Trevor Bauer lasted two outs. That’s all Leones del Escogido needed to chase the 2020 Cy Young winner at Estadio Tetelo Vargas: 5 runs allowed — 2 earned — in just 0.2 innings, giving up 4 hits and 2 walks. Escogido cruised to a 10-2 win, improved to 14-6, and reclaimed first place in LIDOM. The Estrellas Orientales drop to 8-11.
What happened in the first inning
The rally started before Bauer could find his footing. Erik González, Gregory Polanco, and Michael De La Cruz each drove in two runs in the opening frame, and Escogido didn’t stop until five were on the board. By the time the Estrellas’ manager made the trip to the mound, the game was already over.
Bauer takes the loss — but context matters
Bauer picked up his first loss of the season (0-1), and his LIDOM ERA climbed to 4.70. That number looks worse than it is given the sample size: just three starts covering 7.2 total innings. Worth noting — in his two previous outings against Águilas Cibaeñas (Oct. 29 and Nov. 4), he threw seven innings combined with a 2.57 ERA. One brutal 0.2-inning outing inflates any ERA in a hurry.
Sauryn Lao was a different story
The sharpest contrast of the night came from the other dugout. Sauryn Lao entered the game at 2-0 and left it at 3-0: five innings, two hits, one unearned run, zero walks, and five strikeouts. While Bauer couldn’t record a third out, Lao was flat-out dominant. Escogido had won 12 of their last 14 games heading into this one — this was no ordinary night on the LIDOM calendar.
Before drawing any big conclusions
Bauer arrived in LIDOM on September 14, 2026, as the offseason’s marquee signing: a National League Cy Young Award winner with the Dodgers in 2020 — posting a 1.73 ERA in the pandemic-shortened season — and 83 career MLB wins to his name. He had also pitched for the Long Island Ducks and the Diablos Rojos del México during the 2026-27 campaign before landing in San Pedro de Macorís.
A 0.2-inning start is ugly no matter the context. But with only three appearances under his belt, calling the experiment a failure would be premature. The Estrellas need their marquee arm to look more like his first two starts if they want to climb back into contention. His next outing will tell us a lot more than this one did.
