The Dominican Republic fell against Venezuela with a score of 5-1 in their first game of the World Baseball Classic corresponding to Group D, held at the Loan Depot in this city.

Anthony Santander homered and tripled, while David Peralta doubled and, singled, drove in three runs, and five Venezuelan pitchers limited the Dominican offense to just six hits and 15 strikeouts.

This Saturday is the first victory that the South Americans have registered against their rivals from Quisqueyan in five presentations in the history of the World Classics.

José Ruiz, the second pitcher for the winners, was the winner, while Sandy Alcántara, the starter for the quisqueyanos, was the loser.

Martín Pérez, the initiator of the winners, had an acceptable performance and allowed a return in three innings and a third and struck out 4. For his part, the relief team left his archrival Dominican in just two hits, awarded two tickets, and fanned 11.

The Dominicans squandered several opportunities to score runs, like in the second inning when they had the bases loaded with one out and didn’t score laps. In the eighth, they had runners on first and second with one out, and Anthony Santander made a great catch in the outfield right on a hit by Jeimer Candelario. In the ninth, they had runners on third and first with one out and didn’t score a run.

This Sunday is a rest day for the Dominicans, but they return to action on Monday with a game against Nicaragua at noon. It will be the first clash against this rival in the history of this event. Cristian Javier is the pitcher scheduled to take the mound.

Scoring

The Dominican scored a return in the first episode after a hit by Julio Rodríguez to the center and scored on the double by Juan Soto between the center and the left.

But Venezuela countered with a return in the second due to Santander’s long homer all over the right field against Alcántara.

The Venezuelans scored two more in the fourth after loading the bases without an out. When Alcántara seemed to quell the situation by getting two outs in a row, Peralta shot a single to the right that brought two to the pentagon and caused the departure of Cy Young from the National League in the past campaign.

Another one made Venezuela in the sixth after a ticket to Eugenio Suarez and a double from Peralta to the wall of the central meadow against Luis García.

The fifth of the winners came in the eighth with a triple from Santander after two out and a single from Suárez.

For Venezuela, Santander homered and tripled, Peralta his double and single. For the Dominicans, Soto had two doubles and Candelario two hits.