By Jason Pan
For the 3rd and final game of this Thunder Series in Chinese Taipei, the Cuban national team wrapped up their visit on a high note with a 16-hit outburst for the 14-7 victory.
Three big home runs – from Alexander Malleta, Alfredo Despaigne, and Rusney Castillo, lifted Cuba to triumph in this entertaining see-saw battle at the Taichung Intercontinental Stadium on Tuesday night.
Cuba’s outfielder and clean-up man Alfredo Despaigne was voted the Game MVP, for his 6 RBIs in this contest, including a three-run homer. It was his second consecutive Game MVP, his solo homer carried Cuba to win in Game Two.
Very much different from the low-scoring affairs in the previous two contests, both Cuba and the Taiwanese CPBL Selects had their hot bats fired up right at the start, as the hosts led 2-1 at the end of 2nd frame.
More scoring had CPBL Selects in front 3-2 at the completion of 4th inning. In their next turn at bat, with two men on, Despaign teed off for a three-run dinger to pull Cuba ahead 5-3 in the 5th frame.
The hosts replied with 3 runs of their own, on 3 hits, one walk, and one fielding error by the visitors, to go back in front 6-5 in the 6th frame.
Cuba responded right away with 2 runs, for their 7-6 lead in the 7th inning, and they stayed ahead thereafter to the end.
Into the late innings, players on both sides continued to pile up runs in an exciting firepower display for fans to get their money’s worth.
The Caribbean visitors scored 7 more runs – 2 in the 8th and 5 in the 9th, while the Taiwanese hosts got one run in the 8th, for the eventual 14-7 outcome.
Overall, the two teams combined for a staggering 28 hits (16 for Cuba, 12 for CPBL Selects) and 21 runs in this memorable international challenge contest.
Relief pitcher Leandro Martinez entered the game in the 6th inning to earn the win for the visitors. CPBL pitcher Tsai Ching-Hao who came in the 7th frame was tagged with the loss.
Cuban head manager Victor Mesa was all smiles in the post-game interview, “Our hitters finally show what they can do. This is more like our Cuban-style baseball. We are happy to play the Thunder Series in Taiwan, because the team learned a lot here and helped to improve our playing level.”
Skipper for CPBL Selects, Terushi Nakashima (also skipper for Uni-President Lions club) said, “We can see Cuba has a very good team. Even though our team went in front, they can catch up easily. For our team, we could not hold the lead in the late innings, it is a problem for this young team, and they should learn well from this experience.”
Concluding their three-game series here, the Cuban team’s next stop is in Japan, where they will face the NPB star line-up (November 16 and 18), to prepare both national squads for the WBC tournament next spring.
