Photo: Emmanuel Santos
Text: Editorial Cuba Noticias 360
A couple of months ago, not even the most enthusiastic of fans would have dared to venture that the then-bottom Guantánamo team would be fighting for a place in the postseason of the 63rd National Baseball Series in the absence of the last three challenges of the qualifying stage.
The Indios del Guaso have become the true sensation of the championship in recent weeks with a rebound in victories that catapulted them to eighth place in the standings, tied with Sancti Spíritus, after the close of the penultimate subseries.
The team from the easternmost province completed the sweep in five games against the Isla de la Juventud this Sunday, in an unusual match, whose first four games were played at the Nelson Fernández stadium, in San José de las Lajas, and the last in the Latin American of the capital, due to inclement weather that prevented the maritime movement to Nueva Gerona.
Previously, the Guantanamo team had achieved an excellent result of six wins and four losses in their matches against Pinar del Río and Ciego de Ávila, two teams that have been at the top of the standings since the very beginning of the Series.
With these and other formidable performances, Rubén Prevot’s pupils now display for the first time a positive record in the entire campaign of 37 successes and 35 failures, the same as the Sancti Spiritus Gallos, who this week also reaped a good income of four successes and one setback against the Holguín Cubs.
Starting this Tuesday, the Indians will host the already classified Wasps of Santiago de Cuba at their Nguyen Van Troi headquarters in search of a result that will allow them to return to the Cuban baseball postseason more than a decade after their last foray.
However, even winning the three games, the long-awaited ticket does not depend on them, since Sancti Spíritus beat them in the particular subseries by 4-1, so they would need to finish with one more victory to finally keep the place. And to top it off, those from Yayabo have an apparently easier path in their visit to the penultimate place Cienfuegos.
As if that were not enough, the woman from Sancti Spiritus is not the only threat to Guantánamo, as Villa Clara (36-36) also appears with serious possibilities, just one game away from eighth place. In the case of the Azucareros, the victories in the individual matches against those two direct rivals count in their favor and they will close the qualifier in their stadium against the already eliminated Holguín.
If this puzzle in search of the eighth passenger is not enough, suffice it to say that there are still other positions in dispute. At this point, Industriales, Ciego de Ávila and Matanzas have not sealed their passport to the playoffs either, all with a balance of 39-33 in positions six to seven.
It seems like something out of science fiction, but a misfortune of some of these casts in the remaining three challenges, combined with sweeps from Sancti Spiritus, Guantanamo or Villa Clara, could cause an earthquake in the standings. So the end of the regular phase will be seasoned with a lot of excitement.
In addition to all of these, the absolute leader Pinar del Río (46-24) is already oiling its weapons for the postseason, having achieved two successes and one defeat in its battle of giants against Granma (44-26) this week. The last two duels of that subseries between these two classified teams and serious contenders for the title had to be suspended due to rain.
Likewise, the defending monarch Las Tunas (41-23) and Santiago (42-30) are the other two teams that also have a safe seat on the playoff train, waiting for the remaining passengers, who at the end of the week We’ll know what they are.
