NARANJEROS TAKE LMP LEAD, ELIZALDE HITTING .429

Hermosillo OF Jose Cardona

    The Hermosillo Naranjeros are one of the proudest teams in Mexico. Dating back to the 1940's (when the team was known as the Queliteros), Hermosillo has won a total of 19 pennants in four winter leagues, the most recent being in 2013-14 under manager Matias Carrillo, who also led that year's squad to their second Caribbean Series title. Since then, the team has gone through manager after manager seeking another flag for the Orangemen. The latest occupant of the perpetually-hot seat in Hermosillo is Juan Gabriel Castro, a former Dodgers infielder and Mexican National Team manager who has already become very well-aquainted with the vagaries of managing a baseball team south of the border.

    Castro inherited the reins of the Naranjeros from ex-skipper Juan Navarrete during the season last winter and led them to a 36-32 regular season record (21-18 under his command) before a first round playoff loss to Monterrey in seven games. He got the chance to start this season at the helm of the team and thus far has the Naranjeros at 8-3 out the gate to lead the LMP standings, good for a one-game lead over Guasave and two games up on four other teams. Defending champion Jalisco is tenth and last at 3-8.

    The Naranjeros are a veteran outfit with the likes of thirtysomethings Maxwell Leon, Luis Alfonso Cruz, Walter Ibarra and Fernando Salas along with relative youngsters Roberto Ramos, Nick Torres, Jasson Atondo and Jose Cardona. Thus far, Cardona (an eight-year Texas farmhand who hit .389 for Jalisco in last winter's Caribbean Series) is hitting .319 with three doubles, a triple and 11 runs scored in as many games while Ramos and Torres have seven homers and 19 RBIs between them.

    Hermosillo's pitching has been solid, if unspectacular, as Salas has two saves in five appearances and has yet to be scored upon while another vet hurler, Juan Pablo Oramas, is 2-0 with a 0.84 ERA and 11 strikeouts in two starts. While it's far too early to think about the postseason with 58 games and two-plus months left in the regular season, Castro is hoping to be a rarity with the Naranjeros: A manager who lasts two full seasons in orange and black.

    One player who's off to a hot start is veteran outfielder-first baseman Sebastian Elizalde of Culiacan. Now in his 12th Mex Pac season (starting at the tender age of 18 with Hermosillo in 2010-11), Elizalde is the only .400 hitter in the early LMP going with a .429 average, 35 points ahead of Mexicali's Leo Heras at .394. Hermosillo's Torres is tied with Felix Perez of Monterrey with four homers each while Perez, who's also hitting .366, is leading with 14 RBIs, three up on Torres and Navojoa's Ian Sagdal. Justin Dean (Los Mochis) and Jared Oliva (Obregon) are tied at the top of the stolen base charts with six apiece.

    At least eight pitchers are tied with two wins each, among them Guasave's Jeff Kinley, Braulio Torres-Perez of Mazatlan and Navojoa righty Luis Payan (who are all sporting 0.00 ERAs less than two weeks into the schedule). Fabian Cota of Los Mochis had four strikeouts in his last start to raise his total to 14, one more than Kinley. Brandon Koch has been a standout as Guasave's new closer, saving each of the Algodoneros' seven wins to lead the loop, while Mazatlan's Elkin Alcala has five salvados for the Venados.

MEXICAN PACIFIC LEAGUE Standings: Hermosillo 8-3, Guasave 7-4, Los Mochis 6-5, Mazatlan 6-5, Mexicali 6-5, Navojoa 6-5, Culiacan 5-6, Monterrey 4-7, Obregon 4-7, Jalisco 3-8.

MEXICO FALLS SHORT IN U-23 GOLD CUP BRONZE GAME

Angel Camacho at 13 in 2017

    Despite taking a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when Angel Camacho motored home from third base on a Lee Chen-hsun wild pitch, Mexico went scoreless the rest of the way in a 3-1 loss to host Taiwan in Sunday's Bronze medal game at the World Baseball Softball Confederation's U-23 Baseball Gold Cup tournament in Taipei.

    After surprise starter Nestor Anguamea (who'd been Mexico's closer) pitched a 1-2-3 top of the first, Camacho hit a leadoff single off Lee, took second on an Aldo Nunez bunt and moved to third on a bunt by Jose Zepeda before scampering home when Lee uncorked a wild pitch to Brandon Valenzuela. Lee settled down to end the inning without any further damage and went on to limit the Mexicans to two more singles through the fifth frame, retiring the last eight batters he faced before giving way to reliever Chuang Hsin-yen in the sixth.

    By then, Taiwan had taken the lead after tying the score on Chen Sheng-ping's RBI double in the top of the second and then going up 3-1 one inning later on Chen's two-run single up the middle off reliever Erubiel Armenta, who had just replaced Anguemea with the bases loaded. Armenta and three relievers held Taiwan scoreless for the next four innings while Chuang pitched two perfect entradas for the hosts as 481 onlookers watched at Tianmu Stadium. Besides Camacho, Zepeda and Hugo Sanchez singled for Mexico but no runner reached base after the third inning. Later in the Gold medal game, Japan shut out South Korea, 3-0, as Asian teams took all three medals home.

    It was somewhat miraculous that Mexico got as far as they did. They advanced to the Super Round with five other teams despite being shut out in both of their last two First Round games: a 2-0 loss to Cuba last Tuesday in what had been a scoreless contest until the Cubans pushed two runs across in the top of the seventh, followed by a 1-0 defeat to South Korea in Wednesday's make-up of an earlier rainout. That one was likewise scoreless until the Koreans scored the game's lone run in the top of the eighth on a throwing error by Mexican catcher Valenzeula, who was trying to nail tiebreak lead runner Kim Tae-yun at third after Kim had first advanced from second on a throwing error by reliever Manuel Castro.

    Despite failing to score over their last 15 innings and collecting eight hits over the two shutouts, Mexico was one of five Group B teams to finish 2-3 behind 5-0 South Korea, and was waved to the Super Round along with Australia due to tiebreaker arcana we won't go into here (life is short enough already).

    Mexico then went 2-1 in the Super Round, starting with a 4-3 win over Colombia last Thursday in which they overcame a 3-1 deficit with three fifth-inning runs thanks to a pair of walks and a wild pitch (all with the bases loaded). Camacho and Valenzuela each had two of Mexico's eight hits in the game.

    That was followed by 2-1 Friday shocker over host Taiwan in eight innings. Mexico recorded ten singles for the night, none more important than Ruben Salinas' poke to left field that allowed Zepeda to score from third with the go-ahead run. After getting the last two outs of the seventh, Castro held the Formosans hitless in the bottom of the eighth to nail down the victory.

    Mexico suffered their first loss of the Super Round Sunday in a 4-2 defeat at the hands of 2016 Gold Cup champion Japan. The game wasn't that close, with the Japanese scoring a run in the second inning and three more in the third as Kanta Aiba and Kaido Saida had RBI singles. Mexico finally got on the scoreboard via Salinas' bases-loaded walk in the sixth and Zepeda's double in the seventh bringing in Christopher Escarrega, but manager Che Reyes' team had just three hits overallas Japan's Raiku Katayama tossed five no-hit innings in another Mexican offensive meltdown after two solid games at the plate. Japan advanced to the title game against South Korea with the win while Mexico was sent to the third-place game against Taiwan. Sunday's loss dropped the Mexicans' overall record to 4-5 for a fourth-place finish in the 12-team tournament.

    Mexico hit .203 as a team for the Gold Cup. Camacho's .333 average the only one above .250 among individual players. A California native, Camacho's nine hits led the team, as did his one triple. Valenzuela and Javier Sanchez had three RBIs each while 2021 Mexican Winter League batting champion Oliver Carrillo's four runs scored were tops.

    The pitching was much better, as the squad turned in a collective 1.59 ERA. Castro was 2-1 in relief and one of four hurlers with a 0.00 ERA. Fernando Sanchez had no decisions in two starts but he had a 1.50 ERA while his 15 strikeouts in 9.1 innings led Mexico. Anguamea's ERA went from 0.00 to 3.32 with his rocky start against Taiwan in the Bronze medal game and he finished 0-2, but he also had both saves at the World Cup.

WHERE DO THIS YEAR'S LMP PLAYERS COME FROM?

    

While most of the the 300 players on the Mexican Pacific League's opening night rosters overwhelmingly hail from Mexico, to the surprise of nobody, there are many countries that contribute talent to the Mex Pac's ten teams. Writer Christan Vernet of Mexico's ScoreDeportes website recently took a deep dive into the numbers to find out exactly where these guys DO come from. Here are translated and edited excerpts from his column on the matter (thanks to Carlos Fragoso of Mexico City for forwarding the story):

    Two Mexican locales with a rich history and baseball tradition, Sonora and Sinaloa, top the list of States in Mexico with the largest number of players represented, according to birthplaces listed on the Mexican Pacific league's opening rosters.

    This article shows the distribution of the origin of the 300 baseball players who started in the rosters of the 10 teams for their respective opening games of the 2022-2023 season of the Mexican Pacific League. The players and places of birth were listed by the 10 teams on their respective rosters, which were distributed to representatives of the media.

    There are 234 players born in Mexican territory, or 78 percent of the total of players. In addition, there are 7 other nations represented, led by the United States, which has 52 (17.3%), including players who are regarded as Mexican “nationals.” The overall percentage of foreigners born outside of Mexico is 66 playrs, or 22 percent. Cuba is the second foreign country with the most players with seven (2.3%), followed by Colombia with three (1%) and the rest are Germany, Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico with one each (0.3%).

    Now it's time to distribute them by states: Sinaloa is unsurprisingly number one in that category, since of the 234 Mexicans, 67 (28.6%) were born in Sinaloan territory. Sonora is number two with 62 players, or 26.5 percent.

    In total there are 22 states of the Mexican Republic represented. Third place is occupied by Baja California Norte with 31 (13.2%), followed by Jalisco with 12 (5.1%), then Coahuila and Nuevo León with 9 apiece (3.8%). The “Top Ten” is completed by Veracruz with 6 (2.6%), Baja California Sur, Chihuahua and Yucatan with 5 each (2.1%).

    Regarding the distribution by municipalities, Ahome, a suburb of Los Mochis, is the leader of all with a total of 30 players, or 12.8% of the 234 Mexican baseball players. Hermosillo and Cajeme are tied for second place with 19 baseball players (8.1%), followed by Guasave with 14 (6%), Tijuana and Culiacán each have a dozen (5.1%) while Mexicali and Mazatlán both have 10, or 4.3%.

    Looking at the United States, California has 21 players, which could be the fourth best mixed with those in Mexico, just behind Sinaloa (67), Sonora (62) and Baja California Norte (31). California has 40.4 percent of the LMP's American 52 players, followed by Texas with 6 (11.5%), Arizona has 5 (9.6%), Florida and Illinois have 3 each (5.8%) and Indiana has 2 (3.8%). In total, there are 18 US states.

    As for the foreign cities with the largest number of players, they are Cartagena, Colombia; Havana, Cuba; and Dallas, Texas (all with 3), followed by Camagüey, Cuba; Tucson, Arizona; and Anaheim and Long Beach, California with 2 each.

    The Mexcali Aguilas have the most players born outside of Mexico with nine, while Guasave, Obregon and Los Mochis have 8 each followed by Hermosillo (7), Culiacan (6) and Mazatlan, Monterrey, Jalisco and Navojoa with the minimum regulatory amount of 5.

    These are only numbers and statistics of places of origin of the players who started the season. In January, we'll have a second installment to know the origin of all the players who participated during the season.

119,146 ATTEND TEN MEX PAC HOME OPENERS

Opening Night in Mazatlan

    The cellophane has been torn off the Mexican Pacific League's 2022-23 campaign as all ten team began regular season play beginning last Tuesday and hosted their home openers over a six-day period. The sporadic first-week schedule saw most LMP teams playing the usual two-game, home-and-away openers with rival squads that has been a hallmark of the circuit for years, although the Mazatlan Venados and Jalisco Charros played their first four games in Guadalajara before moving to Pearl of the Pacific for a single game on Sunday.

    Home openers in Monterrey, Guasave and Mazatlan all drew fewer than 10,000 spectators while overall attendance was 119,146 for an average of 11,915 for the ten lidlifters. A full house of 20,000 was on hand for Tuesday's premiere in Culiacan's Estadio Charros followed by 16,073 in Hermosillo on Wednesday and 15,982 at Obregon's opener Thursday night. The smallest first-night gathering was the 6,226 on hand in Guasave on Wednesday.

    Let's take a look at each of the ten Mex Pac openers in order of date played. Home teams are in capital letters:

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11

Mazatlan 4, JALISCO 3
(Attendance 13,811 at Estadio Panamericano, Guadalajara)

    Venados starter Casey Harman had a good outing, allowing one run over 4.1 innings while his counterpart, Jalisco opener Javier Solano, struggled in giving up four runs in 4.2 frames, including a two-run homer to Luis Jimenez in the top of the fourth. Ricardo Valenzuela doubled twice and drove in two runs for Mazatlan. The defending champion Charros had three-hit nights from Julian Ornelas, Amadeo Zazueta and Agustin Murrillo.

Mexicali 7, MONTERREY 6
(Attendance 8,941 at Estadio Monterrey)

    Scott Schebler's two-run homer off Sultanes reliever Joe Riley in the top of the ninth gave the Aguilas their come-from-behind victory. Schebler, who hit 30 homers for Cincinnati in 2017, had two hits and a pair of runs for Mexicali, who also got three hits, two runs and an RBI from Leo Heras. Fernando Perez led Monterrey with a 2-for-4 night, including a two-run homer off Aguilas starter Eduardo Vera, and Gilberto Galaviz added two hits and two RBIs.

Guasave 3, CULIACAN 2
(Attendance 20,000 at Estadio Tomateros)

    Algodoneros starter Jeff Kinley, a reliever throughout a pro career that included five years in the Marlins system, tossed five shutout innings for the visitors while two solo homers from Orlando Pina and a solo bomb by Jorge Flores provided the scoring. Sebastian Elizalde, in his seventh winter with Culiacan after five in Hermosillo, hit a two-run single in the eighth off Brandon Koch to prevent a Tomateros shutout.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12

Culiacan 5, GUASAVE 2
(Attendance 6,226 at Estadio Francisco Carranza Limon)

    The Tomateros extracted a measure of revenge on Guasave by breaking open a 2-2 game in the top of the tenth, scoring three runs as Jesus Fabela's RBI triple broke the tie. Culiacan reliever Francisco Villegas then tossed a 1-2-3 bottom of the tenth to seal the win. Efren Navarro went 3-for-5 and hit a homer in the bottom of the ninth to send the game into overtime. Guasave wasted seven shutout innings from starter Nico Tellache in the loss.

LOS MOCHIS 5, Navojoa 1
(Attendance 10,203 at Estadio Emilio Ibarra Almada)

    This opener was tied at one run apiece until the bottom of the seventh, when the Caneros touched Mayos reliever Max Kuhns for four runs (including a two-run roundtripper by Lazaro Alfonso). Juan Gamez pitched a scoreless eighth and Conner Greene did likewise in the ninth for Los Mochis. Marco Jaime was 2-for-4 with two runs for the winners while Alan Espinoza's second-inning homer off Fabian Cota accounted for Navojoa's lone run.

HERMOSILLO 5, Obregon 4
(Attendance 16,073 at Estadio Sonora)

    The Yaquis held a 4-3 lead midway through the seventh until Nick Torres' solo homer off reliever Peyton Gray in the bottom of the frame knotted the score. Hermosillo won the game in the bottom of the ninth when Cesar Salazar drew a full-count walk, pinch-runner Angel Ramirez moved into scoring position on Jasson Atondo's sacrifice bunt and then scored the game-winner from second on a wild pitch by Felipe Gonzalez.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13

Hermosillo 7, OBREGON 1
(Attendance 15,982 at Estadio Yaquis)

    Things didn't get any better at home for Obregon, who were tied 1-1 until the top of the fourth, when the Naranjeros' Roberto Ramos poled a solo homer off Yaquis starter Mitch Lively to give the visitors a lead they built on the rest of the game. Ramos went on belt a second homer while Nick Torres went deep a second night in a row. Sebastian Valle's RBI double in the third gave Obregon their only run as Lively (5IP, 2R) took the loss.

NAVOJOA 8, Los Mochis 1
(Attendance 10,473 at Estadio Manuel “Ciclon” Echeverria)

    The Mayos put this one in their hip pockets early, chasing ex-Arizona starter Edgar Gonzalez with a six-run second inning that featured six hits, including a two-run double by Moises Gutierrez and a two-run single by newcomer Ian Sagdal, a three-time Organization All-Star while playing in the Washington system. Edgar Robles' sacrifice fly off winner Raul Carrillo (5IP, 1R) in the fourth brought Bruce Maxwell in for Los Mochis' sole score.

MEXICALI 15, Monterrey 3
(Attendance 10,402 at El Nido de los Aguilas)

    After Monterrey scored a run in the top of the first, the Aguilas plated three of their own in the bottom of the frame (as Anthony Giansanti contributed a two-run double) and went on to a 15-3 laugher over the Sultanes. Mexicali's six-run eighth saw 12 Eagles went to the plate, six of them driving in a run. Leo Heras went 4-for-4 with three runs and three ribbies as Mexicali had 22 hits, going 13-for-26 with runners in scoring position.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16

MAZATLAN 7, Jalisco 5
(Attendance 7,035 at Estadio Teodoro Mariscal)

    After winning three of four games in their opening series at Guadalajara, the Venados lifted their record to 4-1 Sunday in unusual fashion. A 5-5 tie was broken in the sixth when Jalisco reliever Luis Rodriguez balked Leo German home from third. Mazatlan got an insurance run in the eighth when a Randy Romero fly ball to right was muffed by Agustin Ruiz, allowing Daniel Castro to score from third on one of five Charros errors in the contest.

MEXICO 2-1 AT U-23 WORLD CUP IN TAIWAN

Mexico LHP Alemao Hernandez

    On the heels of a Gold medal in 2018 and a Silver in 2021, Mexico's U-23 National Baseball Team and manager Enrique “Che” Reyes flew to Taiwan in the hopes of bring home more hardware from this month's World Baseball Softball Confederation U-23 Baseball Gold Cup. Mexico is in Group B of the 12-nation event along with Australia, South Korea, Puerto Rico, Cuba and The Netherlands.

    The tournament is the WBSC's third most important in terms of global rankings points, trailing only the World Baseball Classic and Premier12 event. Professional players are allowed in the U-23 World Cup under cooperation with organizations such as Major League Baseball, Nippon Professional Baseball, the Korea Baseball Organization and the Mexican League. Mexico entered the tournament ranked fourth in the world.

    Reyes' charges opened tournament play last Friday with a tight 3-2 win over #10 Australia in eight innings at Tianmu Baseball Stadium. Left fielder Angel Camacho delivered in the clutch twice late for Mexico, first with a spectacular two-out catch of a deep Solomon Maguire fly ball in the bottom of the seventh with a runner on second to send the game into overtime. Then, in the top of the eighth as the lead tie-break runner, Camacho came in to score the go-ahead run on Javier Sanchez' single. Closer Nestor Anguamea held the Aussies scoreless in the bottom of the frame to save the win.

    Saturday's game against #3 South Korea in Taipei was postponed as all three games scheduled for Tianmu Stadium were rained out. They'll be made up on Wednesday before the Super and Placement rounds begin Thursday. The top three teams in each group will advance to the Super Round while both sets of bottom three contestants will do battle in the Placement Round to determine the 7th through 12th place teams.

    Following their unexpected day off, the Mexicans put on what a WBSC story called a hitting and pitching clinic in a 4-0 shutout of The Netherlands (#8) at Dou-liu Stadium. Mexico starter Alemao Hernandez was superb over five innings, scattering three hits and striking out six Dutchmen for the win. Jose Reyes pitched a perfect sixth and Alan Mundo took care of the last three outs in the seventh. Mexico took the lead in the second when Oliver Carrillo singled and scored on Christopher Escarrega's RBI double to the right. Camacho's double to left plated Escarrega to make it 2-0 and the Mexicans never looked back.

    The two promising wins were followed by Monday's disappointing 3-2 loss in eight innings to #16 Puerto Rico. The game began as a pitcher's duel between between starters Bryan Marrero of Puerto Rico and Mexico's Jordan Suarez, who worked four scoreless innings in less than 45 minutes. The Boricuans broke the spell in the bottom of the fifth when Kenen Irizarry touched Suarez for a double and later scored on Glenn Santiago's single up the middle. Mexico knotted the score via the smallball route in the top of the sixth as Elmer Lopez singled, stole second, reached third on a passed ball and scored on a sacrifice fly by Camacho. 

    The 1-1 score carried into the eighth, when Mexican lead tie-break runner Sanchez scored on an Osvaldo Barrios wild pitch. Closer Anguamea was two strikes away from the save but Puerto Rican DH Ricardo de la Torre sliced a blooper to center that Lopez had to chase after, scoring both tie-break runners to end a contest that deserved a far larger crowd than the 45 spectators dotting the 15,000 seats in Dou-liu Stadium.

    Mexico will only have a few hours to regroup before facing Cuba in Taipei's Tiamnu Baseball Stadium at 10:00AM Tuesday local time. The time and venue for Wednesday's rainout makeup against South Korea have not been announced. Catcher Brandon Valenzuela leads Mexican regulars with a .333 batting average, two doubles and three RBIs as the team is batting just .183 after three games. Fortunately, the pitching has more than held up their end with a sparkling 0.91 ERA and allowing just 13 hits over 23 innings. Neither Hernandez nor any of the five relievers used have allowed an earned run thus far.

TUCSON TO HOST LMP SERIES IN NOVEMBER

Kino Stadium in Tucson

    After serving as a Mexican Pacific League training camp site as well as the primary facility of the Mexican Baseball Fiesta for over a decade, Tucson will host a three-game LMP regular season series at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium next month.

    The Mexicali Aguilas and Obregon Yaquis will square off for three games between Friday, November 11 and Sunday, November 13 in what will be the first time in the Mex Pac's decades-long history that the loop has played games that count in the standings outside Mexico. Mexicali will serve as home team for the series but both clubs and their fans have made the trek over the border crossing at Nogales and 63 miles north on Interstate 19 to the Old Pueblo ever since the Fiesta was first played in 2011.

    Tucson was first represented in professional baseball whe the Old Pueblos were in the Class D Rio Grande Association in 1915 but the league folded that July. Tucson re-entered the play-for-pay ranks in 1928 with a team in another Class D loop, the Arizona State League, and would sporadically field clubs in six leagues (none above the Class C level) until both the Cowboys and Arizona-Mexico League folded after the 1958 season.

    The AAA Pacific Coast League Toros began play in 1969 and the PCL would stay in Tucson for 40 seasons. After the team was sold for $15 million and moved to Reno prior to the 2009 season, Tucson had a team in the independent Golden League for three years and returned to the PCL for a three-year stay as temporary home for the eventual El Paso Chihuahuas between 2011 and 2014. The Tucson Saguaros began play in the independent Pecos League in 2016, winning three pennants since, and are now the current summer tenants at Kino Stadium.

    Although the LMP has made no mention of Tucson as a potential franchise site, the city's metropolitan population of just over a million residents includes a 45 percent Hispanic demographic, a team there would be a natural league travel partner with Mexicali, Kino Stadium and its 11,500 seating capacity would be a good fit in the Mex Pac and new LMP president Carlos Manrique has made expanding his league's profile north of the border a priority. Many baseball teams in both Mexico and the USA have far less to build on.