LEYVA KEEPS LEONES ALIVE; OJEDA SUSPENDED

C Sebastian Valle and P Elian Leyva, Yucatan

The Mexican League South Division Championships are moving back to Mexico City for Game Six on Tuesday after pitcher Elian Leyva’s masterful outing Sunday in Merida kept his Yucatan Leones afloat in their battle with the Diablos Rojos, who lead the best-of-7 series, 3-games-to-2. 

Leyva, a two-time Mexican Pacific League Pitcher of the Year (including last winter), tossed seven shutout innings of one-hit ball Sunday as the Leones outlasted the Diablos, 2-0, in front of a third consecutive sellout crowd of 14,917 at venerable Parque Kukulkan. Leyva struck out eight Mexico City batters before leaving the scoreless tie after the top of the seventh. In the bottom of the frame, Art Charles lined a two-run homer to straightaway center field off Diablos reliever David Huff, who’d replaced starter Jeffry Nino after the latter had whitewashed Yucatan over the first six entradas. Charles’ blast was enough as three Yucatan relievers held Mexico City scoreless over the final two innings with Jorge Rondon striking out the dangerous Roberto Ramos looking to end the contest, after which fans in Merida danced and sang in the ballpark’s esplanade during a postgame concert by bands El Fresca and La Sentencia.

The series opened last Tuesday at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu in the nation’s capital with an 11-10 Diablos win in eleven innings. The contest featured five homers among the 36 combined hits from the two combatants, but it was a bases-loaded walkoff single from Jesus Fabela off Rondon that scored pinch-runner Antonio Castaneda that ended the tilt in the bottom of the eleventh as 14,528 fanaticos looked on. Juan Carlos Gamboa socked two homers for the winners, including a grand slam in the bottom of the first inning, while Charles belted a roundtripper for the Leones in the top of the tenth.

After a Tuesday rainout, Game Two of the LMB South title set was played last Wednesday as the Leones triumphed, 15-8, and did something Puebla was unable to achieve in their division semis against Mexico City: Hold the Diablos to less than 10 runs. As 18,851 watched, Yucatan scored 12 times between the third and sixth innings to take a 12-6 lead and never looked back. Yadir Drake homered and drove in four runs for the Lions while Luis Juarez went 3-for-5 and two RBIs. Moises Gutierrez led the Red Devils with two hits (including a homer) and two ribbies as every starting batter for both teams had at least one of the game’s combined 31 hits except for Diablos catcher Julian Leon, the Puebla series hero who struck out three times. Sic transit gloria.

The series shifted to Merida for Game Three last Thursday, with the visiting Diablos taking an 8-3 win behind the bats of Julian Ornelas (who went 4-for-5 with two homers, scoring four runs and driving in three) and Gamboa, who had three hits, including an RBI single. Cristhian Adames hit a solo homer for the Leones while pinch-hitter Lazaro Alfonso socked a two-run bomb in the ninth to give the home crowd of 14,917 something to cheer about but it was too little, too late. Diablos reliever Huff got the win after going 2.1 scoreless innings and striking out four Yucatan batsmen while Leones starter Henderson Alvarez (5 innings, 4 runs) took the loss.

Another rainout delayed Game Four until Saturday, which saw another Mexico City road win in front of one more full house of 14,917 at Parque Kukulkan, albeit by a closer 6-5 score. The Leones led, 4-3, after one inning thanks to Josh Fuentes’ two-run single, but the Diablos tied the tilt in the fifth and a Fabela bunt scored Gutierrez with the go-ahead run one frame later. Ramos had a resourceful night for the Red Devils as the former KBO star drove in three runs and scored once on a double, a sacrifice fly and a plunking by Hunter Cervenka while Gamboa stroked a two-run single in the first. Francisco Haro came out of the bullpen to replace starter Humberto Sosa two outs into the first and pitched 6.1 scoreless innings (allowing two hits and striking out 11) for the win. Jake Thompson, normally a starter for Yucatan, took the loss in relief after giving up Fabela’s run-scoring sacrifice bunt during his two-inning stint as the Diablos found themselves one win away from the Serie del Rey going into Leyva’s season-saving heroics on Sunday. Game Six is set for 8PM Eastern on Tuesday in Mexico City.

Not all the drama in the series has been on the field. Former big league and Liga catcher Miguel Ojeda, who managed Mexico City to their last pennant in 2014 and is now the team’s sports manager, was suspended for a year by LMB president Horacio de la Vegas after it was discovered the Diablos used a television camera in center field to steal signs from Yucatan catcher Sebastian Valle during the first two games of the series at Estadio AHH. The Leones front office told de la Vega of their suspicions last week and after an investigation, Ojeda received his suspension Sunday, as did Diablos TV producer Marco Antonio Avila Toledo.

SULTANES SWEEP CHAMPS, ON TO SERIE DEL REY

Victor Mendoza, Monterrey Sultanes 1B

Given the sometimes-heated nature of the rivalry between the Monterrey Sultanes and the defending Mexican League champion Tijuana Toros over the past few years, there was much anticipation going into their LMB North Championship Series last week. As it turned out, the anticipation exceeded the event as the Sultanes swept the Toros in four straight games to advance to the pennant-deciding Serie del Rey later this week.

Monterrey took the first two games at Tijuana’s Estadio Nacional, opening the series last Monday with a 6-2 win over the Toros in front of 10,081 spectators. The Sultanes were paced offensively by homers from Sebastian Elizalde and Zoilo Almonte and Orlando Calixte’s 3-for-5 night at the plate as starter Yohander Mendez turned in a strong five innings for the winners. Mendez, who was 7-0 and led the LMB with a 2.78 ERA during the regular season, gave up just one run on a Nick Williams triple in the fifth while striking out eight to earn the win as Agustin Murillo’s RBI single in the eighth accounted for the Toros’ other run. TJ starter Nick Struck didn’t have a bad outing, going five innings and giving up 2 runs on 3 hits, but he couldn’t match Mendez’ mound mastery (no extra charge for the alliteration).

Game Two on Tuesday in Tijuana was more of the same as strong Monterrey pitching keyed a Sultanes road win, this time by a 4-1 count. It was mostly a pitcher’s duel except for one pitch: Toros starter Manny Barreda dished up a three-run homer to Calixte in the top of the fourth that decided the game for all intent and purposes. Leandro Castro broke up Monterrey’s shutout bid in the seventh with a solo homer off reliever Juan Gamez with 15,313 watching at Estadio Nacional, but the night belonged to the Sultanes pitching staff. Julio Teheran has had a great postseason thus far for manager Roberto Kelly’s troops as the former Braves starter threw six innings of two-hit baseball in blanking the potent Toros. Barreda went five frames and struck out eight while allowing five hits, but took the loss for Tijuana.

After a travel day, the series resumed at Estadio Monterrey as 17,241 were in the stands for a 2-1 knucklebiter win in 13 innings for the Sultanes last Thursday. The game was scoreless heading into the bottom of the seventh, when Elizalde scored from third after a Javy Guerra pitch eluded Tijuana catcher Xorge Carrillo. Guerra had relieved Toros starter Humberto Mejia after Elizalde opened the inning with a single, but promptly hit Zoilo Almonte with his first pitch, advancing Elizalde to second. Guerra gave himself a little breathing room by inducing Victor Mendoza to ground into a 3-6-1 double play as Elizalde moved to third on the play but Carrillo mishandled a pitch while he pitched to Calixte. Murillo tied the game in the top of the ninth by coming in from third on a bases-loaded forceout at second on a grounder from Nick Williams. The two teams battled for three more scoreless innings until Mendoza’s walkoff single off Kyle Lobstein in the bottom of the 13th brought in Gustavo Nunez with the game-winner, giving the Sultanes a 3-games-to-1 advantage.

The series (and Tijuana’s season) ended last Friday as Monterrey completed the sweep with a 12-11 home win with a sellout crowd of 21,000 fans in the stands. After allowing four runs over the first three games, the Sultanes pitching basically took the night off as a Junior Lake solo homer in the top of the ninth gave the Toros an 11-9 lead. Former MLB All-Star Fernando Rodney took the mound in the bottom of the inning and was one out away from the save after getting the first two Sultanes.

As anyone who’s followed Rodney’s career knows, however, two outs are never enough as the 45-year-old righty (second to Monterrey’s Neftali Feliz with 22 saves in the regular season) then gave up singles to Nunez and Jose Cardona and walked Elizalde to load the bases. Rodney then walked Almonte to score Nunez, making it an 11-10 Tijuana lead, then gave up a single to Mendoza to plate Cardona with the tying run and Elizalde with the game winner in what could well have been Fernando’s last pitch in Tijuana togs, given the capricious nature of Toros owner Alberto Uribe. Uribe may also be wondering why manager Homar Rojas left a struggling Rodney in to face Mendoza while leaving Struck, a successful long-time reliever in Mexico until last year who hadn’t pitched for four nights, in the bullpen. Managers have been fired for less in Tijuana.

With the win, the Sultanes will be well-rested when they seek the franchise’s eleventh pennant since 1943 and their second under Kelly, who took them to a title in 2018. The Serie del Rey is scheduled to open Friday night.

MEXICO CITY TO HOST TWO MLB GAMES IN 2023

The San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants will meet in a two-game series at Mexico City’s Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu in Mexico City on April 29 and 30 next year. Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association made the announcement last week. The games, which will serve as Padres home games, will represent the first-ever regular season series played in Mexico City. In 2016, the Padres hosted Houston in a two-game exhibition series at Fray Nano Stadium in Mexico City.  

The Mexican Series games next April mark the fourth time the Padres have traveled to Mexico for regular season games: They’ve also been a part of three MLB visits to Monterrey, including a three-games series against the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2018, the 1999 season-opener against the Colorado Rockies and a three-game series against the New York Mets in 1996.  These games will be the first games in Mexico for the San Francisco Giants in their long history. In 2004, they traveled to San Juan, Puerto Rico for a three-game regular season series against the Montreal Expos, who played part of their home schedule at Estadio Hiram Bithorn that season prior to moving to Washington a year later.

“The Padres are excited to return to Mexico and play in the first regular season series in Mexico City in MLB history,” said San Diego CEO Erik Greupner. “We are fortunate to have a loyal and passionate fan base in Mexico, and it will be an honor to showcase our team in Mexico’s capital city at the beautiful new ballpark built by and named after Padres minority owner Alfredo Harp Helú.”

“It will be an honor to represent Major League Baseball, as well as San Francisco, at historic Mexico City for the first time ever,” said Giants President and CEO Larry Baer. “We look forward to bringing the Giants and Padres rivalry to a passionate sports fan base and it will be a great opportunity to introduce the Giants to an international audience to further develop new fans across all of Mexico.”

CHARLES IN CHARGE: LEONES SLUG WAY TO 2ND ROUND

Yucatan DH/1B Art Charles

Led by the explosive bat of Art Charles, Yucatan outlasted Puebla, 20-17, last Wednesday to win their Mexican League first round playoff series 4-games-to-2 and advance to the South Division semifinals against Quintana Roo. By winning two games, the Pericos also moved on to face Mexico City in their LMB South semi set.

A former Toronto and Philadelphia farmhand, the 6’6” Charles crashed a pair of homers in the Leones’ deciding-game win, including a three-run bomb during a six-run eighth inning outburst that brought Yucatan back from a 17-14 deficit to the Parakeets in Puebla. The two teams combined for 37 runs on 42 hits as 19 pitchers were used in the 5-hour, 5-minute marathon. Charles ended the series with five homers in six games. 

The Leones’ post-series ride to the Mexico City airport for a flight back to Merida was marred when their bus was attacked and fired upon less than ten miles out of Puebla. Two of their buses’ tires were punctured and destroyed by rocks as the team was chased by a vehicle with at least one occupant firing a gun at them. The National Guard was called and nobody on the bus was hurt. While Mexico is beset nationwide by drug cartels, the attack is believed to have come from some irate Pericos fans.

The Yucatan players and coaches showed no lost nerve by winning the first two games of their next series against rival Quintana Roo at home in Merida. The Lions thumped the Tigres, 9-1, in Saturday’s opener. Charles’ bat sayed hot with a three-run homer in the top of the fifth and a run-scoring single in the sixth. Former Blue Jays and Marlins starter Henderson Alvarez got the win by tossing 5.2 innings of 1-run ball and scattering seven hits. McKenzie Mills took the loss, allowing three runs on two frames.

The Leones needed 12 innings to slip past the Tigres, 5-4, on Sunday. Charles crushed another three-run roundtripper in the bottom of the eighth to turn a 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 lead, but Alexis Wilson’s solo blast in the top of the ninth tied it up as the game went into overtime. Quintana Roo’s Raul De Los Reyes came out from the bullpen in the bottom of the twelfth with two Yucatan runners on and promptly walked Jose Martinez to load the bases and then gave Marco Jaime a free pass to score Norberto Obeso from third to end what was literally a walk-off win for the hosts.  Crowds topping 12,000 attended both contests at Parque Kukulkan. Game Three will be Tuesday night in Cancun.

Meanwhile, the Mexico City Diablos Rojos plated 27 runs in winning their first two games against Puebla, beginning with Saturday’s 10-6 triumph over the Pericos. The Diablos were up 4-3 before a six-run fifth inning essentially put the game away. Catcher Julian Leon, not ordinarily considered one of the team’s big guns, the the most damage by swatting a two-run homer in the third and a three-run clout in the sixth, both off Puebla starter Gabriel Ynoa. While starter Jeffry Nino pitched four innings of two-run ball, reliever David Huff got the win despite allowing a counter in the fifth. Ynoa took the loss by letting in seven runs on eight hits in four-plus innings (serving up Leon’s second homer after walking Roberto Ramos and Juan Carlos Gamboa to start the fifth.

Game Two of the series was a Red Devils’ 17-7 blowout of Puebla as the home team socked five homers, two by Ramos. The former KBO star finished 3-for-5 (adding a double) and drove in five runs). Daniel Mercado and Miguel Guzman went deep for the Pericos but with Mexico City holding a 13-3 lead after four entradas, it was all Diablos. Bernardo Flores’ five innings of 4-run pitching was good enough to be given the win while Puebla starter Braulio Torres-Perez somehow lasted long enough to allow five runs on two hits and three walks in Mexico City’s 7-run first before being yanked with only one out to show for it. Attendance at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helo approached 28,000 for the two contests as the series now shifts to Puebla for Games Three on Tuesday night. 

SULTANES UP 2-0 IN LMB NORTH SEMIS VS. TECOS

Monclova RHP Josh Lowey

The Monterrey Sultanes topped Dos Laredos twice in Nuevo Laredo over the weekend to take the reins in their Northern Division semifinal playoff series. Both games were played at Estadio Nuevo Laredo, a somewhat surprising move because while the 12,000-seat facility is much nicer than the Tecolotes usual Mexican home of aging Parque La Junta, it sits several miles outside the city and fans tend to stay home rather that avoid the risk of running into cartel activity along the way. Attendance was over 5,000 both Friday and Saturday, decent crowds compared to La Junta’s usual turnout but well below the double-figure audiences at the six other second-round matchups played in Merida, Mexico City and Tijuana.

Monterrey doubled up the Tecos, 4-2, in Friday’s Game One after building up a 4-0 lead on RBI singles by Zoilo Almonte in the first inning and Jose Cardona in the third, preceding a homer in the fourth from Ramiro Pena (who scored on Ali Solis’ sacrifice bunt in the sixth. Kennys Vargas and Balbino Fuenmayor put Dos Laredos on the board with ron-scoring singles in the seventh but the Tecos couldn’t come any closer.  Yohander Mendez pitched five shutout innings for the Sultanes to collect the win as Neftali Feliz notched the save. Brandon Brennan was handed the loss after giving up three runs in four frames.

One night later, the Sultanes grounded the Owls, 9-3, behind the solid start from former Atlanta hurler Julio Teheran, who had five 10+ win seasons for the Braves in the 2010’s. Teheran allowed just two safeties in six shutout innings to earn the win. Longtime independent league reliever Nate Antone was converted into a starter with the Tecos this season and while he didn’t pitch badly on Saturday (5 innings, 3 runs), he got no support and was handed a loss in what might’ve been a winning effort on another night. Cardona went 5-for-5 with a double and two runs to pace the Sultanes batters as the series shifted to Monterrey for the next two games.

Defending champion Tijuana and 2020 titleists Monclova have developed a good rivalry over the past few years, so it’s no surprise that their LMB North final four series is tied at a game apiece. The set opened Friday night in Tijuana as 16,001 fans witnessed the visiting Acereros 13-1 throttling of the Toros. Francisco Peguero’s bases-loaded single drove in Bruce Maxwell with the first run of the game in the top of the second and the Steelers built an 8-0 lead before Agustin Murillo’s solo homer in the bottom of the fifth gave Tijuana their only run of the tilt. The Acereros scored runs in six of the nine innings they batted, including a 3-run homer from Noah Perio during a five-run fifth.  Former Pitcher of the Year Josh Lowey, who went 4-0 in five late starts for Monclova, allowed one run on five hits over six innings for the win while another longtime LMB star, Manny Barreda, was shelled for seven runs in 4.1 innings to take the loss for the Toros.

Tijuana bounced back in Game Two with a 5-4 win on Saturday as another crowd exceeding 16,000 jammed Estadio Nacional in the border city. Monclova held a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the eighth before RBI singles by Efren Navarro and Murillo put the Bulls on top. Closer Fernando Rodney took the ball in the top of the ninth and the former MLB All-Star struck out Peguero, Rudy Amador and Keon Broxton on ten pitches to end the game with a flourish. The contest was a homer orgy during the first three innings, with Felix Perez and Nick Williams going long for TJ while Addison Russell belted a lngball and Alex Mejia homered twice for Monclova. The series shifted to Monclova for the next two games in the Steel Capital.

RENOVATIONS APPROVED FOR NAVOJOA BALLPARK

Estadio Manuel "Ciclon" Echeverria

One of the major accomplishments for outgoing Mexican Pacific League president Omar Canizales over his 14 years in office was the construction or modernization of ballparks in all ten Mex Pac cities. Although Canizales won’t be sitting behind the big desk when it’s completed, the final renovation was approved under his watch earlier this year when the governor of Sonora appropriated 65 million pesos ($US3.23 million) for upgrading Navojoa’s Estadio Manuel “Ciclon” Echeverria, home of the Mexican Pacific League Mayos. 

Navojoa mayor Mario Martinez Bojorquez made the initial announcement in January while Sinaloa governor Alfonso Durazo held a press conference to that effect in late May. According to Durazo, work was scheduled to begin in June and be completed in time for the Mayos’ 2022-23 regular season home opener on Thursday, October 13 when the Los Mochis Caneros come to town. 

Estadio Echeverria was first opened on October 7, 1970 and has seated 11,500 spectators since Day One. Dimensions are a cozy 378 feet to straightaway center field, 318 feet down both foul lines. The ballpark is named after a former local pitcher and is owned by the State of Sonora, although it falls under the jurisdiction of the Navojoa city government and is both rented and managed by the Mayos under team owner Victor Cuevas Valenzuela.

Primary funding for the renovation was expected to come from the federal government, which has paid for many such efforts across the country under the presidency of lifelong baseball enthusiast Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. According to Marian Millan of the  La Verdad website in Navojoa, mayor Martinez said federal approval for funding the project was twofold in its objective: “One, that it serves the Navojoa Mayos professional sports team and also that it provides service to the community in the sports and cultural fields.”

Of course, as so often happens, what is said and what is done can be two different things in Mexico. While both announcements came out before the end of May, there was no information immediately found via online searches about the actual progress of renovations to Estadio Manuel “Ciclon” Echeverria as of August 22.  Guess we’ll all find out on October 13.

LEANDRO CASTRO NAMED MEXICAN LEAGUE MVP

    Tijuana Toros outfielder Leandro Castro received 65% of the votes en route to winning the Mexican League's 2021 Most Valuable Player award last week. The 32-year-old Dominican easily beat out Henry Urrutia (Saltillo), Niko Vasquez (Guadalajara), Leo Heras (Guadalajara) and Alex Liddi (Yucatan) for top honors.

    Castro missed only one of the Toros' 65 regular season games and led the LMB with 93 hits and 72 runs batted in, finished second with 159 total bases, third with 36 extra-base hits and a .646 slugging percentage, sixth in batting (.378), tenth with a .433 on-base percentage and twelfth with 14 homers.

    Castro has a .311 Mexican League career batting average and has cranked it up a notch since coming to Tijuana from Saltillo in 2019. He batted .361 that summer, which was his Liga best before this year's .378 after the 2020 campaign was called off due to the pandemic.

    The 5'11” 175-pounder has an overall .288 average with 202 homers and 231 stolen bases over 1,612 games after 15 years of summer and winter action. Castro signed with Philadelphia in 2007 as an 18-year-old free agent and spent that summer with the Phillies' Dominican Summer League team, batting .278 with six homers in 59 games. 

    He went on to play eight seasons in the Phils' system, reaching AAA Lehigh Valley in 2013 and 2014, where he hit a combined .257 with 14 homers, 27 steals and 105 RBIs over two years with the IronPigs. Castro played independent ball in the Canadian-American Association and American Association in 2015 and 2016 before signing with Leon of the LMB for the 2017 season.

    Castro bounced between the Bravos, Dos Laredos and Saltillo before coming to Tijuana in the middle of a 2019 season during which he hit .361 with 27 homers for the Saraperos and Toros in 111 total games. He's currently in his sixth winterball season in the Mexican Pacific League, where he played five seasons with Los Mochis before being sent to Obregon last year and traded to Mexicali prior the current schedule (the Aguilas returned him to the Yaquis after three weeks). Castro was consistently a top batter for the Caneros but after 30 games in 2021-22, he was only hitting .193 with one homer and seven RBIs before being placed on the reserve list last week.

    In other Mexican League awards for 2021, Guadalajara's Benji Gil was named Manager of the Year, Mariachis hurler Masaru Nakamura was voted Pitcher of the Year, Fernando Rodney of Tijuana topped balloting for Reliever of the Year, Veracruz outfielder Yasiel Puig won the new Defensive Player of the Year award, Jesse Castillo of Guadalajara was named Comeback Player of the Year and Oaxaca catcher Juan Carlos Camacho won Rookie of the Year honors.

HERMOSILLO WINS 6 OF 9, TAKES LMP SECOND HALF LEAD

    After a tepid first half in which they went 16-16 to finish seventh in the Mexican Pacific League standings, the Hermosillo Naranjeros are off to a fast start in the second half of the regular season schedule. The Orangemen have won six of the their first nine games to take the lead in the LMP standings, one game ahead of five teams who share identical 5-4 records: Mexicali, Monterrey, Mazatlan, Obregon and first-half champion Navojoa.

    The Naranjeros are led by manager Juan Navarrete, a Salon de la Fama second baseman who defied the odds to reach a second season under impatient Hermosillo owners who've gone through dugout bosses like Elizabeth Taylor went through spouses in search of the team's first pennant since 2013-14. 

    Navarrete has enjoyed having one of the Mex Pac's best pitching staffs this season, including starters Elian Leyva, Wilmer Rios, Ryan Verdugo and Juan Pablo Oramas along with closer Fernando Salas and middleman Heriberto Ruelas. Hermosillo is allowing a league-low 3.60 runs per nine innings (compared to an LMP average of 4.30 R/9 average). Leyva, Rios and Oramas have combined for 12 of Hermosillo's 22 wins on the season.

    Offensively, the Naranjeros have been a middle of the pack team (.266 average with 26 homers and 4.46 runs per game), but they've had some batters who've stood out. Outfielder Nick Torres is sixth in the circuit with a .329 average and is tied for second with seven homers, veteran third baseman Luis Alfonso Cruz is tenth in the batting race at .312 and is tied for sixth in RBIs with 28 and centerfielder Jose Cardona leads the LMP with 34 runs scored amid a well-rounded season during which he's hitting .291 with five homers and nine steals. At this point of the campaign, Navarrete has Hermosillo looking good enough at the plate and on the mound to be a factor in the postseason if they play to their capabilities.

    Leaguewide, Navojoa's Tirso Ornelas (.386) has a clear lead over teammate Samar Leyva (.353) and Yadir Drake of Guasave (.351) in the batting derby. Another Mayos batter, Kyle Martin, isn't hitting homers at the same pace he started out at, but he socked a longball on Sunday to raise his season total to 10 over 29 games, three ahead of four other LMP batsmen. One of those four, Jalisco's Julian Ornelas, leads with 34 RBIs while four competitors are tied for second at 31 ribbies apiece. Dairon Blanco of Culiacan has reached 20 stolen bases after playing 29 games, eight more than Tomateros teammate Sebastian Elizalde and Ramon Rios of Mazatlan.

    Hermosillo's Leyva won his fifth game to tie Carlos De Leon of Hermosillo for the wins lead while ten other hurlers are tied for third with four wins each. Leyva's 1.17 ERA is tops for pitchers, ahead of moundmate Rios at 2.08 and Obregon's Arturo Lopez (2.11). There's a three-way deadlock for the strikeouts lead at 40 apiece between Obregon's Lopez and Luis Escobar along with Octavio Acosta of Navojoa. Mexicali's poor first half didn't appear to affect closer Jake Sanchez, whose 15 saves leads the LMP to augment his 1.93 ERA while Hermosillo's Salas is second with 11 and Carlos Bustamante of Navojoa has 10.

    Attendance is up across the Mex Pac after a disastrous pandemic-fueled season in 2020-21. While the numbers aren't at their usual pre-Covid levels, a total of 1,155,655 fans have clicked the turnstiles through 205 games thus far for an average of 5,637 per opening. That would be enough to lead every minor league north of the border in 2021 but is well below the typical 9-10,000 average in previous LMP seasons. 

    Hermosillo leads the ten-team loop with 187,323 fans over 22 home games for an average of 8,515 per game while Culiacan is right behind at 175,456 over 22 openings, or 7,975 per game. Guasave ranks last at 44,044 in attendance for a 2,318 average while Mazatlan (usually one of the better draws in the Mex Pac) has only had 54,375 visitors at Estadio Teodoro Mariscal, an average of 2,862.

MEX PAC ROAD TRIP (Stop #8): Culiacan, Sinaloa

    This week, we pay a visit to Culiacan, the eighth Mexican Pacific League site on our virtual ten-city road trip. Culiacan is a two-hour drive lasting just over 100 miles south from Guasave (our last stop) on Highway 15 and is set a few miles inland from the Gulf of California. While Mazatlan is better-known among North Americans, Culiacan is a thriving city and the state capital of Sinaloa. The name “Culican” is an old native word which means “place where they adore the God Coltzin.”

    A municipality of just over a million residents, Culiacan was a small village when Spanish conquistador Nuno Beltran de Guzman founded the villa of San Miguel de Culiacan on September 29, 1531. From the end of the sixteenth century and throughout much of the 1700’s, San Miguel de Culiacan served as an important staging area for the Spanish conquest of the Mexican West. However, independence from Spain was eventually won for Mexico in the early 1820’s, and Culiacan was granted the status of “city” in 1823. At that time, Sinaloa’s state capital was in Mazatlan, but was eventually shifted to Culiacan in 1873.

    As with most of the Mex Pac cities, Culiacan is an agricultural center, surrounded by some of the most arable land in Mexico of which the major crop is tomatoes. While Culiacan has a reputation as a tough town, it is also, in fact, a thriving and busy place with a fine State university in the city center, a lovely 19th Century cathedral sitting three blocks away from the ubiquitous Mexican mercado, there are beaches on the Gulf a few miles away in Atlata and El Tambor, and Ernesto Millan Escalante Park features gardens, pools, an open-air Hellenic theater and the longest water slide in northern Mexico. The Centro Cultural Genaro Estrada contains two theaters, several museums and a café, and is a centerpiece for the arts.

    Something else worth a try is catching an LMP game at Estadio Tomateros, which cost an estimated 305 million pesos (about US$20.8 million during construction) before opening in time for the 2015-16 season. At 20,000 seats, Estadio Tomateros is one of the largest ballparks in minor league baseball and rates among the best in Mexico. Culiacan has been a baseball hotbed for decades and the Tomateros are annually among the leaders in Mex Pac attendance, drawing 16,000 per game during pre-pandemic seasons. Unlike most baseball stadiums in Mexico, Estadio Tomateros is not owned by the government by by the team itself.

    The Tomateros have given their fans a lot to cheer about over the years, with 13 Mex Pac pennants since their 1965 formation: Six of those under manager Francisco “Paquin” Estrada, who also brought home two Caribbean Series titles, while ex-MLB infielder Benji Gil has managed the Guindas to four more titles since 2014-15, including the last two. Players who've wintered in Culiacan include Salome Barojas, Esteban Loaiza, Aurelio Lopez, Oliver Perez and Vicente Romo (all Major League Baseball pitchers).

TOROS WIN SERIE DEL REY GAME 7, LMB PENNANT

     The Tijuana Toros completed their improbable comeback in the Mexican League championship series by winning the last two games of the best-of-seven set, including a 3-0 Game Seven victory last Wednesday night as the Toros became only the second team in the Liga's 95-year history to overcome a 3-game-to-0 deficit and win the LMB finals with four consecutive triumph (the Jalisco Charros were the first in 1971).

    The following is a wrap of the final two games of the 2021 Mexican League season:

GAME 6 (Tuesday, September 14): TIJUANA 10, Yucatan 3

Toros CF Junior Lake's game-saving catch

    The Toros continued their comeback effort last Tuesday night with a 10-3 trouncing of Yucatan in Game Six at home. Efren Navarro was the man of the match after driving in six runs on four hits (including a three-run double) between the fourth and seventh innings as 16,998 aficionados at Estadio Nacional watched the action.

    The Leones took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third when Yadier Drake doubled to right scored Norberto Obeso and then scored on a Luis Juarez single. A Navarro single to right in the bottom of the fourth plated Daniel Castro and Junior Lake to tie the game but it was Luis Alfonso Cruz' three-run, line-drive homer to left that capped the Toros' five-run outburst and put TJ ahead for good. Jorge Flores came in on a Drake sacrifice fly to bring Yucatan with 5-3 in the top of the fifth, but Navarro's bases-loaded double brought the Bulls' lead up to 8-3 and run-scoring hits from Castro (a double) and Navarro in the seventh ended the scoring for the night.

    6'7” reliever Michael Tonkin was awarded the win for Tijuana with a perfect 1.2 innings out of the bullpen while Leones starter Yoanner Negrin suffered the loss after being tagged for eight runs in 4.1 frames. Both Castros (Daniel and Leandro) had three hits each for the Toros while Obeso and Flores had two hits apiece for the visitors from Merida.

GAME 7 (Wednesday, September 15): TIJUANA 3, Yucatan 0

Tijuana P Teddy Stankiewicz

    Peter O'Brien broke a scoreless tie by socking an opposite-field solo homer to right off Yucatan starter Jake Thompson in the bottom of the third inning, and that turned out to be enough for Tijuana pitcher Teddy Stankiewicz and three relievers to combine on a three-hitter during the Toros' 3-0 shutout over the Leones, completing the border city's unlikely comeback in front of 17,687 at Estadio Nacional.

    Tijuana added insurance runs in the fifth inning (on Leandro Castro's RBI single) and seventh frame (when Isaac Rodriguez drew a walk and came all the way to score on a throwing error by Yucatan third baseman Alex Liddi), but the story of the game was the Toros' pitching. Stankiewicz retired the first nine batters he faced and went on to scatter three hits over six innings with a half-dozen strikeouts to earn the win. Former MLB All-Star Fernando Rodney closed out the game with a perfect ninth inning during which he threw 10 strikes on 13 pitches, the last one getting Art Charles swinging for the save and the final out of the season.

    Junior Lake led the champions with three hits while Gabriel Gutierrez added a pair of singles but the big blow belonged to O'Brien as the Toros outhit the visitors by a 10-to-3 margin (as Yucatan got one-baggers from Norberto Obeso, Luis Juarez and Juan Jose Aguilar). Thompson absorbed the loss for the Leones after allowing two runs on five hits over 4.2 innings. Tijuana first baseman Efren Navarro was announced as the Serie del Rey MVP due to his .308 batting average over the seven games, including four hits and six RBIs in Game Six.

MAZATLAN TO HOST MEXICAN LEAGUE TEAM IN 2022?

Yucatan owners Erick and Juan Jose Arellano

   As columnist David Braverman noted in a recent Out 27 column in Puro Beisbol, the Mayor of Mazatlán, Luis Guillermo Benítez Torres, confirmed that a group of businessmen are in very advanced talks to finalize a franchise of the Mexican Baseball League in the port city.

    Braverman announced that the brothers Jose Juan and Erick Arellano brothers (owners of the Yucatán Leones), have been negotiating to purchase and move the Aguascalientes Rieleros to Mazatlán, their hometown. Benítez denied the Arellanos' involvement, claiming that there are other businessmen involved.

    Sources assured Puro Beisbol that the other club with a possible move to the port are the Durango Generales, who were recently purchased by Venezuelan Carlos Lazo, an entrepreneur who's lived in Guadalajara for 15 years. Juan Carlos Martinez, who sold the team to Lazo after owning it less than two years, told Durango's El Siglio newspaper that Lazo would not move the team out of town. 

    However, the Generales have struggled on the field and in the box office since 2017, their first season in the western Mexico city after being moved there from the Gulf of Mexico resort city of Carmen, and it would not be out of the question for Lazo to cast an eye upon Mazatlan (a smaller city than Durango but with a nicer ballpark and great support for the Mexican Pacific League's Venados).

    Mazatlan mayor Benitez has reportedly held talks with Mexican League president Horacio de la Vega as well as the Arellano brothers and sounded like a man who expects summer baseball to be played at Estadio Teodoro Mariscal once arrangements are finalized. "The issue of the stadium is being legally addressed," Benítez was quoted as saying in Puro Beisbol.

    "Many levels of government have intervened because summer baseball is coming. Summer baseball is not going to be handled by the company that has winter baseball (Jose Antonio Toledo and family)...others are going to handle it," he added, without specifying who.

    If the move is made, Mazatlán would be the third city in the country with professional baseball all year with LMP and LMB teams, along with with Guadalajara and Monterrey.

    The Arellano brothers have sought to bring baseball to Mazatlán after joining the LMB acquiring the Lions in 2013, when the idea for the Marineros emerged.

 "Many levels of government have intervened because summer baseball is coming. Summer baseball is not going to be handled by the company that has winter baseball (Jose Antonio Toledo and family)...others are going to handle it," he added, without specifying who. If the move is made, Mazatlán would be the third city in the country with professional baseball all year with LMP and LMB teams, along with with Guadalajara and Monterrey.

Year-round baseball coming to Mazatlan?

    The Arellano brothers have sought to bring baseball to Mazatlán since joining the LMB in 2013 when they acquired the Lions, and then the idea for the Mariners emerged. However, when questioned about their potential ownership of a Mazatlan Mexican League franchise, Benitez replied, "This group is not going to handle summer baseball at all. They are with the Yucatán Leones.”

    The Arellano brothers bought the financially-ailing Laguna Vaqueros a few years after purchasing the team in Merida, with the idea of moving the Vaqueros to Mazatlan and renaming them the Marineros (a moniker they would reportedly use if the Rieleros are bought and relocated to the Pacific coast). However, after owning the Torreon team for a year and experiencing questions about their finances, the Arellanos sold the Vaqueros to local interests, who renamed the club the Union Laguna Algodoneros.

    Some assume that the Toledo family will continue to controls concessions at Estadio Teodoro Mariscal, but the mayor clarified that the park belongs to the Mazatlán City Council. "They are already working on that. As soon as they specify it they will make it known. There will be no problem with the stadium, since the property does not belong to any businessman, it belongs to the City Council."

    The Toledos have been embroiled with the City of Mazatlan in a myriad of issues almost since the ballpark reopened in 2018 after extensive renovations were completed. At one point early last year, the Venados were physically removed from their on-site offices after claims that they did not live up to a signed agreement allowing them to operate the facility. Although the dispute was put on hold long enough for the Venados to play home games and host the Caribbean Series last winter, nothing has actually been resolved between the two warring sides.

MAESTROS OF MEXICO: Hector Espino

    During BBM's Viva Beisbol days between 2005-07, we ran a series of profiles on top players with ties to Mexican baseball titled Maestros of Mexico. The Maestros will be resurrected for the rest of 2021 as space permits but unlike the original series (which included players who were born outside or never played inside Mexico), this installment will feature only Mexican-born players who spent time in the Mexican or Mexican Pacific Leagues. We'll lead off with the legendary “Superman of Chihuahua,” Hector Espino:

    The consensus pick among fans as the greatest player in Mexican baseball history, Hector Espino was known as "The Babe Ruth of Mexico" during his 24-year career. Playing in the Mexican League primarily for Monterrey or Tampico between 1962 and 1984, the right-handed Espino retired as minor league baseball's all-time home run king with 484 (453 in the LMB). He led the LMB in homers four times, including a career-high 46 for the Sultanes in 1964. The 5'10" 192-pounder from Chihuahua also drove in 1,573 runs in his LMB career and hung up his spikes with a cool .335 batting mark. He hit better than .300 every year but one in the Liga between 1962 through 1980, winning three straight batting titles between 1966 and 1968 and four overall.

    As a 20-year-old outfielder, Espino broke into pro ball in 1960 with San Luis Potosi in the Class A Mexican Center League and pounded pitchers for a .363 batting average with 20 homers and 60 RBI’s in 63 games that year. After an abbreviated season with SLP in 1961, he broke into the Mexican League with Monterrey in 1962. Espino blasted his way to a .358 average with 23 homers and led the Liga with 106 runs and 105 RBI’s. Although he missed a chunk of the following season, playing just 99 games, he still belted 24 homers and drove in 80 runs en route to a .346 average for the Sultanes in 1963.

    He shifted from the outfield to first base in 1964 for what proved to be his greatest season, just missing the LMB Triple Crown with a Liga-best .371 average, a career high 46 homers (also tops in Mexico) and 117 RBI’s, drawing interest from major league teams. St. Louis finally won the bidding war for his contract from Monterrey.

    Espino played briefly for the Cardinals' AAA farm team in Jacksonville at the end of the 1964 season. He hit well (batting .300 with three homers in 32 games), but his time in the International League was not pleasant. Playing during the Civil Rights era with home games in Florida and road trips to such Southern cities as Richmond and Atlanta, the proud Espino was reportedly so offended by the racism he encountered while playing in the IL that he went home to Mexico during season and never returned to play in the United States again despite several offers over the years.

    His return to Mexico in 1965 was abbreviated (.335/17/48 in 67 games), but he reeled off the first of four consecutive standout seasons in Monterrey in 1966, winning one of three straight batting crowns (.369) and clubbing 31 homers. He then led the Liga with a career-best .379 (including 34 homers) in 1967, then hit .365 and led the LMB with 27 roundtrippers for 1968. Espino fell to .304 in 1969 but led the Liga again with 37 homers. After a subpar (for him) 1970, he was dealt to the Tampico Alijadores in 1971.

    Over eight seasons in Tampico (with short stops at Mexico City and Tabasco in 1975), Espino batted .335 with 159 homers and 600 RBIs. Starting in 1979, he embarked on a an odyssey, playing for six different teams in three seasons before returning to Monterrey as a part-timer in 1982. After hitting .220 with one homer in 20 games in 1984, the 45-year-old Espino retired in July of that season.

    Espino's record in winter ball was also impressive. In 24 Mexican Pacific League seasons (all with Hermosillo), he won an amazing 13 batting titles and six home run crowns en route to a career average of .329 with 299 homers and 1,029 RBIs while leading the Naranjeros to Mexico's first Caribbean Series win in 1976 and playing in six tournaments overall. A six-time LMP MVP, Hermosillo's ballpark was renamed after him while he was still an active player. Espino was inducted as a member of the Salon de Fama in 1988 and is also enshrined in the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame. In all, he blasted a combined 4,576 hits with 752 homers with 2,602 playing year-round in both the Liga and Mex Pac.

    Hector Espino (who passed away at 58 in 1997) was beloved by fans across Mexico because he combined his great skills in baseball with a pride and loyalty to his country to become the face of Mexican baseball for two decades. He was a true national hero and his number 21 has been retired by all Mexican professional teams.

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.