The ball play offs: We are already in play! › Sports › Granma

There is no more waiting. In just a few hours yesterday, all the mysteries of the postseason were solved. Pinar del Río is the first place on the regular calendar and Granma the second and, consequently, all the matches for the first quarterfinal play offs are already there, which will begin next Thursday in Vueltabajo and Santiago de Cuba.

The outcome came with the victories of the Pinareños, against Granma, defining first place in the qualifying round, and of the Artemiseños over the Las Tunas, leaving them in third place, without the need to play the pending matches.

Six of the eight qualifiers were in the previous play offs: Las Tunas, Avila, Santiago, Industrialistas, Sancti Spiritus and Matanzas. But, be careful, those who return are great, the return of Pinar del Río and Granma has been through the triumphal arch, as leaders of the regular calendar.

We will have a rematch of the quarterfinals from last season, which will be staged by Leñadores and Tigres, which in ’62 ended with a 4-0 in favor of the owners of the forest. The Industriales-Santiago de Cuba confrontation is also curious: even though they have the most participation in postseason games, with 29 and 25, respectively, they will meet for the first time in this initial play off phase.

The so-called Cuban classic of pelota has its closest precedent in games of this type, in the previous campaign, as they were rivals in the semifinals, which ended with the blue victory, in seven games.

But let’s let Arnelio Álvarez de la Uz – who doesn’t need to get on a mound to shoot more than one hundred miles per hour – tell us how each of the teams has fared in these exciting confrontations between them.

Will the trend that appears on the graph continue? Let the protagonists respond, because we are already in the game!

Playoff matchups