San Francisco Giants aid pitcher Will Smith, left, celebrates with third baseman Pablo Sandoval after Smith struck out Colorado Rockies’ Daniel Murphy for the ultimate out of a baseball recreation Saturday, Aug. 3, 2019, in Denver. The Giants received 6-5. (AP Photograph/David Zalubowski)
Although Main League Baseball’s house owners proceed to lock out the gamers, you possibly can nonetheless watch Pablo Sandoval and different present and former Giants and A’s taking part in this weekend and subsequent week — and in a stadium that honors Juan Marichal.
The annual Serie del Caribe (English translation: Caribbean Sequence), performed between the champions of six winter leagues all through Central and South America, begins on Friday in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The six nations represented are the hosts, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico and Venezuela.
For Bay Space baseball followers, a number of former Giants and A’s will play within the week-long event, highlighted by 2012 World Sequence MVP Pablo Sandoval (Venezuela), who performed this winter for his hometown group, the Navigantes del Magallanes (English translation: Magellan Navigators) of Valencia. The “Kung-Fu Panda” final performed within the Venezuelan winter league in 2012-13 earlier than returning this winter, serving to Magallanes win their first Venezuelan title since 2013-14.
Final yr, Sandoval began the season with the Braves as a pinch-hit specialist, hitting 4 pinch-hit homers within the first 33 video games of the season. However he cooled off shortly, batting 1-for-27 in June and July earlier than Atlanta traded him on July 30 to Cleveland, who instantly launched him. Whereas the 34-year-old didn’t play stateside once more in 2021, he hit .314 with one homer in 123 plate appearances for Magallanes in an try to get a 2022 contract, both with an MLB group (probably within the type of a minor league take care of an invitation to huge league spring coaching) or maybe with a group in a foreign country (like Japan, South Korea or Mexico).
Along with Sandoval, the Venezuelans have probably the most former Bay Space main leaguers, with former A’s pitcher Henderson Alvarez, former Giants outfielder Alejandro De Aza and former Giants right-handed reliever Enderson Franco suiting up. They’ll be seeking to win Venezuela’s first Caribbean crown since 2009.
Present A’s infielder Vimael Machín is suiting up for Puerto Rico this week, whereas left-handed Reymind Guduan, who pitched in 11 video games for the A’s in 2021, will play for the Dominican Republic. The host Dominicans will even have former A’s and Giants left-handed reliever Fernando Abad pitching for them as they try to win the nation’s third Serie del Caribe title in a row.
The video games might be performed at Estadio Quisqueya Juan Marichal, the primary ballpark within the Dominican Republic’s capital metropolis that’s internet hosting its tenth Serie del Caribe. Marichial’s title was added to the stadium in 2016 to honor the primary Dominican-born participant elected to the Baseball Corridor of Fame.
The event is a spherical robin, the place all six groups will face one another as soon as every day from Friday till Tuesday. The highest 4 groups within the round-robin advance to the semifinals on Wednesday and the winners of the semifinals play for the championship on Thursday.
For the primary 5 days, video games might be performed at 6 or 6:30 a.m., 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Pacific. The semifinals on Wednesday might be at 1 and 4 p.m. and Thursday’s championship begins at 3 p.m. Pacific. All video games might be broadcast on ESPN Deportes in Spanish.
Los 18 partidos de la #SerieCaribe van por ESPN en USA. Juego matinal cada día a las 9 am ET (10 am en Santo Domingo). pic.twitter.com/u6KfnFE4Km
— Enrique Rojas/ESPN (@Enrique_Rojas1) January 27, 2022
Every nation is usually represented by the group that received every league’s championship, however they will additionally add gamers from the opposite groups of their league to play for them. Probably the most outstanding such participant this yr is for the host Dominicans, who added former eight-time All-Star Robinson Cano to the champion Gigantes del Cibao. And for many who don’t know, the group named the Giants within the Dominican Republic performs in … the city of San Francisco de Macoris. Their colours have even been orange and black at occasions, however they presently put on maroon and black.
Negotiations between the house owners and participant’s affiliation continued this week, as the 2 sides met on Monday and Tuesday. However they nonetheless seem far aside on key points, leaving doubts as to when the lockout might finish and if spring coaching — and even regular-season video games — might be impacted.
That doubt signifies that the Serie del Caribe could be the final stay skilled baseball followers can watch on tv for some time.