Jose Contreras K's 10 in Tigres shutout at Yucatan

Former major league pitcher Jose Contreras continued to turn back the hands of time Thursday in Quintana Roo's 2-0 shutout over Yucatan at Merida's Parque Kukulkan as 9,432 spectators looked on. The 44-year-old Cuban blanked the Leones on four hits over six innings, striking out ten batters and walking two.

Contreras left with the game still a scoreless tie and did not earn the decision as Raul Barron pitched the seventh and eighth to get the win, bringing his record to 5-0 on the season.  Alex Liddi and Sergio Contreras hit back-to-back RBI singles in the ninth to put the defending champions ahead, leaving it to Esmailin Caridad to come in to record a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth for his eighth save of the year as the 22-13 Tigres slipped past 21-14 Yucatan into second place in the Mexican League's South Division, trailing only the 24-11 Puebla Pericos, who had an eleven-game winning streak snapped Wednesday in Veracruz.

The story of the night Thursday, however, was the pitching of Contreras, who recorded his second ten-strikeout performance in his past four starts.  The former White Sox hurler is now 3-3 with a 3.02 earned-run average in eight starts for Quintana Roo.  His showing in Merida was payback of sorts after the Leones touched him up for six hits and three runs over 3.2 innings in his first start of the season April 1 in Cancun.  Since then, Contreras has registered a 2.66 ERA and went the distance in the Tigres' 10-2 win over Laguna on April 24 in Torreon, whiffing ten Vaqueros' batsmen while spinning a seven-inning four-hitter.

Cancun is the latest stop in a long and winding career for Contreras, who was a mainstay for years with Cuba's Pinar del Rio team as well as a starter for that nation's gold-medal winning side at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics along with Baseball World Cup champions in Rome and Sydney before defecting while pitching at the Americas Series in Saltillo in October 2002.  He signed with the Yankees, as so many Cuban expats did at the time, and spent part of the 2004 season in New York as a 32-year-old "rookie" before being traded to the White Sox for fellow pitcher Esteban Loaiza in midseason.  The 6'4" right-hander was 41-25 between 2004 and 2006, pitching for the Chisox World Series winners in 2005 and in the All-Star Game in 2006.

Things started going south for Contreras in 2007 when, at a listed 35 years of age, he was 10-17 for Chicago with a 5.57 ERA.  Although he pitched all or part of six more MLB seasons for the White Sox, Rockies, Phillies and Pirates, he never won more than seven games again.  He was converted into a reliever during a short stay in Colorado during the 2009 season and never started a big league game again.

Contreras began a third stage of his career in 2014, when he started 23 games for Tijuana in the Mexican League and went 10-3 with a 3.49 ERA, striking out 140 hitters in 134 innings.  That led to a season in Taiwan with the Chinatrust Brothers before returning to Mexico this year to pitch for manager Roberto Vizcarra's Tigres, who will open a three-game home series against Carmen Friday night at Estadio Beto Avila.

Betancourt signs with defending LMB champ Tigres

Former big league shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt helped his struggling playing career with a strong winter season in the Mexican Pacific League, resulting in a free agent contract with the defending Mexican League champion Quintana Roo Tigres for the upcoming campaign.

Betancourt spent the MexPac regular season with the Mexicali Aguilas, for whom he finished 12th in the MexPac batting race with a .298 average, came in second to Jalisco's Japhet Amador in home runs with 12 and finished second in the LMP with 126 total bases, two behind Navojoa's Quincy Latimore, while playing both first and third base over 63 games for manager Edgar Gonzalez' Eagles.  He then hit .288 for Mexicali in 16 postseason games as the Aguilas reached the championship series against eventual LMP champion Mazatlan, who picked him up for the Caribbean Series, where he rewarded the Venados by batting .438 and scoring or driving in 14 runs in five games during their unbeaten run to the CS title in Santo Domingo.

It was a far cry from when the 34-year-old Cuban began the winterball season in October just trying to regain his mojo after hitting .250 in 21 games for Tijuana in the LMB last spring before being released in April.  Betancourt has bounced around a bit the past two summers after spending the 2013 campaign starting at shortstop for Milwaukee, batting just .212 with 13 homers in 137 contests.  He signed a one-year deal with Japan's Orix Buffalos in 2014, but was let go on May 14 that year after hitting .141 in 28 games.  That was followed by last season's short stay in Tijuana.  Entering the LMP season, his future in pro baseball was in doubt.  Now he'll have a chance at redemption of sorts in Cancun, where he'll vie for a roster spot on skipper Roberto Vizcarra's champions.

The question moving forward is where Betancourt will fit in with the Tigres, who have a veteran-packed infield featuring longtime LMBers Carlos Gastelum, Jorge Vazquez, Rolando Acosta and Kevin Flores plus ex-Marlins infielder Alfredo Amezaga.  With his ability to play all four infield positions (albeit little time spent at second base), the versatile Betancourt could land a spot as a utility player, where the 38-year-old Amezaga may be the most vulnerable.

The Tigres added yet another Cuban exile in 44-year-old pitcher Jose Contreras, a 2006 All-Star with the Chicago White Sox amid a four-year stretch in which he won 51 games for the Yankees and Chisox after making his 2003 debut at age 31 for New York.  He beat Roger Clemens and the Houston Astros, 5-3, in the opening game of the 2005 World Series, won by Chicago.  His MLB career record over all or parts of eleven seasons was 78-67 with a 4.57 ERA, last pitching for Pittsburgh in 2013.

No word on whether his contact with Quintana Roo will affect Contreras' Social Security eligibility in the States.