| Wild Card Pool | W | L | GB | RS | RA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pennsylvania | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| Venezuela | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 9 |
| California | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 10 |
| Dominican Republic | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
Venezuelan pitchers shut out California's HOF lineup for 14 innings for a 2-0 win and 1-0 lead after five innings in the nightcap. (The roster of the greatest California and Venezuela players of all time used in our Statis-Pro game appear at the bottom of the blog with links to their baseball reference page.)
However both loaded lineups the exploded against both bullpens until Joe DiMaggio singled and speedy Barry Bonds raced him from 2nd base for a 9-8 win.
The split leaves Pennsylvania in first place in the wild card round robin at 2-0, and Venezuela slight ahead in 2nd place since they allowed 9 runs and California allowed 10 runs.
The first game was a battle of ace lefties, and Johan Santana scattered 8 baserunners over 6 shutout innings, and their three top relievers each gave a scoreless inning for Venezuela's 2-0 win.
One big advantage Venezuela does have against all the great all-time pitchers in this division as the other three teams have very little speed, but the first four players in the Venezuela line-up are all A/A speed - meaning they can steal, take extra bases on hits and occasionally bunt for a single. They needed the speed to scratch out anything against Randy Johnson in the opener. Jose Altuve singled in the first and tole second base, then raced home from second on a Luis Aparicio single. In the third, Aparicio tried to bunt for a single and Gary Carter threw it away to land Aparicio on third based and he scored on a 2-out single by Miguel Cabrera for the 2-0 win.
The second game looked like a similar pitchers duel when both Venezuela's Felix Hernandez and California's Tom Seaver allowed only one run, but the loaded line-ups feasted on the bullpens.
In the top of the 6th the speedy top of the line-up made it 4-0 after advancing on a stolen base and wild pitch.
Ronald Acuna Jr. scored the first run in that inning, and in the bottom of the 6th threw Ted Williams out at home on a DiMaggio single to keep the score at 4-1. Williams had doubled home Bonds earlier in the inning.
California took a 5-4 lead with four hits in the bottom of the 7th. The rest of the way both teams scored two run in every frame - making it 6-5 Venezuela in the middle of the 8th, 7-6 California at the end of the 8th, 8-7 Venezuela in the middle of the 9th, and then 9-9 California as the final.
California all-time team Pos
Barry Bonds OF
Bobby Bonds OF
Gary Carter C
Frank Chance 1B
Joe Cronin SS
Joe DiMaggio OF
Bobby Doerr 2B
Don Drysdale P
Joe Gordon 2B
Tony Gwynn OF
Randy Johnson P
Eddie Murray 1B
Tom Seaver P
Duke Snider OF
Ted Williams OF
Venezuela all-time team
Bobby Abreu OF
Ronald Acuna Jr. OF
Jose Altuve 2B
Luis Aparicio SS
Miguel Cabrera 1B
Felix Hernandez P
Omar Infante 2B
Melvin Mora 3B
Johan Santana P
Cesar Tovar OF
Omar Vizquel SS
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