VERACRUZ' UNSWORTH SIGNS WITH TAIWANESE TEAM

Dylan Unsworth: Goodbye, Mexico

    As Mexican League teams continue to tweak their rosters with just none games remaining in the 2021 regular season, a pair of transactions made across the Pacific Ocean may have an effect on how two LMB teams fare during the postseason.

    Veracruz pitcher Dylan Unsworth has been place on the Aguilas' reserve list, allowing him to sign a contract with the Fubon Guardians of the Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taiwan. The 28-year-old South African had announced his presence with authority during his first Liga season with the expansion Aguilas, tossing the loop's only no-hitter of current campaign (dominating the powerful Mexico City Diablos Rojos on May 28 with a 75-pitch performance in an 8-0 win) en route to a 4-0 record over eight starts during which he walked just four batsmen over 42 innings while striking out 27. His 2.57 ERA was leading the LMB after his last start earlier this month.

    The former Mariners farmhand had signed to pitch for Puebla in 2020 but never saw a regular season inning after the campaign was canceled due to the pandemic. Unsworth joins the Taipei-based Guardians following the releases of former MLB pitchers Manny Banuelos and J.C. Ramirez earlier this month. Banuelos is on the Mexican roster at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo while Ramirez (who was let go for “personal reasons”) has joined Mexico City. The loss of Unsworth will no doubt harm a Veracruz pitching staff whose ERA was 5.27 even with the righty on the team. The top starter for the Aguilas, who are in a five-way battle for second place in the LMB South and will likely secure a playoff berth this week, is now likely Jorge Martinez, a 36-year-old Cuban with a 3-2 record and 5.06 ERA over ten starts.

    Meanwhile, former LMB hurler Mitch Lively has been let go by his CPBL team, the ChinaTrust Brothers of Taichung. The well-traveled 6'5” right-hander arrived in Taiwan during the 2018 season and had some good moments for the Brothers his first three seasons, going 23-20 between 2018 and 2020 with a 3.66 ERA in 68 games (55 of them starts). This year, however, the 35-year-old Californian had an 8.35 ERA with a 1.88 WHIP over 36.2 innings at the time of his release.

    After making his pro debut in 2007 with the Rockies' Casper Rookie affiliate, Lively spent seven years in the Giants system (including 2012-14 at AAA Fresno) and one-plus year in the Nationals organization before becoming a baseball globetrotter. He pitched for Japan's Nippon Ham Fighters in 2015 and played for three Mexican League teams between 2016-17 (going 9-4 with a 2.26 ERA for Laguna, Reynosa and Leon) before heading to Taiwan. 

    Lively also pitched five seasons of winterball in Venezuela from 2012-17 and for Mazatlan of the Mexican Pacific League between 2017 and 2020, going 18-4 for the Venados with a sub-3.00 ERA all three years and winning Pitcher of the Year honors in 2018-19. Lively's LMB rights appear to still belong to Leon, which means he could land with the Bravos intramural parent club in Monterrey if he chooses to seek work in Mexico, since the Sultanes are only a half-game out of a playoff berth.

Mitch Lively: Goodbye, Guardians

    Guadalajara (39-15) holds a solid six-game lead over 34-22 Tijuana in the LMB North, with Monclova (33-24) and Saltillo (32-25) both within striking distance of the Toros. With six teams per division qualifying for the postseason this year, a spirited battle for the final two berths has developed among Union Laguna (25-30), Aguascalientes (23-28) and the aforementioned Monterrey (24-30). Durango (18-38) is basically out of contention.

    The LMB South regular season title is Mexico City's (36-19) to lose. Hard-charging Tabasco (20-27) has won five in a row to move into second, seven games behind the Diablos and one game ahead of Puebla (27-26), Yucatan (28-27) and Veracruz (29-28). Sixth-place Quintana Roo (28-28) is only a half-game out of third and 1.5 games behind Tabasco, which shows how tight things are in the jockeying for playoff seeding. Leon (24-33), Campeche (22-32) and Oaxaca (20-36) will all need a late win streak to get back into it.

    Leo Heras of Guadalajara is listed as the LMB batting leader with a .412 average despite missing 15 of the Mariachis' 54 games while Tito Polo of Durango (37 of 56 games) ranks second at .407. Satillo teammates Rainel Rosario and Kennys Vargas are tied with Leon's Xavier Batista for the LMB lead with 17 homers each while Leandro Castro of Tijuana has 58 RBIs to top the circuit. Quintana Roo's Reynaldo Rodriguez has 20 steals, good enough to lead Tabasco's Herlis Rodriguez and Tijuana's Isaac Rodriguez (no relation among any of them) in that category.

    Guadalajara's Masaru Nakamura got a win last week to run his record to a perfect 8-0, topping the Liga in wins while Miguel Pena (Saltillo), Edgar Torres (Mexico City) and Anthony Vizcaya (Aguascalientes) are tied for second with seven wins apiece. Logan Ondrusek of Yucatan is listed as the ERA leader at 2.38 over 45.1 innings with Tabasco's Luis Escobar (2.60 in 62.1 IP) in second. Puebla's Jose Valdez (6-0, 3.94) heads the strikeouts list with 63 in 64 innings, ahead of Dos Laredo's Jackson Stephens at 60. Fernando Rodney of Tijuana picked up another save last week to raise his Liga-leading total to 14, augmenting his 1.73 ERA. Carlos Bustamante (Monclova) and Fernando Cruz (Guadalajara) are tied for second with 13 each, although Bustamante will lose ground while pitching for Mexico in the Olympics.

    All remaining series take on added significance with two playoff races underway and only nine games left to play. The biggest upcoming midweek series may be when Tijuana visits Monterrey with the Sultanes trying to move up from seventh while next weekend's most important series will likely be in Aguascalientes, where the Rieleros host Dos Laredos in a matchup of two teams battling for their postseason lives.

MEXICAN OLYMPIANS IN FLAP OVER UNIFORM PHOTO VIOLATION

Tomateros Olympians in Tokyo

    After being a constant companion for years with Mexican Olympic baseball team manager Benji Gil, it wouldn't be a major surprise if one of the 24 roster spots had been assigned to Controversy. As it is, Controversy made the trip to Tokyo along with the players and coaches anyway and appeared in a team photo last week. Sort of.

    Eleven of the players on the Mexican roster play under Gil for the Culiacan Tomateros of the Mexican Pacific League during the winter, so the skipper of the two-time defending LMP champions thought it would be fun to post an online photo of those players (along with staff members) wearing Culiacan jerseys inside the Olympic Village beneath the five-ring Olympic logo. It's a nice picture but there's a problem: It's also against Olympic protocols.

    Rule 50 in the International Olympic Committee charter states that wearing of unsanctioned clothing or uniforms, including manufacturer logos, is prohibited. The photo, which showed those posing without masks (another protocol violation) was initially posted on Tomateros social network accounts before threats of sanctions and an outraged response by the president of the Mexican Olympic Committee was enough to have it pulled off the internet, but not before the scene was memorialized by screen grabs.

    “This is an insult to the delegation and to Olympism,” Mexican Olympic Committee president Carlos Padilla was quoted as saying in Reforma. “In this case, it's more than ignorance because they signed the letter of commitment in which they are obliged to wear only the authorized uniform.

Mexican Olympics head Carlos Padilla

    “I think this goes further and implies other types of agreements with a team with which they will act, with the corresponding legal actions. It is not a coincidence that they think they are in Disneyland,” added Padilla.

    Gil originally defended on Twitter the decision to pose his eleven Tomateros players in Culiacan jerseys as well as Mexico caps, but later deleted the posts. Hours later, the entire team posed in the same place with the official uniform. Mexico is participating in Olympic Games baseball for the first time in its history after qualifying with a third-place finish in the World Baseball Softball Confederation's Premier12 tournament in November 2019. The Summer Olympics are now underway in Tokyo following a year-long delay due to the Wuhan virus.

    Mexico is one of three nations in Group A along with host Japan and the Dominican Republic while three others comprise Group B: South Korea, Israel and the United States. The Verdes Grande play their first game against the Dominicans on Friday at 12:00 local time, after which they'll take on Japan Saturday at noon local time (with both games at Yokohama Baseball Stadium). Group play consists of one game against each member for seeding purposes in next week's Knockout Round, a convoluted eight-game format to determine the four combatants in the Bronze and Gold medal games on Saturday, August 7.

WBSC U-23 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS SET FOR SONORA

Estadio Sonora, Hermosillo

  After a yearlong delay due to the ongoing worldwide pandemic, the World Baseball Softball Confederation has rescheduled its Under-23 World Baseball Championship Tournament for September and October in Hermosillo and Obregon. Twelve nations will be competing with mostly minor league players for the U-23 crown, which was last played for in 2018, with Mexico copping the title in Colombia. Mexican outfielder Norberto Obeso was named to the tournament's Dream Team after finishing second among batters with a .500 average.

    A six-team Group A field will congregate in Obregon at Estadio Yaquis while six Group B contestants will converge on Estadio Sonora in Hermosillo for the round-robin first stage of the competition, with the opening games scheduled for September 23.

    After the first round dust settles, the top three teams from each Group will gather in Hermosillo for the Super Round, featuring crossover games against nations advancing from the opposite group added to previous results to determine seedings for the Bronze and Gold medal games on Saturday, October 2. The bottom three from each group will convene in Obregon for the Consolation Round using a similar format to determine placings from seventh through twelfth place.

    For the 2021 edition, the WBSC approved that 24-year-old players can participate due to the pandemic causing the postponement of a year of the event. Thus, players born from 1997 to 2003 may be chosen to the rosters of their respective national teams.

Estadio Yaquis, Obregon

Group A (Obregon)
Czech Republic
Mexico
New Zealand
Nicaragua
South Korea
Taiwan

Group B (Hermosillo)
China
Cuba
Germany
Japan
South Africa
Venezuela

    A schedule of games for the WBSC U-23 World Championships has not been released yet.

FERMIN NAMED AGUILAS' THIRD SKIPPER IN A MONTH

Felix Fermin looking over his shoulder

The Mexicali Aguilas are on their third manager in a month's time as the Mexican Pacific League fired Juan Castro and replaced him with veteran skipper Felix Fermin.  The move was announced last Friday, just hours before the Aguilas played a game with no fans occupying the stands in Mazatlan (more on that in three paragraphs).

The Aguilas opened the season with former Yankees infielder Luis Sojo as their new manager after Pedro Mere was fired following last season, but Sojo only lasted 16 games before he was canned November 1 with a 7-9 first-half record and replaced by Castro.  The former Dodgers coach, who himself has survived a 2018 for the books (if the book was written by Robert Ripley or maybe Lewis Carroll), lasted exactly four weeks before feeling the axe.  After guiding Mexicali to a 10-7 record the rest of the first half to finish with a fifth-place tie and 4.5 playoff points, Castro was let go when the Aguilas won just two of their first six games of the second stanza to end his term in Mexicali with a 12-12 overall mark.

The former MLB shortstop has a more extensive Mexican League managerial record (with stops in Monterrey, Carmen and Dos Laredos) than the MexPac, but his winterball work in his native Dominican Republic has been impressive.  Fermin has led the Cibaenas Agilas to five Liga Dominica championships and won Caribbean Series titles in 2001, 2003 and 2007.

Jose Angel Chavez managed the Aguilas on an interim basis during their weekend in Mazatlan as Fermin planned to meet his new team in the border city Monday, a day before opening a home series with Obregon.  Mexicali's (and Chavez')  first game against the Venados on Friday night was played without anyone in the stands.  The City of Mazatlan ordered the ballpark closed to the public because of the renovated facility's lack of water and drainage.  Both were shut off early last week because of a reported 3 million peso debt owed by the Venados to state-owned Jumapam, which provides water service to the 16,000-seat venue. 

Thus, on a night in which the other three LMP games each drew over 10,000 spectators, a few warm bodies were in the Teodoro Mariscal grandstand as the Venados lost a 7-5 tilt to Mexicali as Francisco Cordoba socked a homer for the visitors.  The impasse between team and city was resolved over the next day and the ballpark was opened back up with restored  water service in time for Saturday's game, when 7,764 fans watched their Venados top Mexicali, 10-3, with Mitch Lively getting the win to go to 3-1 and Walter Silva relieving (!) the last three innings to earn the save, the three-time All-Star's first since 2003 when he was pitching for Reynosa in the Mexican League (and the first of his 13 seasons of winterball).

Mazatlan won Sunday's game as well to bring their second-half record to 4-5, two games behind defending champion Culiacan, Hermosillo and Obregon, who are all tied for first at 6-3.  Jalisco is fourth with a 5-4 mark while Mexicali, Navojoa and Los Mochis are tied for sixth with 3-6 ledgers.  Obregon had held sole possession of first until dropping a 9-2 home decision to Navojoa Sunday as the Mayos' Jovan Rosa went 4-for-4 with a double, two runs and two RBIs and starter Ruddy Acosta carried a shutout into the ninth inning.  Pablo Ortega, who announced his retirement after 23 years as a pro after the LMB Fall season and took a pitching coach job with the Yaquis under manager Oscar Robles, pitched three scoreless innings of relief for Obregon after starter Nate Reed was knocked out of the box by giving up six runs in three frames.  Culiacan and Hermosillo won their games Sunday to pull into the three-way logjam at the top of the standings. 

LMP STANDINGS (Second Half): Culiacan 6-3, Hermosillo 6-3, Obregon 6-3, Jalisco 5-4, Mazatlan 4-5, Mexicali 3-6, Los Mochis 3-6, Navojoa 3-6. 
LMP BATTING LEADERS
Batting: Jasson Atondo, Hermosillo (.375), Homers: Jovan Rosa, Navojoa (10), Runs Batted In: Manny Rodriguez, Jalisco (38), Stolen Bases: Alonzo Harris, Navojoa (20).
LMP PITCHING LEADERS
Wins: Konner Wade, Mazatlan (5-1), Earned-Run Average: Elian Leyva, Jalisco (1.99), Strikeouts: Javier Solano, Mexicali (44), Saves: Casey Coleman, Culiacan (17).


MICHOACAN GOVERNOR WANTS LMB TEAM IN MORELIA

Morelia's 3,000-seat Estadio Francisco Villa

During last month's Mexican League Assembly of Presidents meeting held in Morelia, Michoacan governor Silvano Aureoles said he would like to see a Mexican League team in his state's capital and largest city.

At first blush, Morelia might seem like a place with decent potential as an LMB market.  A city of 784,776 with deep colonial roots, Morelia has a temperate climate with average daily high temperatures ranging from the upper 70's to mid 80's during baseball season.  The Monarcas Liga MX soccer team is very popular locally, with attendance averaging just under 30,000 per match in last spring's Clausura tournament to rank seventh in the 18-team circuit.  And the governor promised a renovated ballpark for a Mexican League to play in when the time came.  All to the good.

On the other hand, Morelia experiences a rainy season between June and September that brings 5 to 8 inches of the wet stuff monthly.  Unlike soccer, baseball has never been a prominent sport in Michoacan, with 1966 Class A Mexican Central League Tigres representing the city's lone run in organized ball; the 59-79 Tigres drew fewer than 24,000 fans to 69 home game and slunk into oblivion.  Then there's Estadio Francisco Villa, a ballpark built in 1964 with seating for 3,000 in concrete stands that have never been renovated.  Governor Aureoles claimed between 12 and 15 million pesos (approximately 6-8 million US dollars) would be allocated by the state towards stadium upgrades, but that amount may pale in comparison to what will actually be needed to bring a relic to respectability.

While one Puro Beisbol columnist described the Assembly as being "embarrassed" while the subject of Liga baseball in Morelia was being broached, LMB president Javier Salinas seemed enthused by the notion, albeit on a more practical level.  Salinas said that if their ballpark was fixed up, Morelia could see the development of a baseball academy, exhibition games involving Liga clubs or the Mexican National Team and a franchise in the Mexican Winter League, but "we need entrepreneurs to invest."  According to Salinas, the LIM is taking this winter off for restructuring.  "It was a league that was working, but not as we wanted, nor with the standards that Major League Baseball demands, so this year we decided to interrupt it to reorganize and give it more continuity next year."

For his part, Aureoles said he had been in discussions with Assembly chair Gerardo Benavides (owner of both the Monclova Acereros and the now-dormant Puebla Pericos) about purchasing an existing LMB team to bring to Morelia, perhaps the Pericos themselves.  Benavides has put the Puebla franchise up for sale the past several months, asking 50 to 55 million pesos ($2.6-2.9 million in US dollars) but finding no takers.  According to Proceso's Beatriz Pereyra, Aureoles called purchasing the 2016 champion Pericos "an option.  I would be delighted if Gerardo thought of selling the team to Michoacan," adding that entrepreneurs would be needed to "guarantee" the franchise would last in Morelia.  Benavides did not deny the two sides had been in talks.  Referring to his own difficulties in owning teams in both Puebla and his hometown of Monclova, Benavides said, "The only thing I ask is for people to be from here so they have room to maneuver and be successful."

"There is one thing we all need to understand: Owners must live in that city."


VILLANUEVA SIGNS WITH JAPANESE TEAM, LEAVES YAQUIS

Christian Villanueva: The newest Yomiuri Giant

After cracking 20 homers as a rookie for San Diego in 2018, Mexico-born third baseman Christian Villanueva will be playing in Japan next year.  After designating him for assignment, the Padres sold Villanueva's contract to Toyko's Yomiuri Giants, who then signed the 27-year-old Guadalajara native for one year at a reported $2 million (including a signing bonus).  Winners of 36 Central League pennants and 22 Japan Series since their 1936 inception, the Giants finished third in NPB's Central League this year with a 67-71 record.  Former Brewers infielder Casey McGehee and onetime Dodgers outfielder Alex Guerrero were the team's two foreign position players last summer.

Villanueva played in both the Cubs and Rangers systems before signing with the Padres as a free agent prior to the 2017 season.  Playing for El Paso in the AAA Pacific Coast League, he hit .296 with 20 homers and 86 RBIs in 109 games before being called up to San Diego.  After going 0-for-3 his first two games, Villanueva cracked four homers over his next seven contests and finished his September call-up with a .344 average and seven RBIs over 12 games.

Villanueva followed up his late-season debut with a strong start to the 2018 season for the Padres, hitting .321 with eight homers in April alone, but cooled off considerably over the next three months before a strong August brought his numbers up until a fractured finger in an August 21 game against the Rockies ended his season.  He hit .236 over 110 games for the Friars (including a sizzling .336 against lefties), with 15 doubles, 20 homers and 46 RBIs, striking out 104 times in 384 plate appearances.  The 5'11", 210-pounder was sometimes shaky in the hot corner, committing 12 errors at third over 96 contests to finish with a .948 fielding percentage.

After playing five winters in Obregon (including a breakout 2015-16 campaign during which he hit .322 with 9 homers for the Yaquis in 64 games), Villanueva sat out last season but returned to the Cajeme club this winter to rehab his finger while his status was being worked out.  He was batting .227 with three homers in eleven games when the Japan deal was made, doubling and walking against Navojoa last Friday in his last home game for the Yaquis.

LMP regular season ends, playoffs to begin Monday

Culiacan OF Sebastian Elizalde homering

The Mexican Pacific League has concluded its 2017-18 regular season, with the Culiacan Tomateros parlaying a third-place finish in the second half into a top seed berth for the January playoffs.  Mexicali ran away with the second-half title by turning in a 26-7 record under manager Pedro Mere to finish six games ahead of 20-13 Navojoa, collecting eight points toward the postseason in the bargain.  However, the Aguilas' 16-19 showing in the first half netted the borderites just four points while the defending champs' sixth-place finish cost former skipper Roberto Vizcarra his job.

In the end, however, it was Culiacan's steady performance throughout both halves that gave them home-field advantage for the pending postseason.  Although some breaths were held when the Tomateros brought back the volatile Benji Gil as manager in the offseason, fans were rewarded with a 20-15 record for second place and 7.0 points in the first half followed by a 19-16 mark in the second stanza, good enough for third place and the 6.0 points that come with it for a total of 13.0 points, one point ahead of Mexicali and 1.5 points up on Navojoa.  Mexicali had the best overall record at 42-26 while Culiacan went a combined 39-29 and Navojoa was 38-30.  All three teams will move on to the playoffs, as will Hermosillo (33-34/11.5), Mazatlan (37-31/11.0) and Jalisco (35-32/9.5).  Obregon (27-41/7.0) was never a factor in either half and Los Mochis (20-48/6.5) finished their season in disastrous fashion by losing their last 17 games under interim helmsman Ramon Orantes, at least implying that fired manager Luis Sojo wasn't the problem with the Caneros.

Culiacan outfielder Sebastian Elizalde won the batting title with a .380 average, nine points ahead of Jalisco second baseman Manny Rodriguez.  A Reds farmhand, Elizalde also led the loop with a .446 on-base percentage, tied Rodriguez for the MexPac lead with 95 hits apiece and finished a distant second to Mazatlan speedster Jeremias Pineda (who'll miss the playoffs after going home shortly before Christmas to play for the Dominican League's Cibao Gigantes) with 16 stolen bases.

Elizalde is in the conversation for MVP honors, but it'll be hard to beat out Rodriguez, whose .371 average was augmented by 25 doubles, 58 RBIs, 50 runs scored, 150 total bases, a .568 slugging percentage and a 1.009 OPS (all best in the loop) while his 10 homers were good enough to tie for fourth with teammate Agustin Murillo.  The 35-year-old Guasave native posted his seventh straight .300+ Mexican League season last summer for Monclova and even stealing 19 bases, showing little sign of slowing down.  Navojoa's Randy Arozarena led the LMP with 14 homers in another down year for roundtrippers while tying Rodriguez for the doubles lead at 25 two-baggers.  The Cardinals minor leaguer by way of Cuba may get some MVP mention, too, but it appears to be Manny's award to lose at this point.

Any debate for Pitcher of the Year will likely include just two candidates: Mazatlan's Mitch Lively and Rolando Valdez of Mexicali.  Lively, who made the best of a bad situation in Leon during the summer, had some dominant moments during the MexPac calendar and finished with a 9-2 record to lead the league in wins, tossed the only complete game shutout of the season, posted the best WHIP (0.96) and finished with 63 strikeouts to come in second to Jalisco's Tyler Alexander (66) over 12 starts.  Lively, whose 2.50 ERA was second to Valdez, hasn't pitched for the Venados since December 17 (when he was rocked by Mexicali for four runs on 10 hits in 6.2 innings), but Tweeted Saturday that he was returning to Mazatlan for the playoffs after some time off, presumably at home in California.  He'll help form a potentially lethal playoff rotation with Roy Merritt, Dustin Crenshaw and Alejandro Soto for manager Daniel Fernandez' Deer.  Obregon closer Manny Acosta, who was picked by Navojoa in Saturday's reinforcement draft, led the MexPac with 16 saves

Valdez will receive some MVP votes on the basis of his league-leading 1.74 earned-run average, finishing a remarkable .76 ahead of Lively en route to a 5-2 record.  If there's a Comeback of the Year award in the LMP, the 32-year-old Nuevo Laredo product is a shoo-in after a 2016-17 winter in Obregon in which he was 1-8 with a 5.03 ERA for the Yaquis.  Valdez was dealt to Mexicali along with shortstop Daniel Castro in the offseason in exchange for pitcher Marco Duarte and third baseman Emmanuel Avila, a trade that (like the season itself) was a disaster for the Yaquis.  While Valdez and Castro (.329 with 27 runs in 47 games before the Colorado Rockies shut him down for the winter on December 8) both had standout years for the Aguilas, Duarte (0-6/5.75) and Avila (.243/2/17) both suffered through miserable seasons in Obregon.


Greene to Culiacan in first LMP reinforcement draft

Obregon (now Culiacan) OF Justin Greene

With the selection of Obregon centerfielder Justin Greene, the Culiacan Tomateros led off two rounds of Saturday's Mexican Pacific League Reinforcement Draft, an exercise that takes place three times following the end of the regular season in which each remaining playoff team is allowed to pick two players from other clubs that have been eliminated from postseason contention.  Similar drafts will be held at the end of the first round and semifinals of the MexPac playoffs before the pennant-winner loads up prior to February's Caribbean Series in Guadalajara.

The reinforcement drafts are an often-controversial procedure that can cause hard feelings among players who are placed on a team's reserve list after new players are brought in at each stage.  One notable example is Mexicali third baseman C.J. Retherford, who had batted .296 with 13 homers and 44 RBIs in 66 games for the Aguilas during the regular season last winter but was dropped just prior to the team's trip to Culiacan for last February's Serie del Caribe.  The former Arizona State star and White Sox prospect, with at least some justification, did not hide his displeasure over the move.  As if to tempt fate again, Mexicali picked Los Mochis third baseman Rudy Amador in the second round of Saturday's draft.  Still, it's the way things have been done for some time in the LMP and fans have grown used to seeing teams playing in the CS that only vaguely resemble the outfit that represented the champions at the onset of the postseason.

Greene will arrive in Culiacan on the heels of a decent campaign for Obregon, where he hit .288 with 14 stolen bases for the Yaquis over 36 games after arriving in midseason.  The 32-year-old South Carolinian had a good summer in the Mexican League, batting a combined .354 with 13 homers and a LMB-best 51 steals in 96 games for Saltillo and Monterrey, landing with the Sultanes in a late-season salary dump by the Saraperos.  His numbers didn't translate to similar success this winter, but the situation in Obregon steadily approached critical mass as the season progressed, culminating with beloved mascot Chacho being fired late in the schedule after joining with fans in chants against team owner Rene Rodriguez during a game (See why I find MLB so boring these days?)  As for Culiacan, Greene adds more speed to a team that led the MexPac with 73 stolen bases and should patrol the outfield with batting champ Sebastian Elizalde and vet D'Arby Myers, who hit .309 for the Guindas.  Another speedy outfielder, Rico Noel, went 13-for-14 on steals in 25 games for the Tomateros, where he appeared to peacefully co-exist with manager Benji Gil (which hasn't always been the case) while Cuban Ronnier Mustelier (.301) and second-round pickup Dustin Martin (.297 in 10 games for Obregon) are yet further options for the number one seed.

LMP Reinforcement Draft 1 (Saturday, December 30, 2017)
FIRST ROUND
1. Culiacan, OF Justin Greene (Obregon)
2. Mexicali, OF Olmo Rosario (Los Mochis)
3. Mazatlan, P Santiago Gutierrez (Los Mochis)
4. Jalisco, P David Reyes (Obregon)
5. Hermosillo, P Luis Perez (Los Mochis)
6. Navojoa, OF Leo Heras (Obregon)
SECOND ROUND
1.  Navojoa, P Manny Acosta (Obregon)
2. Hermosillo, P D.J. Johnson (Los Mochis)
3. Jalisco, P Irwin Delgado (Obregon)
4. Mazatlan, OF Moises Gutierrez (Obregon)
5. Mexicali, 3B Rodolfo Amador (Los Mochis)
6. Culiacan, OF Dustin Martin (Obregon)


2017-18 LMP First Round Playoff Schedule

MON, Jan. 1:   Jalisco at Culiacan, Hermosillo at Navojoa, Mazatlan at Mexicali
TUE, Jan. 2:    Jalisco at Culiacan, Hermosillo at Navojoa, Mazatlan at Mexicali
THU, Jan. 4:    Culiacan at Jalisco, Navojoa at Hermosillo, Mexicali at Mazatlan
FRI, Jan. 5:      Culiacan at Jalisco, Navojoa at Hermosillo, Mexicali at Mazatlan
SAT, Jan 6*:    Culiacan at Jalisco, Navojoa at Hermosillo, Mexicali at Mazatlan
SUN, Jan. 7*:  Jalisco at Culiacan, Hermosillo at Navojoa, Mazatlan at Mexicali
MON, Jan. 8*: Jalisco at Culiacan, Hermosillo at Navojoa, Mazatlan at Mexicali
*-If needed

Mexicali opens 4-game lead; Lively win streak ends at 8

The defending champion Mexicali Aguilas have continued to respond to new manager Pedro Mere and have built a four-game lead over Mazatlan and Navojoa in the Mexican Pacific League’s second-half standings.  The Eagles won two of three hard-fought games in a weekend series in Mazatlan to lift their record to 18-6 with nine games left in the regular season. The Venados dropped to 14-10 after losing Sunday’s game, 4-2, falling into a second-place tie with the Mayos.  Righty Mitch Lively took the loss for the Deer to fall to 9-2 on the season after winning his last eight starts.  Meanwhile, Navojoa won in Culiacan, 2-0, as Eddie Gamboa and four relievers combined on the shutout.

A 6’5” Californian, the 32-year-old Lively has enjoyed a banner 2017 south of the border.  He pitched well for a poor Leon team in the Mexican League, going 7-2 with a 2.41 ERA for the Bravos over 74 innings, including 12 starts, to give him a combined 16-4 mark between the two leagues.  The Venados ace leads the MexPac in wins, strikeouts and WHIP and is threatening to become the LMP’s first 10-game winner since Culiacan’s Jorge Campillo in 2004-05.  Campillo went on to pitch in the majors for Seattle and Atlanta and is currently a VP with the LMB Tijuana Toros after serving as the team’s GM for several seasons.

The Hermosillo Naranjeros’ second-half slide following their first-half title has continued, with the Orangemen next-to-last with a 9-14 record, three games ahead of hapless Los Mochis.  Hermosillo’s front office and fans are used to success and rumors have surfaced that manager Lorenzo Bundy’s seat may be getting warm.  The Naranjeros recently became beneficiaries of Obregon’s sell-off by acquiring former MLB and NPB pitcher Luis Mendoza from the Yaquis for three prospects.  One of them, Hermosillo native Isaac Paredes, was a well-regarded Cubs farmhand before being dealt to the Tigers organization last summer.  The infielder spent the entire season playing in the Class A Midwest League, pretty fast company for an 18-year-old who hit .252 with 11 homers and 70 RBIs in 124 games for South Bend and West Michigan.

What’s been a long season in Obregon got a little longer when new fan favorite outfielder Tomo Otosaka returned to Japan after playing the last of his 27 games for the Yaquis on December 14.  Otosaka won over supporters with a .410 batting average with 15 runs scored and another 12 driven in while walking 13 times in 113 plate appearances for an on-base percentage of .487.  The 23-year-old Otosaka has hit .237 with 7 homers and 22 RBIs in 196 games for the Yokohama BayStars of Japan’s Central League since his 2014 debut.  Attendance has plummeted at year-old Nuevo Estadio Yaquis this winter as fans appear to be losing confidence in the Yaquis organization under owner Rene Rodriguez, who bought the team from the Grupo Modelo brewery following the team’s trio of LMP titles earlier this decade.

LMP SECOND HALF STANDINGS

Mexicali (4.0) 18-6, Mazatlan (6.0) 14-10, Navojoa (4.5) 14-10, Culiacan (7.0) 13-11, Obregon (3.0) 11-13, Jalisco (5.0) 10-13, Hermosillo (8.0) 9-14, Los Mochis (3.5) 6-18

First half point totals per team are in parentheses

LMP BATTING LEADERS

AVG-Sebastian Elizalde (CUL) .372, H-Sebastian Elizalde (CUL) 83,  R-Randy Arozarena (NAV) 44, HR-Randy Arozarena (NAV) 14, RBI-Manny Rodriguez (JAL) 50, SB-Jeremias Pineda (MAZ) 29.

LMP PITCHING LEADERS

W-Mitch Lively (MAZ) 9, ERA-Rolando Valdez (MXI) 1.75, SO-Mitch Lively (MAZ) 63, SV-Manny Acosta (OBR) 15, HLD-Edgar Gomez (MXI) 16, WHIP-Mitch Lively (MAZ) 0.96.

El Titan traded to Atlanta, designated for assignment

Five-time All-Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez could be forgiven if he’s beyond ready to turn the calendar to 2018 a couple weeks early as his nightmarish 2017 has taken yet another couple of dagger-like twists.  The man known as “El Titan” and considered by many to be the best MLBer of Mexican descent was one of four Los Angeles Dodgers players sent to Atlanta last weekend in a trade for outfielder Matt Kemp.  Also dealt to the Braves were veteran pitchers Scott Kazmir and Brandon McCarthy and young infielder Charlie Culberson in a transaction regarded by some as a salary dump for both teams.  Gonzalez is scheduled to make $22.4 million for the last year of his contract in 2018, of which the Dodgers picked up $4.5 million of the tab as part of the swap.

However, if the 35-year-old Gonzalez had even begun thinking of hitting in the high-altitude, homer-happy environment of Atlanta’s new ballpark (a 13-year-old Little Leaguer homered off the left field upper-deck facade in August), such thoughts were dashed as the Braves designated him for assignment almost as soon as the trade was announced, in effect putting the 14-year-veteran back on the trading block.

Gonzalez has collected 2,010 career hits, including 311 homers and 1,176 RBIs, with a slash line of .288/.359/.488 over 1,875 MLB games since he debuted with the Texas Rangers in 2004.  Along with his five All-Star picks, the San Diego native (who spent many years growing up in Tijuana along with brother Edgar, now in the Jalisco Charros front office) has won four Gold Gloves and two Silver Slugger awards while being named Player of the Month once in each league and picking up eight Player of the Week designations.

There had been speculation in some quarters that Gonzalez might join his brother in Guadalajara and play for the Charros this winter, but that appears unlikely.

Tijuana’s Blanca Uribe first woman LMB Executive of the Year

The Mexican League Assembly of Presidents enjoyed a relatively quiet week at the annual Baseball Winter Meetings earlier this month in Orlando, and even made a little history in the process when Tijuana Toros’ deputy vice president Blanca Uribe became the first woman to receive Executive of the Year honors in the LMB’s 92-year history.  Uribe is the daughter of Toros owner Alberto Uribe and sister of team president Alejandro Uribe, and was recently promoted from a vice president’s position she’d held since 2014.

While her father and brother are more involved in the baseball end of the Toros, Blanca has served a more “heart-and-soul” role with the team, organizing several events and creating tie-ins involving charitable organizations along with other outreach efforts.  The Toros have become one of the Mexican League’s model franchises in just four years.  They won their first LMB pennant in September and their Academy Rookie League affiliate won that loop’s title.  The Toros’ Mexican Winter League club in Moroleon (shared with Leon) qualified for the LIM playoffs, but was swept by Oaxaca in the first round.  Mexico City then beat Oaxaca to win their third straight LIM flag.

Also at the Winter Meetings, the LMB confirmed their two 2018 short-season schedules.  The first season will run between March 22 and May 28 with three-tiered playoffs to follow in June.  After a June 29 All-Star Game scheduled for the perpetually-delayed Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu in Mexico City, the second season will open July 3 and end September 8 with another month-long playoff ending with an October 8 Championship Series Game Seven (if needed).  Each regular season will consist of 57 games, although the schedules will not be evenly balanced in games between divisions.

For the second Assembly of Presidents meeting in a row, LMB president Javier Salinas confiscated all cell phones from participants to prevent leaks to the media.  The move worked, as no mention was made of either the Rookiegate imbroglio between the Mexico City Diablos Rojos and the Quintana Roo Tigres or the volatile ongoing ownership situation involving the Durango Generales.  Durango has been included as one of the 16 teams playing in 2018 but the question of whether embattled Generales owner Virgilio Ruiz can hang on to the team remains a mystery.

3,000 attend Liga Olmeca opening ceremony in CDMX

Mexico’s largest Little League organization held opening ceremonies for the 2017-18 season earlier this month at the Liga Olmeca complex in Mexico City.  An estimated 3,000 people were on hand as New York Yankees pitchers Luis Cessa and Giovanny Gallegos joined Lee Sigman (the Yanks’ Mexican scouting director) to help first-year Liga Olmeca president Carlos Fragoso welcome players and parents to another season of amateur baseball in the capital city.

Fragoso, an Obregon native who grew up with David Gonzalez (father of Edgar and Adrian) and works as an engineer for Siemens, himself has been a scout for both the Yankees and Boston Red Sox as well as a coach at the national level in Mexico.  According to Fragoso, there are about 900 youth baseball and softball players in Liga Olmeca while another 500-plus adults play softball at night for a total of nearly 1,500 ballplayers.

Mexicali rides six-game win skein to LMP second half lead

Mazatlan pitcher Mitch Lively

After a tepid first half in which defending Mexican Pacific League champion Mexicali finished sixth with a 16-19 record and manager Roberto Vizcarra was fired, the Aguilas have caught fire under new skipper Pedro Mere.  The Eagles swept a road series in Los Mochis and a home set against Hermosillo over the past week to head into Monday's travel day with six straight wins, a 10-2 second-half record and a two-game lead over second-place Mazatlan with three weeks remaining in the regular season.

Mexicali is a balanced team, standing one point behind Culiacan for the LMP lead with a .272 team batting average while Aguilas pitchers are third in the loop with a 3.13 ERA.  Veteran outfielder Luis Juarez (350/4/19) is one of four starters above the .300 mark while fellow gardener Chris Roberson (.301) and third baseman C.J. Retherford (.220) each have seven homers.  Starter Rolando Valdez has pitched far better than his 2-2 record after nine starts implies and leads the LMP with a 1.78 ERA.  Fellow Mexicali hurler Sergio Mitre 5-3/3.12) tops the circuit with 47 strikeouts in 49 innings.

Mazatlan dropped the last two games of a weekend home series against Los Mochis to fall out of a first-place tie with Mexicali, but the 8-4 Venados have augmented their usual strong pitching with a top-notch offense led by speedy outfielder Jeremias Pineda.  The fleet Dominican is second to Culiacan's Sebastian Elizalde (.381) in the MexPac batting race with a .377 average and his 24 steals in 35 games is more than twice his nearest competitor.  In comparison, the entire Mexicali team has swiped just 14 bases (in 30 attempts!) this season.  However, the biggest story in Mazatlan has to be pitcher Mitch Lively.

Strictly a reliever for the first six years of his 11-year MiLB career (most in the Giants organization), Lively has come off a solid (7-2/2.41) summer for Leon in a very trying Mexican League season for the Bravos and now leads the LMP with seven wins in nine starts, including six in a row, and his 0.89 WHIP is also tops.  The 32-year-old California tossed a one-hitter over Culiacan last Thursday, retiring the last 25 Tomateros in order after after Elizalde's first-inning double gave the hosts their only baserunner of the evening in a 1-0 Venados win as Erick Rodriguez' sacrifice fly in the seventh scored Fernando Luciano with the game's only run.

Bringing the fired Vizcarra back into the conversation, it didn't take long for the Coahuila native to find work, replacing ex-MLBer Tony Tarasco as manager of the Jalisco Charros last week.  A first-time helmsman, Tarasco led the Charros to a fourth-place finish in the first half with a 19-16 record, but Jalisco lost five of their first six games in the second stanza to sound the panic alarm in Guadalajara.  One problem Tarasco reportedly had was an inability to speak Spanish, always a good skill for managing a Mexican baseball team (as Wally Backman learned last summer in Monclova).  The Charros lost four of their first six games under Vizcarra.

There was some good news (always a rare treat for a manager in Mexico) when Hermosillo's Lorenzo Bundy won his 700th career MexPac game, pounding Culiacan by a 13-1 count November 23 at Estadio Tomateros.  A 58-year-old Philadelphian who began managing LMP baseball in 1991, Bundy trails only Francisco "Paquin" Estrada (856) for all-time wins in league history.  The late Benjamin "Cananea" Reyes is third with 605 victories.

LMP SECOND HALF STANDINGS*

Mexicali 10-2 (4.0), Mazatlan 8-4 (6.0), Navojoa 7-5 (4.5), Obregon 6-6 (3.0), Hermosillo 5-7 (8.0), Culiacan 5-7 (7.0), Los Mochis 4-8 (3.5), Jalisco 3-9 (5.0).

*First-half points for each team are in parentheses following their current record.

LMP HITTING LEADERS

Batting-Sebastian Elizalde (CUL) .381,  Hits-Sebastian Elizalde (CUL) 69, Runs-Randy Arozarena (NAV) 38, Homers-Randy Arozarena (NAV) 11, RBIs-Manny Rodriguez (JAL) 41, Stolen Bases-Jeremias Pineda (MAZ) 24.

LMP PITCHING LEADERS

Wins-Mitch Lively (MAZ) 7, Earned Run Average-Rolando Valdez (MXI) 1.78, Strikeouts-Sergio Mitre (MXI) 47, Saves-Manny Acosta (OBR) 14, Holds-Edgar Gomez (MXI) 13, WHIP-Mitch Lively (MAZ) 0.89.

LIM regular season ends, female ump to work in postseason

The Mexican Winter League has concluded its 2017-18 regular season, with playoffs slated to open on Tuesday, December 5.  The two-time defending champion Mexico City Diablos Rojos finished in first place with a 29-16 record for the top seed in the postseason, four games up on the 25-20 Moroleon Toros Bravos and seven games ahead of the 22-23 Oaxaca Guerreros.  The Salamanca Petroleros copped the fourth and final seed at 21-24.  The Celaya Cajeteros and Maravatio Leones were both eliminated with identical 19-26 records.

Mexico City's Yousamot Cota led the LIM with a .392 batting average, nineteen points ahead of Diablos teammate David Jimenez, who was tops with 62 hits, 39 runs scored and 36 RBIs.  Salamanca's Roberto Ramirez had the most homers with eight while Maravatio's Walter Cirilo Higuera stole 15 bases in 21 attempts to lead in that category.  Diablos pitcher Luis Fernando Miranda paced the LIM with a 2.01 ERA and his five wins tied Oaxaca's Ariel Gracia for most in the circuit.  Rogelio Martinez of Moroleon's 51 strikeouts led the way.

Mexico City was number one in both team batting (.305) and team ERA (3.55) and will be favored to win a third straight flag under manager Victor Bojorquez, who'll manage the big club in 2018.  They'll open their first round series on the road in Salamanca while Moroleon will visit Oaxaca for the first contest in their semi set.

When the LIM playoffs get underway, the first woman umpire in league history will be working the games.  Culiacan native Luz Alicia Gordoa Osuna, 41, has played softball for over 20 years while umpiring the past five.  She's also spent two decades as a soccer referee.  Gordoa opened the fall in the Academy Rookie League along with another lady ump, 34-year-old Paulina Barajas Castro.  Barajas is from Mexico City, where she umpired in the Liga Olmeca, Liga Lindavista and Liga Maya youth organizations before heading to the Academy in El Carmen near Monterrey.  

The Mexican League says that at least one of the two female umpires will work during their 2018 two-season schedule, and it appears that Gordoa, who made her LIM debut in Salamanca in November, is on track to become the first woman arbiter in the LMB's 93-year history.

Eleven Mexicans on Major League Baseball 40-man rosters

Kansas City pitcher Joakim Soria

With the Baseball Winter Meetings less than a week away, eleven players of Mexican descent have been protected among the thirty Major League Baseball's 40-man rosters heading into Orlando.  

Three of the eleven are with the National League champion Los Angeles Dodgers: veteran All-Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, prized pitching prospect Julio Urias and outfielder Alex Verdugo.  Toronto is protecting closer Roberto Osuna and starter Marco Estrada, young hurlers Luis Cessa and Giovanny Gallegos are on the Yankees roster while third baseman Christian Villanueva (San Diego), pitchers Hector Velazquez (Boston), Joakin Soria (Kansas City) and Victor Arano (Philadelphia) are also exempt from the Rule 5 draft.  Soria was the top Rule 5 draft pick by the Royals in 2006 after an 8-0 start that winter for Obregon in the MexPac.

Seven Mexican MLB players entered December as free agents, including starting pitchers Yovani Gallardo, Jaime Garcia and Miguel Angel Gonzalez plus relievers Sergio Romo, Oliver Perez, Jorge de la Rosa and Fernando Salas.  An eighth, Cesar Vargas, spent last summer in the Padres organization but did not appear in the majors.  Vargas is currently 3-2 with a 3.38 ERA in 18 appearances (two of them starts) for Hermosillo this winter.  Romo is anticipated to join Jalisco later this month for the stretch drive of the regular season and the January playoffs.

Generales' Mayora hitting streak reaches 32 games

While the surprising Durango Generales have climbed past Saltillo out of the Mexican League's Northern Division cellar, the team has cooled down a bit by winning 5 of their past 10 games.  One Durango player who remains hot is third baseman Daniel Mayora, who singled in a 4-3 loss at Tijuana Sunday to stretch his current hitting streak to 32 games, putting the Venezuelan four games away from tying the LMB record of 36.

Mayora (pictured) is a 31-year-old in his 13th season of pro ball, making his LMB debut this year after toiling in the Rockies, Rays, Giants and Dodgers system since 2005.  He's played in five All-Star Games and been a postseason all-leaguer twice (Northwest League in 2006, South Atlantic League in 2007), reaching as high as AAA Durham in 2011.  He spent last summer batting .311 with Rimini in the Italian League.  Like the rest of his Generales teammates, not much was expected of Mayora in 2017 before he began his run by singling in a game at Laguna on May 6.  Since then, he's gone 49-for-125 (.392) at the plate to raise his season batting average from .328 to 360, good for eighth in the Liga table.  

Mayora hasn't necessarily overwhelmed LMB pitchers, collecting one hit in 19 contests during his 32-game skein, but he has homered six times since the streak began.  The current Mexican League single-season record hitting streak of 36 was set by Saltillo's Luis de los Santos in 2000 and tied by Carlos Gastelum of Quintana Roo in 2012.  Puebla first baseman Willis Otanez hit safely in 37 consecutive games, but that was spread over two seasons: The former MLBer ended the 2009 season with a 15-game hitting streak and began the 2010 campaign with a 22-game run en route to winning BBM's Summer MVP Award that year.

By sweeping Durango in their weekend home series (attended by 39,688 fans over three games), Tijuana extended their winning streak to five games and closed the gap on LMB North-leading Monterrey, who dropped two of three to Aguascalientes at Estadio Monterrey.  The Sultanes still hold the Liga's best record at 41-20, but the Toros are now just two-and-a-half games back at 39-23 while Monclova scored 32 runs in their three-game sweep of Saltillo to solidify their hold on third with a 37-25 mark.  Aguascalientes and Union Laguna are tied for fourth at 34-29, one game ahead of 33-30 Mexico City.  Durango and Saltillo are six and seven games behind the Diablos, respectively.

There's little drama to report from the LMB South, where Yucatan is running away with things at 39-21, ten games ahead of second-place Puebla (30-32).  The defending champion Pericos added to what's become a season of intrigue for Gerardo Benadives' two LMB teams by firing manager Von Hayes last Monday and replacing him with another ex-MLBer Tim Johnson, who'd been managing Benavides' Northern Mexican League team in San Luis Rio Colorado.  Johnson, who managed the Toronto Blue Jays to an 88-74 record in 1998, was rumored to be the eventual skipper in Monclova (Benavides' other LMB team) after Wally Backman was fired last month, but Jorge Loredo led the Acereros to eight wins in his first nine games as interim helmsman to make another change unnecessary.  As for Backman?  He was brought to Puebla as a bench coach under Hayes and presumably holds the same role for Johnson.  However, the Pericos website still lists Hayes as manager with no mention of the former Mets infielder.

Quintana Roo is in a virtual tie with Puebla at 28-30, ahead of Veracruz (28-33), Oaxaca (27-33) and Campeche (26-35) as four games separate five teams between second and sixth place.  Four teams will reach the postseason in the LMB South and at this point, three will be there by default.  Mexico City, whose ownership fought to remain in the North (relegating Leon to the South even though Leon sits farther north than the capital city), would have been two-and-a-half games ahead of Puebla and the Tigres in second if geography had won the alignment debate.  Instead, the Diablos sit in sixth place in the LMB North.

Yadir Drake of Durango continues to lead the league in batting with an even .400 average, but Monterrey centerfielder Chris Roberson has gone an incredible 19-for-36 (.528) over his last nine games to lift his average up to .398.  Roberson, a 37-year-old Oakland native who became a naturalized Mexican citizen over the past year, is having an MVP-worthy season thus far.  He's the first Liga player in 2017 to reach double figures in both homers (12) and stolen bases (11).  Tijuana teammates Corey Brown and Alex Liddi are tied for the lead in homers with 15 each, one ahead of Durango's Drake.  Laguna first baseman Ricky Alvarez continues his productive campaign with 66 RBIs in 63 games, eight more than Brown.  One player who probably deserves to join Roberson and others in the MVP conversation at the midway point of the season is Saltillo outfielder Justin Greene (pictured).  The South Carolinian had a pair of 4-hit games last week en route to raising his batting average to .361 with 9 homers and he continues to terrorize opposing pitchers and catchers alike with 33 steals to easily top the circuit in that category.  He's also been caught stealing 12 times, tying Laguna's Welington Dotel for the LMB lead.  For his part, Dotel is terrorizing his third base coach by going 11-of-23 in steals attempts, which says something (most likely "STAY!").

Mexican League pitchers haven't had the easiest time of it in 2017, with three teams hitting .300 or better and another four in the .290's.  Conversely, three teams have ERAs below 4.00 while another five clubs are above 5.00.  Leon's Mitch Lively is back in the starting rotation after working his way back from an apparent injury suffered in May and leads the circuit with a 1.82 average.  A closer last year when the team labored in Reynosa, Lively has walked just 9 hitters in 49 innings while building a 6-1 record.  Oaxaca lefty Irwin Delgado beat Campeche Sunday to win his fifth consecutive start and take the Liga lead with 9 wins on the season.  Delgado struck out only two Piratas batsmen over seven frames and has been overtaken by Monclova's Josh Lowey, 77 to 76, in the LMB whiff wars.  Lowey has struck out 10 batters in each of his last two starts, including a loss at Aguascalientes last Wednesday during which he allowed one run in seven innings.  Durango's Tiago da Silva continues to excel for the Liga's worst-pitching team, topping the loop with 20 saves in 21 opportunities to go with a 1.89 ERA.  The Generales team ERA is 5.85, which tells you how much the Brazilian has meant to them.  In a curious roster move last week, Yucatan released closer Jairo Asencio (who spent time in MLB with four teams between 2009 and 2013) even though he was second with 16 saves and had a 2.42 ERA.  The 34-year-old Dominican hadn't allowed an earned run since May 14.

With the All-Star Game in Campeche scheduled for next weekend, this will be a short week for regular season games.  The biggest midweek series looks to be in Tijuana, where the Toros will host Monclova in a battle of teams that many preseason prognosticators had going 1-2 in the LMB North.  The top series in the South may be when Oaxaca visits Puebla.  The Guerreros swept a Sunday home doubleheader against Campeche to pull within a half-game of fourth place.  Raymundo Torres' two-run walkoff homer won the opener for Delgado's ninth victory while Samar Leyva's walkoff two-run single capped a Oaxaca comeback win in the nightcap.

MEXICAN LEAGUE STANDINGS

North Division: Monterrey 41-20, Tijuana 39-23, Monclova 37-25, Aguascalientes 34-29, Union Laguna 34-29, Mexico City 33-30, Durango 27-36, Saltillo 25-36.

South Division: Yucatan 39-21, Puebla 30-32, Quintana Roo 28-30, Veracruz 28-33, Oaxaca 27-33, Campeche 26-35, Tabasco 23-38, Leon 20-41.