Astros, Padres split Mexico City Series; Valencia wins HR Derby

Major League Baseball held its first exhibition games in Mexico City since 2004 over the weekend, with the Houston Astros and San Diego Padres splitting two games at Estadio Fray Nano on Saturday and Sunday.

Festivities kicked off Friday with a home run derby won by Tijuana Toros second baseman Carlos Valencia at a makeshift diamond built on the city's Zocalo (pictured above), Mexico's largest public square and a ceremonial spot dating to the Aztec dynasty prior to the arrival of Hernan Cortez and the Spanish Conquistadores.

Valencia beat out Mexico City Diablos Rojos outfielder Ivan Terrazas and Quintana Roo Tigres teammates Jorge Cantu and Esteban Quiroz for the title.  In the first round, Cantu led all four batsmen with 10 homers, followed by Valencia at 8, Quiroz with 7 and 5 for Terrazas.  Hitting into a headwind in the final round, Valencia jumped out to an early lead over Cantu before the former MLB infielder started finding his groove, albeit a little too late as Valencia finished with 15 dingers to Cantu's 7.

Also on Friday, a clinic for young Mexican ballplayers was held, with former major league third baseman Vinny Castilla joined by ex-pitchers Esteban Loaiza and Ismael Valdez addressing the assembled youths. Oh, and they played a little baseball over the weekend, too.

On Saturday, Houston bombed San Diego, 11-1, behind the strong pitching of Chris Devenski.  An Astros farmhand ticket to start the season at Class AAA Fresno, tossed 4.1 shutout innings and struck out seven Padres batsmen.  The 2015 National League Rookie of the Year, Carlos Correa, joined with Tyler White to open the fourth inning with back-to-back solo homers to give Houston a 2-0 lead.  The Astros put two more scores on the board in the bottom of the sixth before pounding Padres pitching for seven runs in the seventh to put the game away as 5,602 onlookers watched at Estadio Fray Nano.  Mexican product Leo Heras went 2-for-3 for Houston, scoring once and driving in two more runs.

Saturday's contest was a pitcher's duel in comparison to what happened Sunday as San Diego roared back to cop a 21-6 victory in front of 6,143 fanaticos at Fray Nano.  This one was pretty much over after the first inning, with the Padres converting three-run homers by Jabari Blash and Jon Jay plus a two-run longball by Adam Rosales into a nine-run outburst.  The Friars got subsequent homers from Travis Jankowski and Casey McElroy in the blowout.  All the San Diego scoring would have obscured the work of Padres starting pitcher Cesar Vargas had he not been a native of Puebla, 85 miles south of Mexico City.  Vargas went three shutout innings and struck out five Houston hitters to earn the win.  Colin Moran went deep for the Astros, but this game belonged to the Padres from the get-go.

As good a weekend as it was for baseball fans in the capital city, it was at least as good for ticket resellers.  Ducats for the two games were originally priced at up to 1,800 pesos (US$103 at the current exchange rate), but scalpers outside Fray Nano (pictured right) were getting 3,500 pesos (US$206) for some tickets while being unbothered by law enforcement or stadium security officers.

Astros, Padres square off in Mexico City this weekend

The Houston Astros and San Diego Padres are sending split squads to Mexico City for a two-game MLB exhibition series this weekend at Estadio Fray Nano, home of the Mexican League's Red Devils.  There will also be a Home Run Derby involving LMB players and a clinic for youth players overseen by former All-Star third baseman Vinny Castilla, a native Oaxacan.  The games will take place Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.

The two teams have finalized their respective 28-man rosters for the trip to the D.F.  Houston has released their list of players, which will include All-Stat second baseman Jose Altuve (pictured), shortstop Carlos Correa (the 2015 National League Rookie of the Year) and outfielder Leo Heras, a veteran of both the Mexican and Mexican Pacific Leagues who is in the Astros' training camp in Florida.  San Diego's entourage will include six Mexican-born players in the Padres' Arizona camp, including 24-year-old right-hander Cesar Vargas of Puebla, who will take the mound to start Sunday's contest.  Shortstop Alexei Ramirez, a Cuban in his first year with San Diego after eight seasons with the White Sox, had both his agent and lawyer clear up any possible visa issues so he could make the trip.

The Home Run Derby was scheduled for Friday at Fray Nano, with Quintana Roo Tigres infielders Esteban Quiroz and former MLBer Jorge Cantu, Diablos Rojos' outfielder Ivan Terrazas and Tijuana second baseman Carlos Valencia (who played in Mexico City from 2006 through 2013) rounding out the four participants.

Castilla, who had more homers, runs batted in, runs scored and hits in his MLB career than any other Mexican-born player, is now a special assistant with the Colorado Rockies, for whom he had his best seasons in the 1990's.  He was to be joined at the clinics by former White Sox pitcher Esteban Loaiza, who won 21 games for the White Sox and led the American League with 203 strikeouts in 2003 (finishing second in Cy Young Award balloting that year) and ex-Dodgers hurler Ismael "Rocket" Valdez, who reached double figures in wins five times in his major league career, including four straight years in Los Angeles in the mid-Nineties.

Estadio Fray Nano is the smallest ballpark in the Mexican League with 5,200 seats, but has been expanded to fit 6,464 fans this weekend.   Saturday's game will be carried live on Univision Deportes in the USA and Telvisa Deportes in Mexico, with Astros Spanish broadcaster Francisco Romero calling the play-by-play.

MLB to stage "Mexico City Series" in March

Major League Baseball will return to Mexico City for the first time in twelve springs when the Houston Astros and San Diego Padres play exhibition games March 26 and 27 at Estadio Fray Nano.

The series will be the third time the Padres have played in Mexico City after previous visits in 1971 and 1981.  The Southern California club has also had exhibition games in Tijuana and Hermosillo with two trips to Culiacan, and hosted a three-game regular season series with the New York Mets in 1996 in Monterrey, where they also opened the 1999 schedule against the Colorado Rockies at Estadio Monterrey.

Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow was born and raised in Mexico City.  "I'm thrilled that the Astros will have the opportunity to play in Mexico," Luhnow says.  "The Mexican people have a great love for baseball, so I know these games will be well-received."  Luhnow was joined at a press conference by Astros All-Star second baseman Jose Altuve.  The two-game set between Houston and San Diego is being billed as the "Mexico City Series."  Both teams will send split squads due to concurrent spring training games in the States.

Estadio Fray Nano is home to the Mexico City Diablos Rojos.  MLB's last appearance in the Mexican capital was in 2004 when the Astros played two games with the Marlins at Foro Sol, which could hold 25,000 for baseball but was designed more for concerts and never a comfortable fit for baseball.  At 5,000 seats, Fray Nano is much smaller than Foro Sol, but much more hospitable to the King of Sports.  The Red Devils played at Foro Sol from 2000 through 2014 after longtime home Social Security Park was razed to make way for a shopping center.  A new Estadio Diablos Rojos, with seating for 13,000 plus an outfield grass berm holding 3,000 more, is targeted for a 2017 opening.

One MLB preseason game was played in Mexico last year when the Arizona Diamondbacks met Colorado on March 29 in Hermosillo.