Photo: Doug Gray
Usually by this point in the Dominican Winter League season there have been double-digit games played and the season would be rolling along. But when Tropical Storm Melissa (which later became Hurricane Melissa) came through the Caribbean it took out nearly a week of games. Carlos Jorge has been the only Reds player thus far who has been in the lineup nearly every day in the Dominican Winter League to this point. He’s playing with the Gigantes and last night they played their 7th game of the season (on top of the six games rained out by the tropical storm they’ve also had four other games postponed by rain, and one game that was suspended in the 2nd inning by rain) and picked up an 8-7 win.
Carlos Jorge (pictured above) started that game in right field and batting leadoff. The recently turned 22-year-old is one of the youngest players in the league, but the club has shown confidence in him as he’s been their leadoff hitter multiple times this season. And he’s rewarded them, too. After going 3-4 with a walk, two runs, and two stolen bases, Jorge is now hitting .389/.476/.556 through seven games played. The outfielder has walked three times, homered, scored four runs, driven in two runs, and he’s stolen two bases.
Down in Arizona it’s been a hot start for Leo Balcazar, too. On Saturday with Peoria he started the game at third base and picked up two more hits, a walk, and a stolen base. The infielder now has league best 26 hits in 18 games played and is hitting .361/.418/.444 with six doubles, 13 runs scored, 12 runs batted in, and he’s 5-for-5 in stolen base attempts.
The leagues in the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Mexico all began in mid-October. This week we’ll see some more baseball get going. The Puerto Rican Winter League will get started on Thursday night with one game on their schedule and then on Friday the rest of the league takes the field as all six teams will be out there. It’ll be another week before baseball starts down in Australia.
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