In playoff action in the Dominican on Saturday night, Alen Hanson went 0-for-4 in his team’s 1-0 win. He played second base and had just two plays in the field, both of which he handled cleanly. Hanson is 4-for-16 in four playoff games. On the other side of the field, Gustavo Nunez went 0-for-3 with a sacrifice bunt.
In the other playoff game in the Dominican, Josh Wall faced two batters and struck them both out. He is still a minor league free agent.
The playoffs began in Venezuela on Saturday night. Just like the Dominican, they have a round robin tournament, but unlike the four team set-up the Dominican league uses, in Venezuela they have five teams in the playoffs, with two games each day. On day one, Gorkys Hernandez went 2-for-4 with a double, a run scored and he drove in two runs in his team’s 8-7 win. He had three hits in the last game of the regular season.
With most of the Pittsburgh Pirates players on the last place Bravos de Margarita roster in Venezuela, the playoffs won’t offer much to follow. Besides Hernandez, the only other player is Julio Vivas, the 21-year-old righty, who had a 1.60 ERA, 0.80 WHIP and .176 BAA in 16 appearances during the season. With team’s getting reinforcements for the playoffs, and with so much on the line, he probably won’t see much time despite the strong season.
In Panama, Ashley Ponce went 2-for-3 with a double. The regular season in Panama runs through January 19th.
The regular season in Colombia ends on Wednesday and the playoffs begin on Saturday. The Tigres team with Harold Ramirez and Tito Polo looks like they will finish in second place, so they will play the third place team in a five-game series, with the winner taking on the first place team in a seven-game series. The winner of that series will then play the best teams from Panama, Nicaragua and the Veracruz League in the Latin American Series, which begins on January 27th in Panama.
In Australia on Sunday, Sam Kennelly started at third base and went 0-for-3 with a walk, a run scored and a strikeout. In ten games, the 18-year-old Kennelly has a .240/.321/.240 slash line.
