Sometimes, unlikely comebacks come from unlikely sources.
On Sunday afternoon, that was the case for the Cuban baseball team as they scored four times in the ninth inning to shock Puerto Rico 7-6 and claim the bronze medal at the Pan-American Games.
The stunning comeback was fueled by a game-tying three run home run from shortstop and number nine hitter, Yorbis Borroto. Borroto has played 13 seasons in the Cuban minor leagues and hit all of 47 home runs with no more than nine coming in one season. That mark came back in 2009. Since then, Borroto has 18 home runs in five seasons.
Following Borroto was an even more unlikely source for a dinger. Center fielder Jose Garcia has played nine seasons of professional baseball. After spending 2006-2012 in the St. Louis Cardinals’ organization, reaching Triple-A on two occasions, Garcia spent a few years roaming the Independent Leagues before retiring.
Garcia came back from retirement to represent Cuba in the Pan-American Games. During his career of 828 games, Garcia had managed just 23 home runs. In a 162-game MLB season, that would be just 4.5 home runs per year. However, Garcia hit one of the biggest home runs of his career on Sunday, following up Borroto’s blast by slapping a solo shot of his own to give Cuba the 7-6 win and the bronze medal.
The game started well for Cuba as they scratched out a run in each of the first three innings off of Puerto Rico starter Andres Santiago to build a 3-0 lead. The RBI's came from Alfredo Despaigne and Yosvany Alarcon. Alarcon had a solo blast in the second inning, one of three home runs by Cuba in the game.
Unfortunately, much like on Saturday, when they lost a two-run lead in the late stages of their semifinal game against the USA, that 3-0 lead evaporated in the fourth inning when Cuba starter Lazaro Blanco retired just one batter in the inning before surrendering a grand slam to Edgardo Baez, the Puerto Rican left fielder. Erly Casanova took over for Blanco and got out of the fourth inning with the score just 4-3. However, he could not keep it that way.
Puerto Rico added two runs in the fifth inning on their second dinger of the game, a two-run clout by Jeffry Dominguez. The score stayed 6-3 into the last frame. Santiago settled down after his rough start, ending his outing with three scoreless innings for a six-inning, three-run effort. Relievers Tomas Santiago, Ramesis Rosa, and Raul Rivera shut Cuba down for the following two innings.
On the other side, Cuban relievers Ismel Jimenez and Yennier Cano (W, 1-0) combined for 4.1 innings of shutout relief, keeping Cuba within striking distance.
Rivera started the ninth inning and was a disaster. He was unable to retire a single batter. Right fielder Urmaris Guerra and Alarcon started the innings with singles, setting the stage for their unlikely heroes in Borroto and Garcia.