MADERA, GARCIA CARRYING OVER HOT WINTER SEASONS

Sandy Madera and Luis Alfonso Garcia (pictured)were arguably the two hottest hitters during last winter’s Mexican Pacific League season. Madera batted .413 to lead the LMP, 34 points ahead of Mexicali’s Brad Snyder, while Garcia led the Mex Pac with 23 homers for Hermosillo en route to being voted the MVP by the LMP’s team presidents. Both Madera and Garcia are thus far showing in Mexican League play that their respective winter performances were not flukes.

Madera has gone 20-for-40 over his past ten games for Saltillo to overtake Puebla’s Willis Otanez for the Liga lead with a .431 batting average. The right-handed first baseman is especially wearing out right-handed pitchers, hitting .466 against starboard siders. Although Garcia went homerless for Monterrey last week, the 6’4” Guadalajara native tops the Mexican League with 13 roundtrippers and 46 RBIs over 39 games while carrying a .359 batting average.

Garcia is one of the main reasons Monterrey has taken over first place in the LMB North with a 26-15 record, one game ahead of 25-16 Mexico City. Chihuahua has cooled off a bit, splitting their last ten games and beginning this week in third place with a 23-18 mark. In the LMB South, Puebla continues to cruise toward a first-half title with a 29-10 record. Otanez and his Pericos teammates have won 15 of 20 games on the road, by far the best in the Liga. Yucatan is six games back in second at 24-17, while Oaxaca survived a tumultuous week to hang on to third place with a 22-18 ledger.