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| Aguascalientes DH/1B Saul Soto |
The Rieleros were trailing 3-2 heading into the bottom of the fourth inning. Soto and Vargas led off the bottom of the second with back-to-back homers off Tijuana's Manny Barreda, making his first start since a July 16 no-hitter against Tabasco. The Toros got one run back in the third when Chris Valencia singled Roberto Lopez in from third, then took the lead in the top of the fourth on RBI singles by Alex Liddi and Gabriel Gutierrez. Aguascalientes then regained the advantage for good with four runs in the bottom of the frame as Vargas passed TJ's Corey Brown for the LMB lead with his 23rd homer on another solo blast and the hosts got consecutive run-scoring safeties from Gennaro Andrade, Dave Sappelt and Richy Pedroza to go up 6-3 and the rout was on.
Ironically, Soto (who'd go on to belt his second homer of the night in the sixth, a two-run shot) led off the fourth by grounding out and closed it by popping out to Jorge Cantu at first. By swatting his 10th and 11th homers, the nine-time All-Star reached double figures in roundtrippers for the seventh consecutive season and the 14th time in 16 seasons. Soto hit the 250th homer of his 20-year Liga career July 15 in Leon and surpassed 1,000 RBIs earlier this season. A career .304 batsman, the Los Mochis native (who turns 39 on August 11) is hitting .330 this year.
Vargas and longtime veteran outfielder Cristhian Presichi, who was celebrating his 37th birthday, each had four hits for Aguascalientes while Sappelt contributed three. A career .313 hitter, Presichi is in his 18th LMB season. Barreda absorbed his seventh loss in eleven decisions after giving up six runs on nine hits in 3.2 innings. Roy Merritt gave the Rieleros a decent start in allowing two earned runs in 4.1 entradas, but it was Roby Romero (5-2) who got the win after going 1.1 frames in relief.
The Toros rebounded from Friday's loss with a 6-3 win Saturday behind Horacio Ramirez' seven innings of two-run pitching before the Rieleros closed the series Sunday by holding off Tijuana 6-5 (although Brown tied Vargas by whacking HIS 23rd homer) to win two of three against manager Pedro Mere's 71-30 team. Mere has been mentioned as a potential candidate to become the Jalisco Charros' helmsman during the upcoming Mexican Pacific League winterball season, set to start in October. Edgar Gonzalez has stepped down as skipper in Guadalajara to take a front office position with the team.
LMB hitters are still playing catchup to former Durango outfielder Yadir Drake's set-in-stone .385 batting average but the clock is ticking with nine games left in the regular season. Monterrey's Daniel Mayora remains closest at .375 but the Durango exile hasn't played since going 1-for-6 against Veracruz on July 20. Mayora isn't on the Sultanes' reserve list and no cause for his absence has been discovered online. Aguascalientes' Vargas tops the home run list with 23 over 73 games, one ahead of Tijuana's Corey Brown's 22 longballs. Yucatan's Ricky Alvarez reached the century mark in RBIs with an eighth-inning single in Leon last Thursday. He now has 102. Rainel Rosario of Saltillo drove in runs in seven consecutive games (including a four-ribbie night Saturday in Monclova) to move into second behind Alvarez with 90 RBIs. Monclova centerfielder Justin Greene stole a base in Mexico City last Tuesday to bring his season total to 46 thefts, well in front of the 27 each of the Diablos' Carlos Figueroa and Christian Zazueta of Saltillo. He also leads the loop with 21 times caught stealing. Greene was given permission to go home to South Carolina to attend to family issues, but is expected back in time for the playoffs.
Octavio Acosta won his LMB-leading 13th game in 14 decisions for Mexico City in Durango Friday despite letting in five runs in 6.2 innings. The Guasave righty has allowed eight runs over 12 innings in his last two starts, putting his ERA at 3.01 for the season. Conversely, Veracruz' Nestor Molina allowed no earned runs in seven innings against Tabasco last Thursday, yet lost the 1-0 contest on an unearned first-inning run. Despite seeing his record drop to 11-2, Molina's ERA also fell to 1.54 for the year. Molina recorded nine strikeouts to make it 113 whiffs in 140.2 innings for 2017, trailing only the 128 of Monclova's Josh Lowey. Last season's strikeout king punched out nine Saltillo batters in seven innings of shutout pitching Saturday. Monclova closer Chad Gaudin leads with 27 saves. Gaudin had a rare bad outing Saturday trying to preserve the win for Lowey, instead giving up three ninth-inning runs to blow the save AND absorb the loss in a 6-5 defeat after the Acereros led 5-0 heading into the eighth inning.
Even after losing two of three in Aguascalientes, Tijuana still has a comfortable six-and-a-half-game lead over Monterrey in the LMB North standings and sit eight games ahead of Monclova while the Rieleros are solidly in fourth place, eleven games out of first. Yucatan won two of three in Puebla over the weekend to open their LMB South lead over the defending champion Pericos to nine-and-a-half games. Well behind the two leaders are the Veracruz Rojos del Aguila, who sit a half-game ahead of Quintana Roo in third place while Leon is two games back of the Tigres in fifth.
The LMB's most important upcoming midweek series takes place when Monterrey hosts Aguascalientes for three games. The Rieleros will move on to Monclova Friday for a set with the Steelers, but the bigger trio of games may be in Mexico City when the Diablos Rojos welcome Union Laguna to Estadio Fray Nano. The Diablos and Vaqueros are in a down-to-the-wire battle for fifth place in the North, earning a one-game playoff at the division's fourth-place finisher (currently the Rieleros) for an LMB semifinal berth. Tijuana and Yucatan clinched postseason slots over the weekend.
MEXICAN LEAGUE STANDINGS as of July 31, 2017
LMB North: Tijuana 71-30, Monterrey 64-36, Monclova 62-37, Aguascalientes 60-41, Union Laguna 53-47, Mexico City 52-48, Durango 41-59, Saltillo 40-59.
LMB South: Yucatan 60-36, Puebla 53-48, Veracruz 43-54, Quintana Roo 42-54, Leon 40-56, Campeche 38-59, Oaxaca 36-63, Tabasco 35-63.
6 comments:
Rules are rules, but it is very unfair for teams in the North division. Other than Yucatan and Puebla, no teams deserve a spot in the playoffs.
That's the roll of the dice with divisional setups. I remember when the Seattle Seahawks made the NFL playoffs with a 7-9 record because they were the least-bad team in the NFC West.
Both Mexico City and Laguna should be in the LMB postseason. Sort of ironic, really, since apparently the Diablos insisted on remaining in the LMB North (which is how Leon finds itself in the South) and now they may miss the playoffs a second year in a row.
I can't believe that even the Bravos will make it to the playoffs as things stand now!! I am rooting for the Aereros from this side of the Pacific (Japan), by the way.
It IS possible that Leon gets in. I just found out that there'll be a play-in game between the 4th and 5th place teams if there are three or fewer games between them. Quintana Roo is only half a game ahead of Veracruz while the Aguilas are two-and-a-half games ahead of Leon so mathematically, the Bravos have a shot.
I kind of like Aguascalientes this year because they've been the definition of "overachievers," but it's hard to not pick Tijuana to win the whole thing right now. I guess we'll all find out soon enough.
BTW, I see Japhet Amador had a three-run game for Rakuten a few games ago. Good for him. The guy can rake but he has to stay healthy. I have a video sent by another reader in Japan of him hitting a popup that disappeared into the rafters of a domed stadium there that I'm saving for a postseason wrap of Mexican players in NPB (although it's not been a halcyon season for any of them).
Hi. I thought that a play-in game between 4th and 5th placed teams will be held no matter what the difference is between them. But now I understand that the game will be had only if the difference is 3 games or smaller.
Yes, Japhet Amador had a 3-HR game!! I was so excited. I have seen Japhet in person in an Arizona Fall Game back in 2013 and I have been following his stats ever since. Actually, he signed the AFL program for me when Team Mexico came to Japan last November. I have a friend and he invited me for a team workout.
Speaking of Mexican players in Japan, Luis Cruz has been traded from the Yomiuri Giants to the Rakuten Eagles. So Luis and Japhet are teammates now. Japhet is finally heating up and I hope he will continue this down the stretch. I have to note that Japhet's salary is quite cheap (about US$250,000) compared to other foreign players (e.g. Luis Cruz's salary is said to be more than $2 million!).
I hope Japhet will stay beyond this year.
Because of an injury to other player, Japhet has seen time at first base recently and I think the manager is getting more comfortable with him taking the field rather than just DHing.
Ramiro Pena of the Hiroshima Carp has spent most of the year in minors. I think he is a victim of circumstances. In Japan, the number of foreign players on active rosters and the Carp has many foreign players considered to be "lock".
Yadir Drake's numbers are not great, but he is still in the Majors.
I hope all the Mexican players do well and earn as much money as possible in Japan!!
One correction. In Japan, the numebr of foreigh players on active roster is limited to 4.
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