Dominican Republic beats Puerto Rico on their path to Tokyo

A magnificent work by Raúl Valdés led the Dominican Republic to a 5-2 victory over Puerto Rico, in a match held at Clover Park and corresponding to the Baseball Pre-Olympic of America.

The left-hander completed seven innings of two runs, three hits, one walk, and five strikeouts, in a presentation in which he retired 13 batters without getting the ball out of the box, thus scoring the victory.

Valdes was backed by Gustavo Núñez by hitting 3-3, with a triple, one scored and one produced; Luis Liberato 2-1 with a home run, one RBI and two walks; Juan Francisco, Diego Goris and Emilio Bonifacio 4-1 each with an RBI and Julio Y. Rodríguez 5-2 with two runs scored. They collected 11 hits in the game.

The Dominicans scored a career in the first episode against Puerto Rican starter Luis Cruz, with consecutive singles by Rodríguez and José Bautista after two outs and an RBI hit to the right field, courtesy of Francisco.

At the height of the second, Rey Navarro found Kevin Luciano in first, caught a pitch from Valdés, and dumped the ball over the left-field fence, giving the Puerto Ricans a 2-1 lead.

The tie came in the third with a double RBI from Diego Goris to right, Rodriguez scoring from second base.

At the end of the sixth, the Dominican bats stood out, first with a solo homer from Emilio Bonifacio between right and center against Efraín Nieves, and then with a triple from Gustavo Núñez to right and a double from Emilio Bonifacio to center, both against Iván Maldonado, who placed the score 4-2.

One more came for the Quisqueyanos in the seventh, with an RBI single from Núñez to the center, against Héctor Acevedo, who drove in Goris from the anteroom.

Duro pichito!!!! https://t.co/dWIvnUs0b1

— ProbeisbolRD (@probeisbolrd) May 31, 2021

Jumbo Díaz threw the eighth blank and Jairo Asencio equally in the ninth, the latter achieving his first rescue of the event.

For Puerto Rico, Navarro was the most prominent, finishing 2-1 with a homer, two RBIs, and a walk. Maldonado took the loss in his 2.0 innings of a clean and a strikeout.

The next game of the Dominican Republic (1-0) will be this Tuesday against the United States at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches stadium in West Palm Beach.