It was announced yesterday by a few sources that Starling Marte is done with Winter ball this season. His Escogido team, along with teammate Gregory Polanco, will begin the Dominican League finals tonight against Licey. The winner of this best-of-nine series will go on to the Caribbean League World Series against the best Winter League teams from Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Mexico.
Marte had a rough Winter season. It started late as he recovered from his regular season hand injury. Two games into the season, he was hit by a pitch on his left hand, which knocked him off of action for a few days. He then hurt his back, which against cost him a few days. Finally, in his last game he sustained a groin injury which ended his season. None of the injuries were considered serious, but the sheer amount was enough to shut him down. He played a total of 12 games, going 12-for-40 at the plate, with one homer, six RBIs, four walks and nine strikeouts.
Harold Ramirez had quite an opening game in the Colombian League finals on Saturday. He went 2-for-2 with a home run, three RBIs, two walks and one run scored. His team won the first game by an 11-1 score.
On the opposite side of that one-sided game was a Pirates pitcher that took one on the chin. Yhonathan Barrios gave up four earned runs on two hits, a walk and a hit batter. The only out he recorded came on a sacrifice fly.
In Panama from Saturday, Ulises Montilla returned briefly after leaving Wednesday’s game and not playing since. Montilla took one at-bat, then left the game. He was 0-for-1 and that dropped his average to .217 through eight games.
Edgardo Munoz went 0-for-3 with an error in his team’s 4-3 win. Munoz is hitting .225 through ten games. He leads the league with six stolen bases.
