TOROS AVOID SWEEP, SERIE DEL REY GOES BACK TO TJ

    After losing the first three games of the 2021 Serie del Rey, things were looking grim late last week for the Tijuana Toros, who had to beat the Yucatan Leones twice in Merida to stay alive and send the series back home to Estadio Nacional, let alone avoid an embarrassing sweep.

    As things turned out, that's exactly what happened and now both teams will be flying to Baja California Norte for Game Six of the Mexican League's championship series on Tuesday night. The following is a wrap of each of the first five games of the series:

GAME 1 (Monday, September 6): Yucatan 7, TIJUANA 3

Yucatan OF Yadir Drake

    The Leones drew first blood by scoring four runs in the top of the seventh inning to blow open a 3-2 game en route to a four-run win over the Toros in front of 14,297 fans at Tijuana's Estadio Nacional. Sebastian Valle's three-run homer off TJ reliever Brennan Bernardino with two out was the key blow. At that point, Jesus Pirela relieved Bernardino and recorded the third out but the damage was done and the Liones never looked back.

    Valle combined with Walter Ibarra and Humberto Sosa for six hits and six RBIs to lead Yucatan while starter Rhadames Liz allowed two runs on five hits over five innings for the win. Although Bernardino suffered a nightmarish seventh, the loss went to Toros starter Michael Devine, who was charged for three runs on four hits and four walks after exiting with two out in the fifth.

GAME 2 (Tuesday, September 7): Yucatan 7, TIJUANA 1

    The Leones made it 2-for-TJ with another big inning to break a close game open. The Toros took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Junior Lake scored on Gabriel Gutierrez' groundout to second. Tijuana starter Carlos Hernandez tossed four shutout innings before Humberto Sosa, Sebastian Valle and Jose Juan Aguilar led off the fifth with consecutive singles to load the bases. Hernandez walked Jorge Flores on a 3-and-2 count to push Sosa across with the tying run. With two outs, Yadir Drake stepped up and crushed a grand slam to straightaway center, giving the visitors a 5-1 advantage they'd never relinquish.

    After giving up that one first-inning run, Yucatan starter Yoanner Negrin didn't allow another score through seven frames to earn the win. Sosa, Aguilar and Alex Liddi each had two of the Leones' ten hits, but it was Drake's homer that made all the difference in sending 14,989 onlookers at Estadio Nacional home disappointed.

GAME 3 (Thursday, September 9): YUCATAN 2, Tijuana 0

    After going 1-for-7 over the first two games, Luis Juarez broke his relative silence with a two-run homer (his tenth of the postseason) in the first inning and that was all Yucatan starter Jake Thompson and four relievers would need in posting a combined 2-0 shutout as 6,420 aficionados watched in Merida's “sold out” Parque Kukulkan, which was limited to 40 percent capacity due to the pandemic. Yadir Drake had drawn a two-out walk before Juarez stepped up and slammed Joe Van Meter's first pitch over the left field wall.

    Thompson, who had to wait through a pregame rain delay lasting over two hours, scattered five hits over five innings for the win and Josh Lueke earned the save for Yucatan with a 1-2-3 ninth. Van Meter settled down to pitch scoreless ball until two outs in the fifth inning, but that one pitch to Juarez proved to be his undoing. Tijuana's Gabriel Gutierrez was the lone batter with more than one hit, collecting two singles off Thompson.

GAME 4 (Saturday, September 11): Tijuana 6, YUCATAN 2

Tijuana 1B Efren Navarro

    After Thursday's rain delay held up Game 3, Friday's Game 4 was postponed until Saturday by more rain. Yadier Drake singled in one run and scored another on Alex Liddi's sacrifice fly to give Yucatan a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first. The Toros stretched their scoreless streak to 19 innings before Isaac Rodriguez tallied on Junior Lake's sacrifice fly in the top of the third. Tijuana would then score at least one more run in the third, fourth and fifth innings as Efren Navarro belted a two-run homer in the fourth and Gabriel Gutierrez singled in two more in the fifth, putting the game out of reach.

    Teddy Stankiewicz replaced Michael Devine in the third with the Toros trailing 2-1, then pitched 3.1 innings of one-hit ball and was the beneficiary of TJ's mid-game offensive awakening, earning the win. Leones starter Casey Harman dished up Navarro's homer and was tagged for the loss as the visitors outhit Yucatan by a 14-to-5 margin as another “sellout” crowd of 6,420 watched the contest.

GAME 5 (Sunday, September 12): Tijuana 4, YUCATAN 3

    Junior Lake singled and Leandro Castro lofted a homer off Yucatan starter Rhadames Liz over the left field wall to give Tijuana a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. The Toros scored again in the top of the second when Luis Alfonso Cruz launched Liz' first pitch of the frame for a homer to left. A Cruz throwing error from third base in the bottom of the second allowed Jose Juan Aguilar to score from first with the Leones' first run. The teams traded zeros into the bottom of the fifth, when Yadir Drake sliced a two-out, opposite-field double and later motored home from second on an Alex Liddi single up the middle to narrow the Bulls' lead to 3-2.

    That's where the score stayed until the bottom of the ninth, when Fernando Rodney gave up a double to Alex Liddi that scored Yadir Drake from second and ultimately sent the game into extra innings. The game remained tied until Xavier Carrillo's bloop single in the top of the eleventh plated Gabriel Gutierrez, giving the Toros a 4-3 lead. The Leones had runners at first and second with one out in the bottom of the eleventh, but Junior Lake made a diving catch of Luis Juarez' sinking liner to center for one out, then threw to second to double up Walter Ibarra for the last out of the game, which drew another 6,420 onlookers.

    Rodney tossed the final three innings on 47 pitches to earn the win while Yucatan reliever Manuel Chavez, who gave up Carrillo's RBI single was tagged with the loss.

MANNY BARREDA CALLED UP BY ORIOLES FOR MLB DEBUT

RHP Manny Barreda finally reaches MLB

    There's an old adage that life is about the journey than the destination, but pitcher Manny Barreda may be forgiven if he thinks, “Forget that noise...give me the destination!”

    After 15 years of pitching for four Major League Baseball organizations, the 5'11” righthander finally made his big league debut last Wednesday (one month shy of his 33rd birthday) when Barreda entered a game for Baltimore in the eighth inning trailing Kansas City, 5-0, at Camden Yards. Barreda not only retired the Royals in order (striking out the Royals' Michael Taylor looking to end the top of the eighth), he was awarded the win after the Orioles scored NINE runs in the bottom of the eighth and held on to beat Kansas City, 9-8, as a gathering of 4,965 watched the hapless O's bring their record up to an MLB-worst 45-93.

    Not that Barreda minded the sparse attendance nor the lost season his new team was in when he first joined them after his September 7 call-up. For the native of Sahuarita, Arizona, it was the culmination of a long apprenticeship that began in 2007 when he was taken by the Yankees in the 12th round of that year's draft.

    After going 5-0 with a 3.00 ERA in eleven outings (including three starts) for the Yanks' Gulf Coast League team, Barreda spent eight summers in their system before being released in 2014, after which he signed with Milwaukee. He spent two years in the Brewers' minors before signing with Tijuana of the Mexican League in late 2015 as a middle reliever, a role he'd held his entire career except for six starts with Class A Charleston in 2011. Barreda continued as a middleman for the Toros in 2016, going 2-1 with a .350 ERA in 25 outings that summer.

Barreda threw no-hitter for Los Mochis

    Then a funny thing happened in Los Mochis, where he spent the 2016-17 Mexican Pacific League winterball season: The Caneros made Barreda a starter and he was 4-3, leading the LMP with a 2.20 ERA and finishing third with 66 strikeouts. He threw a no-hitter against Hermosillo that season, requiring 138 pitches to subdue the Naranjeros, 2-0. Weeks later, Barreda signed a free agent contract with Atlanta.

    The Braves shipped him back to Tijuana for the 2017 season, and he rewarded the Toros with his second no-hitter in eight months, beating Tabasco, 4-0, that July on 145 pitches. He was eventually brought up to Atlanta's AAA Gwinnett affiliate and rewarded them by turning in a 3-1 record and 1.83 ERA in seven starts, earning the International League's Pitcher of the Week award on September 4. Even with those credentials, Barreda not only didn't get called up to the big leagues, he was sent back to Tijuana for 2018 and 2019.

    After missing the 2020 season due to the pandemic, Barreda had a strong LMP season for pennant-winning Culiacan and earned the Tomateros' lone win at the Caribbean Series in Mazatlan, after which he was signed by Baltimore. The Sahaurita, Arizona native pitched one inning in relief at AA Bowie and was promoted to AAA Norfolk in June, where he was 1-2 with two saves and a 4.19 ERA before last week's call to Baltimore.

    Although he's been rocked a bit in subsequent relief appearances for the Orioles against Kansas City and Toronto (his ERA as of Saturday night was 13.50 and he'd given up homers to the Royals' Hunter Dozier and Teoscar Hernandez of the Blue Jays), Manny Barreda has to be ecstatic to finally be getting his first chance to pitch at the major league level after years of waiting. It's been a long, long journey he hopes is finally over.

FIFTY YEARS SINCE LONE TEAM WON LMB FINALS AFTER 0-3 START

    The Tijuana Toros got off to a rocky start in the this season's Serie del Rey, losing the first three games to Yucatan in an attempt to win the border city's second Mexican League pennant. They aren't the only team to face similar long odds for a comeback, of course, but just one team overcame an 0-3 deficit to capture the flag fifty years ago this week.

    Carlos Meza of Septima Entrada took a look back in time last week to recall when that team roared back with four straight wins to stun the Saltillo Saraperos for the championship. Here's an edited Google translation of his column:

Max Leon was 14-7 for Jalisco in 1971

    Fifty years ago, an unprecedented event occurred in the Mexican Baseball League: For the first and only time in a championship series, a team recovered from a 0-3 deficit to win the title. The protagonist of that story? The Jalisco Charros.

    And there can't be a great story without drama. In that season, the Charros made the playoffs on the last day of the regular season as the Mexico City Diablos Rojos fell in Veracruz, so Jalisco remained with the leadership of the LMB South and would face the leaders of the North, the Saltillo Saraperos.

    But a few days before the Final Series, Charros owner Álvaro Lebrija ran out of patience with pitchers Cecilio Acosta, Enrique Romo and Martín Raygoza and suspended them. "Discipline is more important than the title," they say the owner declared after the decision.

    But Saltillo manager Tomás Herrera's team delivered three almost-fulminating hits: On August 10 and 11, 1971, the Saraperos won games at the Estadio Tecnologico in Guadalajara and on the 13th, they also took a victory in Saltillo.

    Everything was ready for a great party in Coahuila in the fourth game of the series. However, rain canceled the game and the Saltillo board decided to carry out a doubleheader the next day so that local fans could see their club be crowned in Sunday.

    But everything changed. The Charros showed pride and beat Saraperos, 6-3 and 4-2, at Estadio Francisco I. Madero, narrowing the margin to 3-games-to-2 and forcing the Final Series to return to Guadalajara.

    “The God Tlaloc helped them with the rest day and the series returned to Guadalajara,” recalls current Charros Mexican Pacific League co-owner Armando Navarro, who as a fan experienced those finals in a packed Estadio Tecnologico. “They couldn't stop them anymore.”

    In the sixth game, reliever Manuel Lugo had to start the game and although the plan was for him to pitch four innings, he ended up pitching all nine. The Saraperos led, 2-0, on the scoreboard but the Charros rallied with run-scoring singles by Bill Parlier and Clemente Rosas to win the game, 3-2, and equalize the grand finale.

Charros skipper Cananea Reyes showered

    Then on Wednesday, August 18, the decisive game was played. Pablo Torrealba opened for Jalisco and Andrés Ayón for Saltillo, and the latter had a bad night.

    Jalisco scored in the first inning and Torrealba hung up six zeros. At the end of the sixth, Parlier hit a home run to make it 3-0 and sent Tech Stadium boiling. Singles by Francisco Campos and Francisco Menchaca would add two more scores for the five runs the Charros would score that day. The visitors responded with a home run by Jungla Salinas in the ninth inning, but everything was already written with a 5-1 on the board.

    That 1971 Jalisco team (the second and last one to win an LMB pennant) was under the command of young manager Benjamin “Cananea” Reyes. The Guadalajara nine had heroes like pitchers Máximino León, Pablo Torrealba, Ernesto Córdoba and Manuel Lugo as well as players like Jaime Corella, Clemente Rosas, Francisco Campos, Roberto Mendez, Lauro Villalobos and Roberto Castellón.

Twenty-six Mexican players in MLB spring training camps

Although the Caribbean Series concluded Mexico's four-month winterball season less than two weeks ago, pro baseball is only now stirring to life north of the border as Major League Baseball organizations open spring training camps in Florida and Arizona this month.  There are 26 Mexican players scattered among 15 big league teams, including ten non-roster invitees.

Fifteen of the 25 are in National League camps.  The Los Angeles Dodgers have four Mexicans training with the big club while the San Diego Padres have three among 16 MLB teams with at least one Mexican player in camp.  Left-handed pitcher Jorge De La Rosa (pictured above), who'll turn 36 on April 5, signed with Arizona this weekend as a free agent after a nine-year stint with the Colorado Rockies, for whom he went 86-61 between 2008 and 2016, winning 16 games twice and 14 once.  De La Rosa is the Rockies' all-time wins leader while going 53-20 record at Coors Field. De La Rosa signed a minor league contract with the Diamondbacks, but has been invited to the team's major league camp.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Chicago White Sox - RHP Miguel Angel Gonzalez

Kansas City Royals - RHP Joakim Soria

Los Angeles Angels - LHP Manny Banuelos*

New York Yankees - RHP Luis Cessa, RHP Giovanny Gallegos

Seattle Mariners - RHP Yovanni Gallardo, C Sebastian Valle*

Texas Rangers - RHP Eddie Gamboa

Toronto Blue Jays - RHP Marco Estrada, RHP Roberto Osuna

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Arizona Diamondbacks - Jorge De La Rosa*
Atlanta Braves - LHP Jaime Garcia

Cincinnati Reds - OF Sebastian Elizalde*

Colorado Rockies - IF Daniel Castro*

Los Angeles Dodgers - 1B Adrian Gonzalez, RHP Sergio Romo, LHP Julio Cesar Urias, OF Alex Verdugo*

New York Mets - C Xorge Carrillo*, RHP Fernando Salas

Philadelphia Phillies - RHP Victor Arano*

San Diego Padres - IF Luis Urias*, RHP Cesar Vargas, 3B Christian Villanueva*

Washington Nationals - RHP Rafael Martin, LHP Oliver Perez

*-Non-roster invitee

One more Mexican in a major league camp is former utility infielder Tony Perezchica, a Mexicali native making his debut as a third base coach in Arizona under new manager Torey Luvollo.  Perezchica hit .228 in 69 games over parts of four seasons with San Francisco and Cleveland between 1988 and 1992.  A Giants third round draft pick in 1984, the 50-year-old Palm Springs HS grad has been coaching and managing in the D-Backs system since 2004.

Perezchica becomes the first major league coach born in Mexico since the legendary Ben "Cananea" Reyes (pictured left) spent the 1981 season as the Seattle Mariners' third base coach after being brought north by M's skipper Maury Wills, under whom Reyes had coached in Hermosillo during the 1970-71 Mexican Pacific League season.  Reyes unofficially became the first Mexican to manage an MLB team after Wills was suspended two games in 1981 for having the batter's box altered before a game at the Kingdome.

Reyes lost his April 28 debut in Minnesota, 4-1, as Richie Sisk's fifth inning homer was the only blot on Pete Redfern's five-hitter for the Twins.  The two teams battled to a rare 7-7 tie on April 29 as rain halted play in the bottom of the eighth inning at old Metropolitan Stadium.  Reyes has never officially received credit for filling in for Wills, who was fired a week after returning to the Mariners dugout.  Reyes stayed the rest of the season under new Seattle manager Rene Lachemann.

Reyes had more success managing at home, winning five Mexican League pennants managing the Mexico City Red Devils after winning a flag with Jalisco in 1971.  He also managed four Mexican Pacific League champions (three in Hermosillo) and took Caribbean Series titles with the Naranjeros in 1976 and Mexicali in 1986 for the only CS crown the Aguilas have won.  Reyes died in late 1991 at age 54, and was elected to Mexican baseball's Salon de la Fama the following year.

Six Mexicans to enter Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame

When the Caribbean Series is held in Culiacan next month, six past Mexican players and executives will be inducted into the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame.  The pantheon was established in 1996 by Conferederation of Professional Baseball of the Caribbean commissioner Juan Francisco Puello Herrera to honor players who've distinguished themselves in past Serie del Caribe events along with people who've contributed to the growth of baseball in the region.  Inductees are voted upon by journalists, broadcasters and historians in Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Mexico.  As with Cooperstown, candidates must receive 75 percent of the vote to gain membership.

Since 2009, membership has been awarded annually to personalities from the country hosting the Caribbean Series.  The 2017 inductees include third baseman Vinny Castilla (pictured), first baseman Erubiel Durazo, second baseman Miguel Flores, manager Ben "Cananea" Reyes, journalist Alfonso Araujo Bojorquez and late executive Juan Manuel Ley.

Castilla played in five Caribbean Series with Tijuana (1991), Hermosillo (1995, 2007, 2010) and Mazatlan (2005), winning a CS title with the Venados.  The popular Oaxacan is the all-time Major League Baseball leader among Mexicans in career homers (320) and RBIs (1,105), and played in two All-Star Games as a member of the Colorado Rockies.  After playing for Mexico in the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006, he managed the Mexican team in 2009.  Castillo later served in the front office and as a instructor for the Rockies.

Durazo was a member of four Serie del Caribe teams, including Mazatlan (1998, 2005) and Hermosillo (2001, 2007), winning the MVP award with the Naranjeros in 2001 and a title with the Venados in 2005 as a teammate of Castilla's.  The Hermosillo native also spent seven years in MLB, four with Arizona and three with Oakland, hitting 94 homers and winning a World Series in 2001 with the Diamondbacks.  Durazo was chosen last year to oversee development a D-Backs academy for Mexican prospects in Hermosillo.

Flores went to the CS three times with Hermosillo (1994, 1995, 2001) and once with Mazatlan (2005), winning a championship with Castilla and Durazo in 2005 with the Deer.  After spending five summers playing in the Indians organization, Flores spent 15 seasons in the Mexican League with his hometown Monterrey Sultanes, batting an even .300 with 231 doubles while stealing 215 bases.

Reyes managed Hermosillo to the event in 1975, 1976 and 1980 and guided Mexicali to the CS in 1986, winning the title with the Naranjeros in 1975 and again in 1986 with the Aguilas.  He also managed teams to six Mexican League pennants, including five with the Mexico City Diablos Rojos, and coached with the Seattle Mariners under Maury Wills in 1981, filling in as manager during Wills' two-game suspension to become the first (and, to date, only) Mexican to manage an MLB team.

Araujo was a triple-threat journalist (print, TV and radio) who covered several Caribbean Series on each medium.  Now 83, the Navojoa native began writing for the Ahora newspaper at age 14 in 1947 and continues to this day with his "Lanzado para Home" column, marking seven decades as a scribe.  The author of 14 books, Araujo also spent 25 winters as official scorer for the Obregon Yaquis (plus 17 years on the Yaquis radio team) and has been part of Mexican League telecasts.

Ley founded the Culiacan Tomateros with his father and was the team's owner during ten Mexican Pacific League championship runs, with Caribbean Series titles in 2002 and 2005, until his death at age 82 in January of last year.  He was also at the helm when the Tomateros' 20,000-seat ballpark was constructed and lived long enough to witness his team's first season in the new facility last winter, when they averaged 16,000 fans per game.  Ley also owned the Saltillo Saraperos of the Mexican League 1999 to 2013.

Although the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame has been around for over twenty years, there were only two members from Mexico inducted during the first nine years of its existence:  Legendary first baseman Hector Espino was a member of the charter class of 1996 while pitcher Vicente Romo got the nod in 2001.  After six more Mexicans were added to the rolls in 2005 and 2006, there were no more representatives of the country brought in between 2007 and 2012.  The six figures to be inducted next month will bring the total of Mexicans in the HOF to twenty.

An induction ceremony will be held during this year's Serie del Caribe in Culiacan between February 1 and 7.

Mexican members of the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame
1996-Hector Espino (1B)
2001-Vicente Romo (P)
2005-Horacio Lopez Dio (EXEC), Victor Saiz (UMP), Juan Navarrete (2B)
2006-Celerino Sanchez (3B), Eduardo Acosta (P), Mercedes Esquer (P)
2013-Houston Jimenez (SS), Francisco Estrada (C/MGR), Arturo Leon Lerma (EXEC), Ever Magallanes (SS), Fernando Valenzuela (P), Renato Vega (EXEC)
2017-Vinny Castilla (3B), Erubiel Durazo (1B), Miguel Flores (2B), Cananea Reyes (MGR), Alfonso Araujo Bojorquez (MEDIA), Juan Manuel Ley (EXEC)