LA ROMANA, Dominican Republic - Inside Estadio Micheli, there is a cacophony of noise - drums beating out a rhythm, speakers blaring bachata, and in the seats, there's a sea of orange.

It's opening night at the home of the Toros del Este of LIDOM, where the Toros will face off against their neighbors, the Estrellas Orientales of San Pedro de Macoris, the next big city to the west down the highway. And while it's the first night for but unlike Major League Baseball, the winter ball season here is a 50-game sprint, not a 162-game marathon.

Over the course of the next nine weeks, the six-team league will play six days a week, and each night, teams can activate 30 players from their weekly roster of 50 for each game. What that creates, aside from a lot of churn, is a lot of opportunity.

"It gives you flexibility because you carry 50 guys," said Estrellas Orientales President of Baseball Operations Albert Pujols. "You carry 30 guys on the [game] roster, you carry 50 guys on the roster for the week, so you can really, you know, move guys, especially the pitching."

Especially the pitching. Last season, the Estrellas used 42 pitchers over the course of the regular season's 50 games, with only six pitchers throwing more than 20 innings, while the Toros used 46 pitchers, only four of who passed the 20-inning mark.

But don't confuse that churn for a lack of quality. Twenty-three of the Estrellas pitchers from the had appeared or have now appeared in Major League Baseball, while 22 of the Toros pitchers, including opening night starter Aaron Brooks, could say the same.

"At the end of the day, it's about working the strategy, especially when you get into the postseason, you know?" Pujols said. "Making sure that you put the right roster for the right matchup during that week. And I think that was something that I was really involved, you know, the year that I was in here [managing the Leones del Escogido] and it helped me out to learn a lot, [about] how to be able to, to managing the game, especially the bullpen."

Now, Pujols is on to a new challenge. In his first, and thus far, only managerial stint of his career in 2025, he led the Leones del Escogido to a LIDOM championship and a Caribbean Series title. With the Estrellas, who play in San Pedro de Macoris, a city midway between La Romana and the capital of Santo Domingo, a city so baseball-mad that the sign welcoming you to town spells out S-A-N P-E-D-R-O with giant concrete baseballs, Pujols has to find a way to get LIDOM's equivalent to the pre-2016 Chicago Cubs back to the Caribbean Series.

The Estrellas have won the LIDOM championship three times, most recently in 2019, their only appearance at the Caribbean Series, winter ball's biggest event.

What will it take?

"I think the guys don't need motivation. These guys are ready to go. They're really excited for the season and I think we're ready," Pujols said. "At 7:30 or whenever they call 'play ball,' those guys are gonna cross that line and they're gonna play their first game of the season. And after that we got 49 more to go and hopefully we get into the postseason. And then hopefully, we can have a chance to raise that championship trophy in February."

Estrellas Orientales 11, Toros del Este 0 - Pujols said his guys were ready, and were they ever. The Estrellas held the Toros to just four hits, retiring 22 of the last 26 del Este batters to dull the Toros' horns, and scoring 11 runs on 16 hits and four errors by the Toros. Starter Oscar De Las Cruz threw five scoreless innings for the Estrellas, allowing three hits and a walk while striking out five, and the bullpen easily maintained the shutout.

Holding a 1-0 lead after Leo Bernal's solo homer in the fourth, they broke the game open an inning later, scoring five runs in the top of the fifth on their way to an opening night win. Josh Lester clubbed a three-run homer in the fifth, which was followed by a solo homer from Marco Luciano to give the Estrellas a 6-0 lead. Batting around in the top of the eighth, the Estrellas tacked on fout more, getting a two-run double from Lester and capitalizing on a fielding errors by pitcher Michael Ynoa.

Despite scoring 11, the Estrellas still stranded 11 runners, though it's hard to imagine how much more lopsided the game could have been.

Tigres del Licey 12, Leones del Escogido 2 - El Glorioso started the season with a glorious victory at Estadio Quisqueya Juan Marichal against their Santo Domingo rivals, with Milwaukee Brewers top prospect Jesus Made, ranked by MLB Pipeline as the No. 1 prospect in baseball, hitting his first LIDOM homer, a solo shot, in his first at-bat for Licey. Mel Rojas Jr. went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and three RBIs for Licey. Adonis Medina allowed one run in five innings of work the Tigres, and the bullpen allowed one run on one hit and three walks.

Gigantes del Cibao 4, Aguilas Cibaenas 1 - Starter Willy Peralta threw five innings, giving up a solo homer to Aderlin Rodriguez but allowing just two other hits, walking two and striking out six as the Gigantes got past the Aguilas on opening night. Emil Morales tied the game with an RBI double in the fifth, and a sac fly by Noelvi Marte gave Cibao the lead for good. Carlos Jorge added a two-run homer in the seventh.

Where to Watch – The Dominican Republic’s LIDOM and the Liga Mexicana del Pacifico are streamed live on MLB.tv with commentary in Spanish. You’ll need to have a subscription to watch.

Tonight's LIDOM Schedule
All times Eastern Daylight Time
5 p.m. - Gigantes del Cibao (1-0) at Tigres del Licey (1-0)
6 p.m. - Toros del Este (0-1) at Aguilas Cibaenas (0-1)
7:30 p.m. - Leones del Escogido (0-1) at Estrellas Orientales (1-0)