to extend their upward march in the standings.

While batting, their lethal weapon, led the Alazanes Granmenses to their eighth victory in the campaign and with the seventh home run of Alfredo Despaigne, leader in the tournament and his 270th in Cuba, they defeated Holguin 16-8 on Saturday.

Veteran left-hander Leandro Martínez will be out for his 94th victory in 16 national seasons.

The long Sunday schedule includes three seven-inning doubleheaders starting at 10:00, local time, between Pinar del Río-Las Tunas, Mayabeque-Artemisa and La Isla-Santiago de Cuba, all of them suspended yesterday due to rain.