2024-07-05 05:54:34
Text: Cuba News 360 Editorial Team
Photo: RL Hevia
The Cuban baseball playoffs will hear the starting gun at the Capitán San Luis stadium in Pinar del Río, home of the new leader and best team without question in the qualifying phase of the 63rd National Series, which returned through the wide door to the promised land.
But the postseason sounds with other chords, or at least that is the maxim defended by the Gallos de Sancti Spíritus, the team that finally got the disputed eighth ticket and now it will be their turn to “dance with the ugliest” starting this Thursday at 2:00 pm.
The closest precedent of this duel occurred in the same phase of the 61 Series, however both teams arrived there in opposite situations to the current ones. On that occasion, the Yayaberos, who had been widely dominating the regular stage, fell 3-4 to a Pinar del Río team that had grown in the playoffs.
A few hours later on the same day, June 27, at the other end of the island, the Guillermón Moncada will open its doors to another edition of the quintessential classic of the national pastime between Leones de Industriales and Avispas de Santiago de Cuba.
After facing each other in the semi-finals last year with a hard-fought victory for the blue team in seven games, the novelty now is that for the first time they will face each other in the quarter-finals, despite the fact that both teams have the highest number of participations in playoffs, with 29 for the capital team and 25 for the indomitable team.
The following day, these same duels will be repeated, and it will also be the turn of the remaining four qualified teams to enter into action. Starting at their headquarters in Julio Antonio Mella, the current national champions from Las Tunas will repeat the same matchup as last year against the Tigres from Ciego de Ávila who will try to avoid another sweep at all costs.
Meanwhile, the Alazanes de Granma, another historic team that returns after being left out of the previous calendar, will also clash again with an old acquaintance of the caliber of the Cocodrilos de Matanzas, a rival that they have always defeated when they have been involved in decisive instances.
The Mártires de Barbados in Bayamo will surely be packed on Friday to witness a new battle between these two giants who fought for the title of the 60 and 61 Series, with a final smile on both occasions for the Granma team, who this time will no longer have the already retired manager Carlos Martí at the helm.