YAQUIS' LOPEZ TOSSES NO-HITTER AGAINST NAVOJOA

Arturo Lopez after final out of no-hitter

    Obregon Yaquis left-hander Arturo Lopez tossed the first no-hitter of the Mexican Pacific League season (and 44th in the loop's history) last Saturday night, blanking the visiting Navojoa Mayos, 6-0, in front of 5,421 spectators at Estadio Yaquis. The 39-year-old Lopez struck out eleven Mayos batters, walking one and hitting another in allowing two baserunners en route to the third no-hitter in Obregon history and first ever at Estadio Yaquis.

    Lopez got all the offensive support he'd need in the bottom of the first inning when Victor Mendoza's double to left off Navojoa starter Rogelio Martinez brought Josuan Hernandez all the way around from first base. Just in case, the Yaquis plated three more runs off Martinez in the third, two on a Yadir Drake double. A Mendoza seventh-inning single scored the final two runs of the night for the winners.

    The 5'9” Lopez, who posted a 19.49 ERA in 2009 for the San Diego Padres over four relief appearances, was hitting the corners all night and threw 70 strikes in 97 pitches as neither Mayo to reach base got into scoring position. A Culiacan native who has represented the Mexico City Diablos Rojos in five Mexican League All-Star Games, Lopez is in his 16^th Mex Pac season and has a 60-38 career LMP record and surpassed 600 strikeouts during his no-no.

    Despite winning two of three games in the weekend set against the Mayos, the Yaquis remain in a tie for last place with defending champion Jalisco and Monterrey at 9-14, one game behind 10-13 Culiacan. Hermosillo remains in the first half lead at 15-8 but the race has tightened at the top, with 14-9 Mazatlan one game back in second and 13-10 Los Mochis two games out in third. Guasave, Mexicali and Navojoa are knotted up in a tie for fourth at 12-11 each.

    There HAS been a change at the top in the Mex Pac batting race, as last week's leader (Ramiro Pena of Culiacan) has dropped to third with a .359 average. Los Mochis' Yosmany Tomas went 2-for-3 against Culiacan Sunday to raise his league-leading mark to .378, 14 points ahead of Monterrey's Alberto Carreon (.364). Anthony Giansanti of Mexicali leads the winter circuit with seven homers, two more than Obregon's Sebastian Valle and Giansanti's Aguilas teammate Niko Vasquez. Christian Villanueva of Jalisco had a good week, going 9-for-24 (.378) and moving into first on the RBI table with 20, two more than the 18 ribbies each from Vasquez and Monterrey's Fernando Perez. Jose Cardona held the stolen base lead with 10 swipes for Hermosillo, ahead of the eight steals of Mazatlan's Randy Romero.

    The number of pitchers with three wins has grown to six, with Raul Carrillo (Navojoa), Matt Pobereyko and Jeff Kinley (both Guasave) joining Juan Pablo Oramas (Hermosillo), David Reyes (Mexicali) and Tyler Alexander (Jalisco) for the LMP leadership in that category. Luis Miranda of Los Mochis still leads the ERA race with an 0.00 mark after four starts and 22 innings pitched, ahead of Oramas (1.25) and Gusave's Nico Tellache (1.44). Jalisco veteran Javier Solano, now in his 15th MexPac season, tops the strikeouts list with 30 in 33.2 innings, one more than Lopez of Obregon's 29 and three up on Pobereyko's 27. Brandon Koch of Guasave has edged one save ahead of Mazatlan's Elkin Alcala, 10 to 9 while Mexicali's Jake Sanchez (who set the LMP record with 26 salvados last winter) is third with eight.

    With two weeks left in the first half schedule, teams are starting to jockey more for playoff points placement. The biggest upcoming midweek series is probably going to be in Mazatlan, where the Venados host Hermosillo in a battle of the current top two clubs. Next weekend, the most intriguing three-game set may be between perennial power Culiacan and 2021-22 pennant winner Jalisco at Estadio Tomateros with both teams struggling to find their way out of the second division.


THREE LIGA TEAM SEEK, PICK SKIPPERS FOR 2023

New Saltillo manager Mark Weidemaier

    With the Mexican League's 2023 season five months away from opening, three LMB teams have been working on filling managerial openings. One of them has been the Monterrey Sultanes, who are seeking to replace former Major League outfielder Roberto Kelly. The former Yankees outfielder led the Grey Ghosts to an LMB North playoff title and a berth in the 2022 Serie del Rey before falling to the Yucatan Leones after finishing fourth with in the regular season with a 51-39 record.

    Kelly, who'd returned to the Sultanes this year after taking the 2021 season off, has been named to the Texas Rangers coaching staff under new manager Bruce Bochy. Kelly was a manager in the Giants system before joining Bochy's staff as first base coach when the latter managed San Francisco to three World Series titles between 2010 and 2014. The Panamanian first came to Monterrey in 2018 and led the Sultanes to their tenth pennant in the shortened Fall 2018 season, beating Yucatan in the Serie del Rey and being named Manager of the Year.

    Another ex-MLBer, Geronimo Gil, will manage the Oaxaca Guerreros next year. Gil made his Mexican League debut in 1993 as a 17-year-old catcher and went on to spend all or part of six seasons with Baltimore and Colorado between 2001 and 2007, hitting 12 homers and driving in 45 runs as the Orioles' starting receiver in 2002. After wrapping up his 23-year professional career in 2016, he coached for Oaxaca for one year, managed Ensenada to the Liga Norte pennant in 2018 and then spent 2019 managing Yucatan in 2019. The 47-year-old Oaxacan took the Leones to a 66-52 season record and a playoff run that ended with a seven-game loss to Monclova in that year's Serie del Rey.

    Gil has also spent time as an instructor at the Alfredo Harp Helu Academy in Oaxaca and managed in the LMB Prospect League. He's currently at the helm of the combined Mexico City-Oaxaca team in the Mexican Winter League. Both the Diablos Rojos and Guerreros francises are owned by Harp, one of Mexico's richest men. Gil will replace another former catcher, Erick Rodriguez, at the helm of the Guerreros, who finished 34-53 in seventh place in the LMB South, six games out of the division's last playoff berth.

    Finally, the Saltillo Saraperos have let Adan Munoz go as pilot and hired Mark Weidemeier as their new manager following a 38-52 campaign this year. Munoz stepped in at the helm in Saltillo after Roberto Vizcarra resigned as manager to take over in Yucatan, leading the Leones to the LMB pennant. Weidemeier also managed in the Mexican League in 2022, albeit in abbreviated fashion. A first-time skipper for Dos Laredos, he led the Tecolotes to seven wins in their first ten games before leaving the border team for what the club termed “personal reasons.”

    Although he never played professionally, Weidemeier is a baseball lifer who got his first paying job out of college in 1982 when the Kansas City Royals hired him as a minor league coach. Since then, he's worked for numerous MLB organizations including the Angels, Yankees, Indians, White Sox, Dodgers and Diamondbacks. He coached under Matt Williams with both the MLB Nationals and Korea's KIA Tigers. Weidemeier has spent much time in Mexico as well, including managerial stints in Laguna and Veracruz, where he first worked for Tecos owner Jose Antonio Mansur, who has owned (and moved) several LMB teams over the years. One of Weidemeier's Tecos players, first baseman Kennys Vargas, told the Laredo Morning Times during training camp that “Players love him a lot because he is a fun manager. He tries to transfer all the experience he has onto us.”


MEX PAC SERIES IN TUCSON CANCELED

Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium, Tucson

    Just weeks after it was first announced to the public, a three-game series between the Mexicali Aguilas and Obregon Yaquis slated to be played next week in Tucson has been called off. It would have marked the first time that Mexican Pacific League regular season games would be played north of the border. Instead, the Tucson series was canceled due to what the LMP office called “contractual reasons” and moved back to Obregon, the original venue of the three-game series on the league schedule.

    The contests were scheduled for Friday, November 11 through Sunday, November 13 at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium, former spring training home of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago White Sox as well as a pair of since-moved Pacific Coast League franchises. The 11,500-seat facility is now the flagship ballpark for the annual Mexican Baseball Fiesta involving MexPac teams in October and also the home facility for the Tucson Saguaros, winners of three pennants over seven seasons in the independent Pecos League, which boasts 16 teams in six states stretching from California to Kansas.

    The following is a translated press release from the Mexican Pacific League and first posted on their website Sunday, four days before the first game in Tucson was to have been played:

    Guadalajara, Jalisco; November 7, 2022 (LMP Media) - We regret to have to inform that, for contractual reasons, the decision has been made to definitively suspend the series between Águilas de Mexicali and Yaquis de Obregón, which would have taken place in the city of Tucson, Arizona on November 11, 12 and 13 of this year.

    This commitment will be made on the same dates, but at the Yaquis Stadium as originally scheduled, leaving for next season the possibility of playing in North American territory.

    We apologize on behalf of the teams for any inconvenience this may represent for our fans.

    We are convinced that the internationalization of the LMP is of paramount importance for our future growth. However, this first attempt could not be realized in a favorable way for the parties involved.

    We will continue working so that from next season this and other activities can be carried out.

    We appreciate your understanding.

    The Tucson Saguaros have released their 2023 Pecos League schedule, starting with a May 31 game in Austin and a June 8 home opener against Roswell at Kino Stadium.

119,146 ATTEND TEN MEX PAC HOME OPENERS

Opening Night in Mazatlan

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

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

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

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11

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

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

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

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

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

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

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12

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

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

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

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

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

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

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13

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

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

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

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

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

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

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16

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

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

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

Mexico LHP Alemao Hernandez

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TUCSON TO HOST LMP SERIES IN NOVEMBER

Kino Stadium in Tucson

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

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

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

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

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