No-hitter in Dominican playoffs

[Boy Howdy]

Ervin Santana of the Angels hurled the first 6 innings of a combined no-hitter in the Dominican League playoffs last night. He struck out 9.

Damaso Marte & Carlos Marmol combined to get the last 9 outs of the Licey Tigres 2-0 victory, striking out 3 apiece to make it 15 Estrellas Orientales retired via the "K" in all. Former Oriole Willis Otanez went down swinging for the final out.

Estrellas' loss spells bad news for the team with the most Orioles still alive in Latin America. After a 6-2 start in the 18-game semi-final tournament, the Estrellas have lost 7 of 8 to move to the brink of elimination. Daniel Cabrera, Freddie Bynum & Greg Aquino may be resting up for spring training by the weekend.

In the other Dominican game yesterday, Chris Roberson had a double in 5 trips.

In Venzuela, Ramon Hernandez' club had an open date, Luis Hernandez didn't play, and Adam Jones went 0-4 in his return to action.

[KLINE]

So Ervin CAN pitch outside of the Angels stadium, just not any other stadium in the States...