OAXACA WINS LMB SOUTH FIRST HALF TITLE

The Oaxaca Guerreros and manager Sergio Gastelum have at least suggested that last Fall's Serie del Rey appearance against eventual Mexican League champion Monterrey was no fluke. Ruddy Acosta allowed one run in five innings as the Guerreros topped Puebla, 7-2, Wednesday night to reach the midway point of the 2019 season with a 37-23 record going into the All-Star Break. Oaxaca thus wins the LMB South first-half title by two games over 32-24 Mexico City, who went into the final day one game out of the lead but lost 8-4 at Leon as Bravos third baseman Carlos Rivero doubled, singled twice and drove in four runs. The Diablos Rojos tied for second with the 34-26 Pericos, who likewise had a chance to tie for the South lead going into their last game at Oaxaca. Leon finished fourth at 27-32 to lead a group of five sub-.500 teams.

Oaxaca pitcher Ruddy Acosta

 Unlike the Guerreros' close-but-clear-cut triumph in the LMB South, things are far from certain in the LMB North.  Tijuana scored three runs in the top of the ninth at Monterrey Wednesday as Logan Watkins contributed a bases-loaded single and the Toros went on to beat the Sultanes, 10-7, pulling into a final-day tie with the Sultanes for the division crown at 40-22 apiece.  The teams played six times in the half (all since June 4), with Monterrey winning two of three games in Tijuana and the Toros returning the favor last week. The Toros outscored the defending champions by an aggregate 29-23 margin in head-to-head competition. Monclova won their last game Wednesday over Dos Laredos, 5-2, at Uni-Trade Stadium in Laredo as Rudy Amador had three singles and three RBIs for the winners. The Acereros finished in third (one game behind the co-leaders) at 39-21 while the Tecolotes came in fourth with a 33-27 showing.

Leon outfielder Felix Pie

Felix Pie of Leon continues to dominate the batting race with a .461 average, comfortably ahead (for now) of Tabasco's Ronnier Mustelier, who's hitting a mere .415.  Aguascalientes' Jose Vargas homered against Durango last Monday to bring his season total to 29 (four more than Chris Carter of Monclova and Puebla's Danny Ortiz) before sitting the final two games of the series with the Generales.  Vargas, who also leads Leon's Matt Clark in RBIs (69-68), is batting .372 with an LMB-best .814 slugging percentage. Dos Laredos' Johnny Davis stole two bases in Wednesday's loss to Monclova and now has 40 steals, twice as many as Oaxaca's Alonzo Harris.

Yucatan's Cesar Valdez did not pitch during the Leones' final series against Quintana Roo in Cancun, but his 9-0 record, 2.71 ERA and 1.16 WHIP were enough to lead the Liga in all three categories.  Valdez had 43 strikeouts and just six walks over 69.2 innings over the first half. Like Valdez, Monclova's Josh Lowey (8-0/3.91/1.17 WHIP) sat out his team's last series before the All-Star Break but Monterrey's 8-1 Edgar Gonzalez lost his first decision, 3-2, last Tuesday against Tijuana.  Gonzalez scattered five hits over as many innings, but two of them were solo homers by Carlos Peguero and Junior Lake. Monterrey closer Wirfin Obispo, who got tossed in Wednesday's home loss to Tijuana, has otherwise stayed in enough games to save 19 of them, tops by four over Carlos Bustamante of Monclova.  Tijuana's Jesus Pirela leads with 19 holds and was recognized with a berth on the LMB North roster in Sunday's All-Star Game.

When second half action opens this Friday, the most interesting series may be in Monclova, where the Acereros will host Oaxaca for a three-game series.  Another set worth keeping an eye on next weekend should be when Mexico City visits Tijuana for a trio of games.

NORTH DRUBS SOUTH, 11-6, AS CAMPOS MAKES 10TH ALL-STAR START

The Mexican League held its annual All-Star Game on Sunday evening at Mexico City’s Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu and while a living legend started the contest for the home LMB South team, the North racked up an 11-6 win.  Ramiro Pena of Monterrey had three hits for the winners as only two of the North’s 21 hits were sent to the left side of the field. Attendance for the four-hour game was 13,514 at Mexico’s newest ballpark.

The North took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Chris Carter singled in Victor Mendoza but the South knotted the score in the bottom of the frame on Japhet Amador's single to plate Danny Ortiz.  The North regained the lead in the top of the second after Yamaico Navarro scored on an Amadeo Zazueta double to left. The score stood until the top of the fourth, when Junior Lake's two-run homer to left off Casey Harman to make it a 4-1 contest.  The South fought back with a counter in the bottom of the fourth as David Vidal scored on a Carlos Lopez double but back-to-back run-scoring singles by Leandro Castro and Juan Apodaca in the top of the fifth opened the North's lead to 6-2 and things were looking rather grim for the host Southerners.

Still, this WAS an All-Star Game, meaning no lead is truly safe, especially in a league where a new ball has led to an abundance of offense.  Hector Hernandez' two-run single in the bottom of the sixth brought the South to within a pair of tallies and when Marco Jaime scored from third on Felipe Gonzalez' strike-three wild pitch to Emmanuel Avila it became a one-run game.  

Campeche's Francisco Campos

The North bounced back with one run in the seventh on a Ramiro Pena singleton and another score one inning later when Francisco Ferreira crossed the plate on a throwing error by South shortstop Jaime on a Castro grounder to open their lead to 8-5, then really poured gas on the fire with three more runs in the ninth on six consecutive singles (including RBI safeties from Jon Kemmer, Saul Soto and Rudy Amador) to open their lead to 11-5.  The North did push a run across in the bottom of the ninth when Jorge Cantu came in on Sebastian Valle’s single, but Jake Sanchez was able to get Jay Austin to fly out to left to complete the win. Frankie de la Cruz got the victory for the North while Yoanner Negrin absorbed the defeat for the South as a total of 23 pitchers took the mound for the two teams...did we mention this game went four hours?

Longtime Campeche Piratas pitcher Francisco "Pancho Ponches" Campos, who was honored before the contest, started the game for the South and recorded the first two outs before being replaced by Ruddy Acosta.  Now in his 25th season, Campos (a converted catcher) is one win away from becoming the 14th pitcher in the LMB's 95-year history to win 200 games, ranks fourth in career strikeouts with 2,173 and won the Pitching Triple Crown in 2004, the only Liga hurler to do so in the past 50 years.  Sunday marked his tenth All-Star Game start (a record) and 16th appearance overall. Campos, who'll turn 47 on August 12, will retire at the end of the season.

PUEBLA'S ORTIZ WINS HR DERBY; ZAZUETA, PENA KINGS OF DP

Puebla outfielder Danny Ortiz

Puebla's first-year slugger Danny Ortiz won the Mexican League Home Run Derby in Mexico City Saturday as part of the Liga's All-Star Weekend festivities.  A Pittsburgh outfielder in 2017, the Puerto Rico-born Ortiz outlasted seven competitors (four from each division) through three rounds to win the circuit clout crown and the 20,000 pesos that go with it.

Ortiz led all eight batsmen with 12 first-round homers to advance to the semifinals along with Mexico City's Japhet Amador and Aguascalientes' Jose Vargas (11 each) plus Yamaico Navarro of Monterrey (6).  Leon's Felix Pie (5), Oaxaca's Alonzo Harris (4), Aguascalientes' Michael Wing and Monclova's Chris Carter (3 apiece) were eliminated. Ortiz, Vargas and Navarro all hit five homers in the semis but Navarro was knocked out along with Amador (4) because Ortiz and Vargas had more total homers over two rounds.  That left Ortiz to fend off Vargas, 10-9, in the final round for the title and paycheck. The former Twins fourth-rounder deposited a total of 27 homers over three rounds while Vargas went deep 25 times. Yucatan powerhouse Luis Juarez won last year's Home Run Derby in Merida.

Monterrey's Amadeo Zazueta and Ramiro Pena

Earlier Saturday, the Monterrey Sultanes' keystone combo of shortstop Amadeo Zazueta and second baseman Ramiro Pena beat out four similar duos win the Double Play Derby.  In its second year (Yucatan's Everth Cabrera and Diego Madero won in last year's debut), this event includes middle infielders facing a preset number of line drives or grounders hit in certain situations with a countdown clock running while judges evaluate the fielding using various criteria.  Other twosomes at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu Saturday included second-place finishers Marco Jaime and Luis Medina (Leon), Moises Gutierrez and Javier Salazar (Durango), Juan Carlos Gamboa and David Vidal (Mexico City) and Union Laguna's Ciro Morzagaray and Daniel Hinojosa.

Saturday's festivities also included a celebrity softball game, in which a team of actors, singers, comedians, athletes and YouTubers from the South defeated a team of actors, singers, comedians, athletes and YouTubers from the North, 1-0, with the game's lone run scoring on a wild pitch.  Further details are unavailable and/or unnecessary.

IT'S MONTERREY, OAXACA IN FALL SERIE DEL REY

The Oaxaca Guerreros continued their unlikely postseason surge by defeating the Mexico City Diablos Rojos, 8-4, Sunday in the nation's capital to clinch the Mexican League's South Division Championship Series, 4 games to 2.  The Guerreros move on to the Serie del Rey title set against the Monterrey Sultanes, starting Tuesday night at Estadio Monterrey.

Oaxaca barely qualified for the Fall 2018 postseason after finishing fifth in the LMB South with a 26-30 record, one game behind 26-28 Leon.  That margin was close enough to force a single play-in against the Bravos in Leon.  The Guerreros won that contest and went on to eliminate defending Liga champion Yucatan in seven games in the opening round to set up the division title series with sister club Mexico City (both teams are owned by billionaire Alfredo Harp Helu).  After knocking the Diablos out, the Guerreros will now seek their second LMB pennant, the first coming 20 years ago under manager Nelson Barrera in the team's third season in the Liga since Harp led a group of investors in purchasing the Jalisco Charros following the 1995 season and moving the franchise to Oaxaca.  The Warriors have not won a division title since until now.  Manager Sergio Gastelum took the reins from former skipper Joe Alvarez in the middle of the fall campaign and while the team continued to struggle the rest of the regular season, Gastelum has them playing well at the right time.

The Guerreros will face a Monterrey team that reached the Serie del Rey in the Spring season, losing to Yucatan to fall short of winning the Sultanes' tenth pennant.  Monterrey finished the regular season with a 34-23 record, good enough for third place in the LMB North under first-year manager Roberto Kelly, who turned 50 on October 1.  Like Oaxaca, the Sultanes were stretched to a seventh game in the first round before defeating rival Tijuana to move on to the division championships against Monclova.  Monterrey had an easier time of it against the first-place Acereros, who had the Liga's best regular-season record with a 42-14 mark to win the top seed by seven games over second-place Tijuana (35-21).  The Sultanes knocked off Monclova in five games to reach the Serie del Rey for the second time in the calendar year, a record that will stand for some time to come now that the LMB is abandoning its two-season format in 2019 after one year.

Monterrey swept Oaxaca in three games at home in July (the only time the two teams have met in either 2018 season) and is likely favored to win their first pennant since 2007, but anything can happen in a seven-game series and Oaxaca has defeated two good teams to reach this point.

FALL 2018 SERIE DEL REY SCHEDULE
Game 1:  Tuesday, October 2 (8:30pm ET) - Oaxaca at Monterrey
Game 2:  Wednesday, October 3 (8:30pm ET) - Oaxaca at Monterrey
Game 3:  Friday, October 5 (8:30pm ET) - Monterrey at Oaxaca
Game 4:  Saturday, October 6 (8:30pm ET) - Monterrey at Oaxaca
Game 5:  Sunday, October 7 (5:00pm ET) - Monterrey at Oaxaca*
Game 6:  Tuesday, October 9 (8:30pm ET) - Oaxaca at Monterrey*
Game 7:  Wednesday, October 10 (8:30pm ET) - Oaxaca at Monterrey*
*-if necessary


GUERREROS, ORNELAS KNOCK OUT DIABLOS WITH 8-4 WIN

Oaxaca Guerreros celebrating LMB South title

The Oaxaca Guerreros overcame a midgame 3-1 deficit by scoring a combined seven runs in the sixth and seventh innings to defeat the Mexico City Diablos Rojos, 8-4, Saturday night in front of an overflow crowd of 6,400 at Estadio Fray Nano in Mexico City.  The win gave the Warriors a 4-games-to-2 win in the LMB South championship to punch their ticket to the Serie del Rey against Monterrey.

The Diablos drew first blood with three runs in the bottom of the first inning.  Juan Carlos Gamboa lined a single up the middle off the glove of Oaxaca starting pitcher Irwin Delgado to plate speedster Carlos Figueroa from second with the game's first run.  David Vidal singled Gamboa to second and both runners crossed the plate on a Luis Jimenez triple to put Delgado and the Guerreros in an early hole.  Henry Urrutia got one run back for the visitors by belting a leadoff homer in the top of the second but Mexico City's 3-1 advantage held until the sixth, when the Guerreros pasted Diablos starter Patrick Johnson and three relievers for four runs on as many hits.  The key blows were back-to-back doubles by Dustin Geiger and Julian Ornelas, the latter a liner to center that drove in Yuniesky Betancourt and Geiger with the go-ahead tallies.

Mexico City came back with a run in the bottom of the sixth Gamboa singled to right off reliever Samuel Zazueta to bring Jesus Fabela motoring in from second to cut Oaxaca's advantage to one run, but that was as close as the Diablos would get the rest of the game.  The Guerreros scored three more times in the top of the seventh as Ornelas contributed a two-run single off David Reyes to bring the score to 8-4.  From that point, relievers Erick Casillas, Rodolfo Aguilar and Carlos Felix blanked to hosts over the final three entradas to seal the win for the Guerreros, with Felix inducing pinch-hitter Ivan Terrazas to ground out to Betancourt at second to end the series in the bottom of the ninth.  Ornelas went 3-for-3 for Oaxaca with four RBIs as reliever Ozzie Mendez got the win.  Johnson absorbed the defeat for the Diablos.

The series was tied at a game apiece before Oaxaca topped Mexico City, 10-3, last Tuesday behind Jay Austin's double and triple with two runs scored and two more driven in.  The Diablos came back Wednesday with a 9-4 win at Oaxaca to tie the series back up as Vidal broke the game up with a bases-loaded triple in the top of the sixth to give the visitors an 8-3 lead.  Vidal was thrown out at the plate trying to complete a rare inside-the-park grand slam by Guerreros rightfielder Alan Sanchez but the damage was already done.  One night later, Oaxaca took the series lead with a 2-1 victory behind the four-hit pitching of starter Jose Medina (6 IP, 3 H, 1 R) and three relievers.  Attendance has been traditionally moribund at Guerreros home games but a combined 18,000+ fans clicked the turnstiles at Parque Eduardo Vasconcelos at the three games in Oaxaca before the series shifted to Mexico City for Saturday's fateful Game Six.

And now the Guerreros, led by manager Sergio Gastelum, who had never managed an LMB team prior to August 7, are four wins away from hoisting their second pennant in 23 years (and first since 1998).  Gastelum had been managing Ensenada in the Northern Mexico League when he was brought in to replaced the fired Joe Alvarez on August 7 and went 12-14 with Oaxaca the rest of the regular season. The postseason has thus far gone a trifle better for Gastelum and the Guerreros.


SULTANES BREEZE PAST MONCLOVA, SEEK TENTH LIGA FLAG

Monterrey Sultanes RF Yadir Drake

Monterrey had a surprisingly easy time of it against Monclova after surviving a seven-game first-round battle with Tijuana to reach the LMN North Championship Series.  The Acereros had dominated the Fall season with a Liga-best 42-12 record (including a 4-2 mark against the Sultanes) and were a favorite to win their city's first-ever pennant heading into the playoffs and did nothing to dispel that by eliminating Dos Laredos, 4 games to 1, in the opening round.

However, the Sultanes were able to exploit Monclova's lack of pitching depth to rack up 32 runs over the final four contests of the LMB North championship series to pull away with a 4-games-to-1 win over the Acereros and vault into the Serie del Rey against Oaxaca.  The set opened with a relatively normal 4-3 Monterrey win on September 20 in Monclova before the Sultanes bats heated up with a 7-3 triumph at Estadio Monclova on September 21.  After the series moved to Monterrey, the Sultanes made it a 3-games-to-0 advantage September 23 and while the Acereros bounced back last Monday with a 9-8 win in Game Four (thanks in no small part to a seven-run fifth inning highlighted by a Juan Perez grand slam and a solo blast Jesus Arredondo), it seemed only a matter of time until Monterrey eliminated the top seed to move on to the Serie del Ray while endangering Monclova manager Pedro Mere's job with volatile owner Gerardo Benvides' Acereros in the bargain.

That shoe finally fell last Tuesday, with the Sultanes delivering the coup de grace to Monclova's season with a 9-5 win at Estadio Monterrey with 18,202 onlookers in the stands.  This time the big inning belonged to the Sultanes, who were trailing 5-3 before plating five runs in the bottom of the seventh.  Yadir Drake's two-run homer keyed the outburst as Mere sent four pitchers to the mound that inning as Monterrey put six hits on the board.  Besides Drake's bomb, Felix Perez had a run-scoring double, Chris Roberson drove in a run with a single before coming in on Drake's longball and Ramon Rios doubled before scoring on an Ali Solis single as all nine batters in the Sultanes' order came to the plate.  Perez launched a solo homer off yet another Monclova reliever, veteran Mauricio Lara, in the eighth to put the game and series out of reach for the visitors.  Lara was the eighth hurler used by Mere in the contest, with the loss going to Arturo Barradas, who served up Drake's homer.  The win went to Sultanes reliever Nick Struck, who gave up two runs in two frames but had the good fortune of being on the hill for Monterrey before the Sultanes went on their five-run tear in the seventh.  Roberson and Agustin Murillo each had three of Monterrey's 15 hits on the night as the Sultanes batted .320 for the series.

And now the Sultanes move on in search of the franchise's sixth title since 1962 and Monterrey's tenth Mexican League pennant since 1943 (the first four won by the old Industriales under manager Lazaro Salazar, including three in a row between 1947 and 1949).

OAXACA WINS PLAY-IN GAME; PLAYOFFS OPEN MONDAY

Oaxaca OF Yordanys Linares returns to dugout

The playoff matchups for the Mexican League's fall season have been set after the Oaxaca Guerreros took a 26-30 record and a fifth-place South Division finish to Leon for a wild-card came (necessitated by the Guerreros finishing one game behind the Bravos in the standings) and beat the 26-28 Bravos by a 7-6 score to slip into the Liga's final remaining postseason berth.

It was a disappointing finish to the year for the Bravos, who had led the LMB South in recent weeks despite a makeshift infield and seemed in position to continue playing after the regular season ended.  Instead, Leon will be sitting out the playoffs while Oaxaca celebrates their first postseason appearance since 2015.  It almost didn't turn out that way for the Guerreros, who fell behind 2-0 in the bottom of the second inning Saturday after the Bravos' Marco Jaime singled in Felix Pie and Michael Bernal off Oaxaca starter Jose Carlos Medina.

The Guerreros fought back with three runs in the top of the fourth when Jay Austin stroked a leadoff double and scored on a Dustin Geiger single, after which Henry Urrutia belted a homer to right against Leon opener Guillermo Moscoso to give the visitors a 3-2 advantage.  Moscoso settled down to retire the side and post two more scoreless frames before his Bravos teammates came back in the bottom of the sixth.  A Pie solo homer to tie the contest was followed by Medina's exit from the mound in favor of reliever Carlos Felix.  Bernal then greeted Felix with a double, moved to third on a Geiger fielding error of a Brandon Macia grounder, then came in to put Leon ahead, 4-3, on Israel Nunez' infield single.

Leon manager Luis Rivera sent former Oaxaca All-Star Alejandro Soto to the mound for the top of the seventh, a move that immediately backfired when Soto served up a leadoff homer to Julian Ornelas that knotted the game back up.  The score stood at 4-4 until the top of the ninth, when the Guerreros put three runs on the scoreboard off Bravos closer Joe Colon.  Yordanys Linares put Oaxaca ahead for good by whacking a two-run double off Colon with two out and then plated the Guerreros' final run on an Austin single.

The Bravos battled gamely in the bottom of the ninth.  Jaime singled in Antonio Ruiz after Ruiz had been waved to second on a balk called against Oaxaca pitcher Scott Shuman, a call that brought Shuman down from the mound and Guerreros manager Sergio Gastelum out of the dugout for a calm discussion with the umpires that led to Shuman and Gastelum both being elected (Jaime's single came off Ozzie Mendez).  Eduardo Arredondo then hit a fielder's choice grounder to first that got Jaime called out at second for the first out of the inning.  Arredondo was replaced by pinch-runner Luis Medina, who advanced to third on a Quincy Latimore single and scored on a Cedric Hunter sacrifice fly to center to bring Leon to within a run, but the game (and season) ended when Erick Casillas was brought in from the bullpen to replace Mendez and struck out Niko Vasquez swinging to send the Bravos and 3,489 in the stands at Parque Domingo Santana home wondering what might have been.

The wild finish climaxed a fall schedule in which the placement of teams in the LMB South remained in doubt until the final days.  Defending champion Yucatan (32-24) slipped into first place on the final day of the regular season Thursday when the Leones took a 7-4 win at Quintana Roo while Leon outlasted Mexico City (31-24) by a 9-8 count on Latimore's RBI single in the bottom of the tenth.  Puebla slipped down the stretch by dropping all three games of a series at Oaxaca to come in third at 29-27, two games ahead of Leon and three up on Oaxaca.

The LMB North playoff field had already been determined heading into last week's final series, but three more games were required for seeding purposes.  While Monclova (42-14) easily won the division, Tijuana (35-21) had to win seven of their last ten games to come in second by a game-and-a-half over Monterrey (34-23) while Dos Laredos (33-24) ended up in fourth after losing 10-5 in Monclova Thursday while the Sultanes prevailed in a 10-9 slugfest that took 12 innings to complete in Tijuana to break a deadlock with the Tecos for third.  Unlike Oaxaca in the South, fifth-place Aguascalientes (25-30) was too far behind Dos Laredos to force a wild-card game.

With the regular season in the taillights, the playoffs will open with four games Monday night.  Puebla will be at Mexico City for one LMB South semifinal while Oaxaca visits Yucatan to open the other.  Monterrey hosts Tijuana in a North semi series and Monclova will open at home against Dos Laredos.  All playoff series will be best-of-7 affairs throughout the postseason.


CAMPECHE'S ROSARIO OVERTAKES BETANCOURT FOR BAT CROWN

Fall bat champion Olmo Rosario of Campeche

It's been a tough couple years for Campeche Piratas outfielder Olmo Rosario.  The 38-year-old Dominican received a 50-game suspension prior to the 2017 season after testing for amphetamines during the previous year, leading to his release from the Tijuana Toros.  Rosario eventually signed with Leon in late May 2017 but was released by the Bravos three weeks later after batting just .174 over 13 games.  He was picked up by Campeche almost another three weeks and went on to hit .378 with five homers in 30 games, good enough to be brought back for another year in the Walled City.

Rosario turned in a good Spring season for the Piratas, hitting .319 with nine homers in 56 games, but he really stepped things up in the Fall campaign to win the Mexican League batting championship with a .408 average.  Rosario finished the season with a 14-game hitting streak (including a .600 average over his final ten games) to bring his season average up 48 points from .360 on August 19 to sneak past Oaxaca's Yuniesky Betancourt's .406.  Betancourt was hitting .417 on September 1 but collected just six hits over his final five games to drop into second in the batting race.  Yelson Asencio of Mexico City came in a distant third at .386.

Felix Perez of Monclova belted two homers last Thursday in the Acereros' final game against Tijuana to finish with 19 longballs over 55 games to win his second consecutive home run title after sending 15 balls to the street in Spring to lead the LMB.  Perez finished ahead of Oaxaca's Dustin Geiger (15) and Leandro Castro of Saltillo (14).  Both Perez and Geiger were traded in the Fall midseason while Castro was signed by the Saraperos as a free agent in May a month after being released by Dos Laredos.  Perez tied with teammate Francisco Peguero for the Liga RBI title with 60 apiece (Puebla's Delmon Young was third with 56 ribbies) while Dos Laredos' Johnny Davis stole 28 bases in 34 attempts to beat out Monclova's Cade Gotta (25) and Tony Campana (24) of Aguascalientes in that category.

Brazilian Andre Rienzo pitched one scoreless inning in relief for Monclova last Tuesday against Dos Laredos to finish the season with a 0.76 ERA, easily the lowest among qualifiers in the loop.  Acereros manager Pedro Mere only brought Rienzo out of the bullpen twice since his last start on August 26 against Aguascalientes to rest the 30-year-old righty for the playoffs.  Terance Marin of Dos Laredos finished second to Rienzo with a 2.12 ERA while Aguascalientes' Francisco Del Rosario was third at 2.24.

Marin returned to organized baseball after pitching in Taiwan in 2017 and finished the LMB's Fall season on a high note by winning five of his last six starts to tie with Monterrey's Edgar Gonzalez and Patrick Johnson for most wins with seven each.  Gonzalez will be well-rested for the playoffs after not having pitched since a September 4 victory at Durango while Johnson has been held out since a September 2 loss at Puebla.  Seven more pitchers finished with six wins.

Orlando Lara of Campeche (who himself hasn't pitched since September 1) took his first strikeout title with 64 in 61.1 innings to record the most ponchadas among Liga hurlers, with Monterrey's Jose De Paula (61) finishing second while Leon's Guillermo Moscoso and Enrique Oquendo (58) tied for third.  Wirfin Obispo on Monterrey only pitched once in relief last week and even though he didn't record a save, the Sultanes closer ended the calendar with 14, enough to lead the LMB.  Joe Colon (Leon), Chad Gausin (Yucatan) and Josh Lueke (Monclova) each had eleven saves to tie for second.

The Tijuana Toros led the Mexican League attendance with 252,668 fans attending 27 home games for an average of 9,358, which was higher than any full-season Class AAA team north of the border (Charlotte of the International League was next at 8,980).  Monterrey was second in the LMB with an average of 7,616 while Yucatan came in third at 6,985 but the Fall schedule was not kind to most Liga teams at the turnstiles.  Seven of the LMB's 16 teams drew fewer than 3,000 people per opening, with Campeche's 855 average bringing up the rear and Tabasco not a lot better at 1,151 per night.


LMB TO DROP TWO-SEASON FORMAT, TUESDAY GAMES IN 2019

Although a press release from the Mexican League last week has termed their two-seasons-in-one-year experiment a "success," apparently it wasn't successful enough as a format to keep around for a second year.  The LMB announced it will abandon this year's approach of two separate 57-game regular seasons with full playoffs starting in late March and finishing in October to return to a single-season format.  However, as often seems the case with the Liga, it won't come without complications.

On the surface, the move seems a wise one.  The LMB will play two halves for a total of 120 games per team for the regular season.  Similar to other leagues in Mexico, teams will be awarded points on the basis of where they finish in the standings each half, with the accrued totals determining playoff seeding. The number of games will be most since the Mexican League played a 120-game schedule in 2001 but since Minor League Baseball's two other Class AAA leagues had 140-game schedules this year, the six-game increase is not a big deal (especially with a month's worth of playoff games being eliminated).  However, the LMB Assembly of Presidents' decision to drop Tuesday as a game day south of the border is going to have far-reaching consequences.

Mondays have been travel days for years in Mexican baseball and that will not change.  However, the Liga has decided to create a second consecutive off-day each week before teams play between Wednesdays and Sundays, starting with a two-game series and concluding with a three-game set.  The result will be tighter travel schedules, more days during the season when ballparks are closed and a schedule stretching from March into November, which is when the playoffs will conclude.  Even the playoff format will be expanded from the current eight teams to twelve participants, with the top two finishers in each division getting a first-round bye while the next four teams battle it out to advance to the division semifinals (effectively adding another layer to the playoff format to make it a four-tiered process to win a pennant).

The moves appear to be a shot across the bow of the winter Mexican Pacific League, whose season traditionally begins in mid-October.  The LMP has already had to scramble for players to begin their upcoming 2018-19 season because the current Mexican League playoff system stretches into October, with the MexPac increasing the number of foreign players allowed per team from six to 12 this winter.  Next year's Mexican League playoff format would stretch about a full month into the LMP's season, severely curtailing the availability of domestic talent for the winter circuit.  Some observers believe the extended Mexican League season in 2019 is in response to the MexPac seeking to expand into current LMB markets, such as Monterrey and Tijuana.  The latter has had winterball teams in the past, but none were long-lasting.  In fact, the former Tijuana Potros hold a rather unenviable distinction of twice winning pennants (1987-88 and 1990-91) but not being allowed to compete the following winter due to what was termed "unfair competitive practices."  Following their second DQ, Tijuana joined the financially-troubled Guaymas Ostioneros and left the MexPac, leaving the league with an eight-team lineup ever since.

As always, the most affected people with the Liga's reformatting may be the players, who have never unionized and enjoy few rights in Mexican baseball.  In a country where the per capita income is generally between US$10,000-14,000 per year (depending on your source), many players perform year round because jobs that can bring in US$3,000-5,000 per month are very far and few between.  The new LBM format could seriously curtail a player's availability to continue earning money between November and February, especially if Liga teams (who own a player's rights in Mexico) decide to make a player unavailable for winterball because of "exhaustion," something often used by Major League Baseball organizations for their minor league players.

No official response has come out of the Mexican Pacific League's new offices in Guadalajara but it's hard to imagine LMP president Omar Canizales doing nothing.  We shall see.

ALVAREZ OUT IN OAXACA, REPLACED BY GASTELUM

New Oaxaca manager Sergio Gastelum 

The Joe Alvarez Era in Oaxaca is over after 30 games.  After some early success in the Mexican League's Fall season, winning eight of their first 12 games and brief ownership of first place in the LMB South standings, the Guerreros lost 12 of their next 18 games before Alvarez was shown the door last Tuesday with a 14-16 record and the usual platitudes from the people firing him.  "The Cuban-born Alvarez achieved the necessary harmony in the dressing room and field of play," a Guerreros press release said, "but unfortunately, the results were not positive for the team.  We wish him a lot of success in his next project."

Alvarez was hired June 11 after former Mexico City Diablos Rojos star Jose Luis "Borrego" Sandoval piloted Oaxaca to a 22-35 record and last place in the South for the Spring season.  The 62-year-old Alvarez has had some past success in the Liga, leading Puebla to the South championship in 2014 after replacing Alfonso "Houston" Jimenez during the season and piloting Durango to a .500 record over the first month of the 2017 season after the Generales were forced to play the first four weeks of the schedule on the road while belated renovations to their ballpark were being completed.  However, Alvarez was sacked in Durango after the Generales faded down the stretch amid player discontent stemming from late paychecks while top talent was traded away for cash so payroll could be met.

Prior to his June hiring in Oaxaca, the three-time pennant-winning manager during his stint in the Dodgers system was preparing for his first winter managing the Mazatlan Venados, where Alvarez will return to another situation in which ballpark renovations are falling behind as the clock ticks toward a season opener.  Alvarez will be replaced in the Guerreros dugout by former second baseman Sergio Gastelum, a 39-year-old Sonoran who retired as a player last winter after compiling a .310 batting average with 82 homers and 1,054 runs scored in 22 seasons, the first 12 with the Tigres while they were located in Mexico City and then Puebla.

The Guerreros lost their first six games under Gastelum to see their losing streak drop to nine while sinking deeper in the standings with a 14-22 record, one game ahead of last-place Quintana Roo (13-23).  Defending champion Yucatan has won four straight, including a three-game weekend home sweep of Oaxaca, to pull into a virtual tie with Leon at the top of the LMB South standings.  The 19-15 Bravos are .003 percentage points ahead of the 20-16 Leones, half a game ahead of 19-16 Puebla and one-and-a-half games up on 18-17 Mexico City.  In the LMB North, Monclova (27-9) has won eight of their last ten games to maintain a six-game lead over Dos Laredos (21-15), who have played well since Felix Fermin assumed the reins from former manager Eddie Castro in May near the end of the Spring season.  Tijuana (20-15), Monterrey (20-16) and Aguascalientes (18-17) round out the top five teams in the North with Saltillo, Durango and Union Laguna fading out of playoff contention with three weeks left in the abbreviated regular season.

Former Padres shortstop Everth Cabrera has taken over the batting lead, with the Yucatan infielder posting a .423 average to lead teammate Leo Heras (.422) and Oaxaca's Yuniesky Betancourt (.401) at the top of the table.  Saltillo outfielder Leandro Castro belted three solo homers last week to bring his season roundtripper total to 12, one ahead of Monterrey's Felix Perez and two up of Francisco Peguero of Monclova.  Perez was sent to the Sultanes along with pitcher Gabe Aguilar by Aguascalientes in a five-player trade last Tuesday that netted the Rieleros first sacker Ricky Alvarez, outfielder Francisco Lugo and pitcher Nestor Molina.   Puebla outfielder Delmon Young continues to lead the Liga in RBIs with 43 over 35 games.  The ex-MLBer had no ribbies in a weekend series in Quintana Roo after driving in five runs in three midweek games at Yucatan.  Aguascalientes outfielder Tony Campana stole two bases last week to bring his season total to a Liga-leading 19, five more than Dos Laredos' Johnny Davis.

Leon pitcher Rogelio Martinez won at Tabasco last Saturday in his only start of the week and while the three earned Olmecas runs he allowed brought his ERA up from 1.21 to 1.63, he still leads the LMB in that category.  After going 5-13 with an ERA above 5 over six previous seasons for four teams, the 26-year from Jalisco is having a breakout season for the Bravos and a big reason they occupy first place.  Another breakout year is coming from Mexico City righty Patrick Johnson, who beat Campeche for the second time in seven days last Friday to run his season record to 6-0 in seven starts and 9-0 since coming to the Diablos from Oaxaca during the Spring season.  The former University of North Carolina hurler was 2-3 for the Guerreros before being dealt to Mexico City on May 4 but hasn't lost since.  Puebla's Enrique Oquendo struck out three Yucatan batsmen over 1.1 innings last Wednesday before being pulled (he allowed five walks and a hit in that start, a no-decision) to bring his season whiff total to 43, still tops in the loop.  Monclova's Josh Lueke and Wirfin Obispo of Monterrey each earned a save last week and both now have 10 for the season to tie for most in the LMB.

There'll be a big midweek series in Leon starting Tuesday when the Bravos host Yucatan in a three-game battle between the top two teams in the LMB South.  Next weekend's top series will likely be in Tijuana, when fifth-place Aguascalientes visits for a trio of games with the third-place Toros as two LMB North playoff contenders collide.


DIABLOS TO RETURN PROSPECT RIGHTS, PAY TIGRES

Texas Rangers minor league pitcher Damian Mendoza

In what may finally be the closing chapter of the ongoing Rookiegate situation, the Mexican League ha ordered the Mexico City Diablos Rojos to return the rights to five former prospects to Quintana Roo while also paying the Tigres money the Diablos had received from the sale of two of the young players who'd been property of the Cancun team before some reported sleight-of-hand during the February 2017 sale of the Tigres from former owner Carlos Peralta to ex-Dodgers Cy Young winner Fernando Valenzuela resulted in five prospects being moved from the Tigres' protected list to the Diablos.  The resulting scandal has been called "Rookiegate" and has reverberated throughout the LMB.

According to reporter Beatriz Pereyra of Proceso, the Liga's Board of Directors (consisting of Monclova and Puebla owner Gerardo Benavides, Tijuana owner Alejandro Uribe, Eustacio Alvarez of Aguascalientes and Dos Laredos owner Jose Antonio Mansur unanimously declared the player transfers null and void, ordering the return to Quintana Roo of Fernando Villalobos, who was 14 at the time and protected from being transferred to another team, while compensating the Tigres for the sale of their former prospects Luis Fernando Medina, Damian Mendoza, Oliver Zepeda and Hansen Lopez to Major League Baseball organizations.  Medina was already in the Braves organization at the time of the sale while Zepeda was an infielder in the Blue Jays system, Mendoza was sold to the Texas Rangers for a reported US$1.2 million while Villalobos is said to have sold himself to the same organization for US$1.5 million.  The Mexican rights to all five will revert to Quintana Roo and while the Diablos will have to pay the US$1.2 they received from the Rangers for Mendoza, compensation for Villalobos may be tricky since the young catcher was not signed legally.

In fact, the whole Rookiegate affair is murky, depicted by current Diablos GM Francisco "Pollo" Minjarez (who came to Mexico City from Cancun almost immediately after the Tigres were sold, as a "gentleman's agreement" between former Quintana Roo team president Chto Rodriguez and ex-Diablos president Roberto Mansur in which the Diablos supposedly had room on their master roster for the prospects while the Tigres didn't.  Minjarez was suspended by the Liga for his role while both Rodriguez and Mansur are both out of baseball.  An interesting note is that Dos Laredos president Jose Antonio Mansur in essence voted against his brother as an LMB director.

The imbroglio was denounced loudly and often by Valenzuela and his wife, Linda Burgos, who both claimed to have seen the five prospects' names on a list of players whose rights were owned by the Tigres while the sale was being negotiated.  Reports were that if the Liga did not do something to rectify the matter to the Valenzuelas' satisfaction, the Tigres might have gone back on the market.  Instead, it appears the sordid matter has been resolved (if not to everyone's satisfaction) and that the Tigres will be five players and at least US$1.2 million richer.


AMADOR SUSPENDED BY NPB AFTER DRUG TESTS

Rakuten Golden Eagles slugger Japhet Amador

Mexican slugger Japhet Amador of Nippon Professional Baseball's Rakuten Golden Eagles has been suspended for six months after testing positive for two banned substances, chlorthalidone and furosemide, on June 23 ten days after being tested following a game against the Chunichi Dragons in Sendai.  Both are on a list of prohibited drugs on the World Anti-Doping Agency (or WADA) website.  According to writer Jason Coskrey of the Japan Times, Amador was given a chance to defend himself during a Pacific League meeting on June 30 and while he denied intentionally taking any banned substance, an NPB press release said he did not dispute the actual findings.  At Amador's request, the sample was tested again on August 1 but results came back the same.

The suspension means the hulking (6'4" and listed at 310 pounds) Amador will not be eligible to play again in Japan until next February, but concerns exist that Rakuten will not bring him back for 2019 and that his NPB career may be over due to the test results.  There was some speculation among Mexican baseball cognoscenti that the so-called "Giant of Mulege" may join the Mexico City Diablos Rojos (who own his LMB rights) for the stretch run of the current Fall regular season and playoffs, he'll more likely cool his heels until his Mexican Pacific League team, the Jalisco Charros, begin winterball play in October.  Where Amador goes after the MexPac season may be the larger question.

In a statement released by the Eagles front office, Amador is quoted as saying, "I have never committed an act of doping in my baseball life up to this point.  I have never intentionally taken any banned drugs.  I haven’t used stimulants or anything to increase muscle, or thought about using diuretics or masking agents. I’ve been given many doping tests in the past and they’ve all been negative.”

Amador had a .269 average in 62 games for Rakuten this season with 20 homers (tied for sixth in the league) and 42 RBIs.  Since joining the Eagles for the 2016 season, he's belted 52 homers in 222 NPB games, including 23 longballs in 2017.  After his Mexican League debut with Minatitlan as a 20-year-old in 2007, Amador hit .330 with with 167 homers over nine Liga seasons.  He had a monster year for Mexico City in 2015, batting .346 with 41 homers and 117 RBIs in 103 games before sending another 14 balls to the street in 58 games for Jalisco in the LMP's 2015-16 season.  He hit .248 with six homers in 36 contests for the Charros last winter, but should be much more rested when the 2018-19 MexPac campaign opens.

OAXACA PULLS INTO LMB SOUTH LEAD

Oaxaca catcher Erick Rodriguez with Alfredo Harp Helu

While the Monclova Acereros continue to dominate the Mexican League North Division, the Oaxaca Guerreros have ascended to the rare air of first place in the LMB South after sweeping a three-game weekend series at home over Saltillo.

The Guerreros have traditionally been one of the Liga's weak sisters, winning just one pennant (in 1998) since their 1996 inception.  Oaxaca rarely qualifies for a playoff berth and when they have, it's usually led to an early exit as the Warriors have only advanced from the first round once since 2005.  The team finished last in the LMB South with a 22-35 record for the Spring 2018 season and little was expected going into the current Fall schedule under new manager Joe Alvarez, who replaced Jose Luis Sandoval at the helm during the break between seasons.

Instead, Alvarez has led the Guerreros to an 8-4 record two weeks into the Fall season, giving Oaxaca a one-game lead over defending champion Yucatan and Campeche (both are 7-5) and a three-game bulge over Tabasco, Puebla and Leon, who are tied for fourth at 5-6.  The Guerreros capped their sweep of Saltillo with an 8-3 win Sunday after trailing 2-0 in the second inning.  The Guerreros reached Saraperos starting pitcher Arnold Leon for six runs on nine hits before Leon was yanked three batters into the fourth without retiring a batsman.  Jaime Brena had two singles, driving in a pair of runs and scoring once to lead Oaxaca's 14-hit attack as every Guerreros starter recorded at least one hit.  Angel Castro got the win after allowing three Saltillo runs in six frames as 2,885 watched at Estadio Eduardo Vasconcelos.

Oaxaca has shown well early with decent work in both hitting (a team .295 average, sixth in the LMB) and pitching (a 3.91 ERA, good for seventh in the circuit).  The batting order has been led by 38-year-old catcher Erick Rodriguez, a six-time All-Star who was MVP of the 2015 game.  Now in his 18th season of wearing a Guerreros jersey, Rodriguez is hitting a robust .438 over 10 games to trail only Campeche outfielder Azael Sanchez (.500) and Yucatan shortstop Everth Cabrera (.460) in the early stages of the batting race.  Another longtime LMB vet, first baseman Adan Munoz, is batting .356 while former Cubs infielder Arismendy Alcantara is third on the Guerreros with a .314 mark.  Among pitchers, Irwin Delgado is 2-0 after three starts with a 1.59 that ranks eighth in the MXL and Castro's Sunday win over Saltillo gives him a 2-0 record, although his ERA rose to 2.37.  Closer Josh Judy (3.60), who came to Oaxaca from Tabasco last winter, has three saves in five outings.  While it would be unlikely to see the Guerreros remain at the top of the South standings, Alvarez has his players believing for now and fans in Mexico can at least hope to see someone new in the playoffs when the postseason arrives in September.

As mentioned, Monclova is pulling away in the LMB North with an 11-1 record.  The Acereros finally lost a game after winning their first seven, a 6-4 home defeat to Leon last Wednesday despite back-to-back fourth inning homers from Francisco Peguero and Cesar Tapia and a fifth inning solo shot by Jose Flores off Bravos starter Dustin Crenshaw.  The Steelers bounced back to win the rubber match with Leon before sweeping a three-game weekend set against Mexico City at home.   Peguero and teammate Rudy Amador are tied for fourth in the MXL bat derby with identical .432 averages and top pitcher Josh Lowey tops the loop in wins with a 3-0 record, although Lowey's 4.00 ERA is a bit high (for him) and his 17 strikeouts in 18 innings only ranks fifth.  New manager Carlos Garcia, who was brought in after Dan Firova was canned last month, has to be in the good graces of Acereros management for the time being, but volatile owner Gerardo Benavides has pretty much shown that nothing short of a pennant for his hometown team will satisfy him.  We'll check on Garcia's status when the playoffs are done.

While Campeche's Sanchez sits atop the batting table (that .500 average is likely to drop at some time), Monterrey's Ricky Alvarez has swatted six homers in nine games to take the lead in that category after going deep in all three games at Yucatan over the weekend as the Leones won twice.  Aguascalientes first baseman Felix Perez is tops in RBIs with 19 after 12 games.  A former Reds farmhand, Perez hit 40 homers in three seasons for Monterrey before being sent to the Rieleros prior to the Spring 2018 campaign, during which he hit 15 longballs to lead the MXL.  Another Aguascalientes newcomer, former Cubs outfielder Tony Campana, leads in stolen bases with nine swipes in ten attempts.

Among pitchers, Monclova's Lowey's three wins tops the MXL, one more than ten other hurlers with two wins each.  Tabasco's Adrian Garza has yet to allow a run after two starts and 11 innings while Andre Rienzo of Monclova has an 0.59 ERA in three starts and 15.1 frames.  Oaxaca's Castro and Enrique Oquendo of Puebla are tied for the lead in strikeouts with 22 apiece.  The early saves leader is former Mariners closer Tom "The Bartender" Wilhelmsen, now toiling for Tijuana.  The Tucson native, who pitched last summer for the Diamondbacks before sitting out the 2018 season until signing with the Toros for the Fall schedule, has five saves in eight trips from the bullpen.

The top upcoming midweek series appears to be in Monterrey, where the defending LMB North champs take a 6-6 record into a home series against 8-4 Oaxaca starting Tuesday.  The marquee weekend matchup will see the Guerreros' road trip take them to Tijuana, where they'll face a Toros team opening the week with an 8-4 ledger.  The six games will go a lot towards establishing whether Oaxaca is a genuine playoff contender or a pretender.  After the job manager Alvarez did with Durango last year, when the Generales played .500 ball for a month on the road before their first home game, one shouldn't count out the Guerreros just yet.


MEXICAN NATIONALS TOP COLOMBIA IN PRE-GAMES TUNEUP

Mexican Nationals celebrate Saturday win over Colombia

The Mexican National Team scored four runs in both the third and sixth innings Sunday and went on to beat Colombia, 8-3, at Estadio Monterrey in the second of a two-game tuneup series prior to the upcoming Central American and Caribbean Games, set to open later this week in Barranquilla, Colombia.  Mexico also won Saturday's opener in Monterrey, 8-7.

The Colombians led the second game early when a solo homer by Edwin Pomare gave the visitors a 1-0 advantage in the second inning.  However, Mexican starter Javier Solano settled down after that in an outing in which he earned the win by going four frames and allowing the lone run while scattering six hits and striking out three.  A Ricky Alvarez groundout in the bottom of the third brought in Amadeo Zazueta from third with the tying run and manager Enrique "Che" Reyes' squad plated three more tallies before being retired to take a lead they'd never relinquish.

Saturday's opener between the two countries ended up being much closer by the end as Colombia roughed up Mexico reliever Juan Noriega for five runs in the eighth inning, with Gerson Jimenez socking a grand slam and Pomare contributed a solo shot, but the host's lead proved insurmountable to the visitors as Raul Barron hurled a scoreless ninth for the save.  Mexican starter Jose Samayoa went four innings for the win, giving up no runs on three hits with three strikeouts.  Amadeo Zazueta and Christian Zazueta each drove in a pair of runs for the victors, with Christian Zazueta belting a fifth-inning homer (the only roundtripper for Mexico in the two games).

Following Sunday's contest, Reyes told the press, "After these two games, I see that the Mexican team is ready for the Central American Games.  We just have to fine-tune some details and be prepared."  Mexico's opening game is slated for Thursday when they face Cuba, with Solano penciled in by Reyes as his starter.  Mexico will reportedly be the only country in the baseball competition to bring professional players to Barranquilla.


ENSENADA SEEKS TOP LNM PLAYOFF SEED, REPEAT PENNANT

Ensenada Marineros infielder Edgar Duran

The Ensenada Marineros have a 26-13 record to top the Northern Mexico League second standings with nine games remaining in the regular season, hoping to make a clean sweep of both halves for the defending Liga Norte champions and the top seed for the upcoming playoffs.  Managed by former MLB catcher Geronimo Gil, the Marineros have a comfortable five-game lead over San Quintin and Caborca, who are 21-18, heading into a three-game home series against Puerto Penasco opening Tuesday night.  Ensenada will close out the schedule with road series at Tecate (July 20-22) and Puerto Penasco (July 24-26) before the playoffs open.  The Marineros won the LNM's first half title and the accompanying eight points by finishing 26-20.

Ensenada is led offensively by infielder Edgar Duran, whose .353 average is third in the LNM behind Caborca's Edgard Enrique Munoz (.363) and Josuan Hernandez (.359) of San Luis.  Among offensive leaders in the Liga Norte is longtime minor league infielder Jermy Acey of Puerto Penasco, who has 14 homers to lead Osniel Maderas of San Quintin by two.  Acey spent three years in the Blue Jays system between 2003 and 2005 before embarking on a 13-year odyssey that's taken him to independent leagues across the globe along with Mexican League stints in Minatitlan, Tabasco and Veracruz as well as an 11-game run with Obregon of the Mexican Pacific League last winter, hitting .175 for the Yaquis.  Caborca's Munoz tops the Liga Norte with 82 runs scored and a remarkable 19 triples (his nearest competitors have five three-baggers) and San Quintin's Maderas is first with 77 RBIs. 

Santiago Valdez of San Quintin has a 10-2 record to lead Liga Norte pitchers in wins despite a 4.24 ERA that won't impress many.  That's a category led by Caborca's Misael Silverio, whose 1.71 ERA augments his 8-2 record after 17 starts.  Silverio's Rojos moundmate, Jorge Luis Castillo, has the most strikeouts with a dominant 123 whiffs over just 96 innings, or 12.7 K's per nine innings.  Castillo is 6-1 in 14 starts.  Among LNM closers, San Quintin's Luis Castillo tops the table with 19 saves, two more than Ensenada's Luis Ramirez.

The Northern Mexico League consists of six teams with players and coaches supplied by two Mexican League teams apiece, and is considered the top Class AA league within the country's baseball system.  The current incarnation of the LNM was formed in 2012 after a split amongst teams from the states of Sonora and Baja California.  Ensenada won the pennant last year (its first since 2012) by defeating the San Luis Algodoneros in seven games in the league championship series.  The Marineros are co-affiliated with the LMB's Mexico City Diablos and Oaxaca Guerreros, who themselves are both owned by billionaire Alfredo Harp Helu.

Cabrera hero as Leones tie LMB South title series

Yucatan Leones shortstop Everth Cabrera came up big

Former San Diego Padres shortstop Everth Cabrera capped a two-run comeback for Yucatan in the bottom half of the ninth inning with a walkoff single that scored Ruben Sosa from second base, handing the Leones a 6-5 win over Quintana Roo Sunday in Game Two of the Mexican League's South Division championship series in Merida.  The victory knotted the Leones-Tigres catfight at one game apiece as 13,147 spectators looked on at Parque Kukulkan.  Cabrera, Sosa and Jesus "Cacao" Valdez each had three hits for the winners while C.J. Retherford belted a pair of homers (one of them a three-run bom) for the Tigres, who won Saturday's opener, 4-1, behind the complete game pitching of Henderson Alvarez.

As Cabrera was performing his heroics in Yucatan, the defending champion Tijuana Toros were delivering a 15-2 beatdown to the Monterrey Sultanes to tie the LMB North title series at one gabe apiece.  Dustin Martin cracked a grand slam in the top of the second off Sultanes starter Felipe Gonzalez to highlight a five-run inning that gave the Toros a lead they would widen as the game went on.  Martin finished the night with six RBIs, Cyle Hankerd contributed a three-run homer to the cause and batting champion Isaac Rodriguez went 4-for-6 with three runs scored and two more driven in for manager Pedro Mere's men.  TJ starter Kyle Lobstein pitched six pressure-free innings, allowing one run on three hits while striking out five batsmen to send 21,909 fans at Estadio Monterrey home disappointed.  Sultanes reliever Gonzalo Ochoa had a nightmarish appearance in the seventh frame, allowing six runs on five hits (including Hankerd's roundtripper) and a walk before being pulled by skipper Roberto Kelly with one out remaining, which Marcos Rivas mercifully recorded.

Yucatan and Quintana Roo both reached the LMB South finals by dispatching Leon and Mexico City, respectively, in five games.  Sebastian Valle's two-run homer gave Leones starter Jose Samayoa (6 innings, 1 run) all the support needed in Yucatan's 5-1 win over the Bravos last Monday in Leon while Jason Bourgeois' single drove in Angel Erro with the game winner in the bottom of the tenth in the Tigres' 6-5 win over the Diablos Rojos the same night in Cancun.  The victory had to be doubly sweet for Tigres owners Fernando and Linda Valenzuela, who've had their own well-chronicled issues with the Red Devils organization over the past year.

Monterrey had to go the extra mile to win their LMB North semifinal series over Monclova in six games.  The Acereros outlasted the Sultanes, 7-6, last Monday at home with the aid of four homers, including a two-run shot coming off the bat of former Yankees outfielder Ruben Rivera, now 44, who hit .385 for the series.  Monterrey wrapped things up two nights later by a 6-3 count over the Steelers as veteran third baseman Agustin Murillo had a big night for the Sultanes, socking a pair of homers (one of them a three-run dinger off Acereros starter Mauricio Lara in the bottom of the fifth.  The 39-year-old Lara had sailed through the first four frames without being scratched for a run before running into trouble in the fifth.  Tijuana had earlier eliminated Aguascalientes in a four-game sweep, giving the Toros a week to rest before opening their series with Monterrey Saturday.

Both division championship series will resume Tuesday night after Monday's travel day, as the LMB South title set shifts to Cancun for Game Three while Tijuana will host Game Three in the LMB North series.


Bravos late with payment, lose SS Amadeo Zazueta to Dos Laredos

Former Leon Bravos shortstop Amadeo Zazueta

Your friendly bank officer issuing a foreclosure notice has nothing on the Monclova Acereros, who waited just one week for a late installment check from the Leon Bravos before reclaiming shortstop Amadeo Zazueta from the Guanajuato team and immediately trading him to the Dos Laredos Tecolotes.

According to Puro Beisbol editor Fernando Ballesteros, the Bravos agreed to a series of payments to Monclova as part of an offseason deal that sent the 32-year-old Culiacan product to Leon after batting .341 for the Steelers last summer, socking 9 homers and driving in 64 runs over 101 regular season contests in 2017.  The trade surprised many Mexican League observers at the time, but the Acereros were committed to Puebla Shuttle passenger Alberto Carreon and LMB veteran Kevin Flores, who spent three years with Yucatan after nine summers with the Quintana Roo Tigres before arriving in Estadio Monclova as a free agent last winter.

Instead, Carreon never got untracked with the Acereros and was shuttled back to sister team Puebla during the Spring 2018 season while Flores ended up playing just 27 of 57 games, batting .320 with 7 RBIs.  And Zazueta?  He became one of the faces of the Leon franchise by batting .356 with 5 homers, 9 steals and a team-high 46 runs scored while adding some adventurous defense in the 6 spot with 10 errors in 55 games.  Despite being one of the Liga's more troubled franchises, the Bravos have managed to reach the playoffs in each of their first two seasons and Zazueta was a key member of this Spring's squad.

However, Zazueta apparently wasn't so important to either the Leon front office or Arturo Blanco, the Potosinos transportation company majordomo and one of the MXL's wealthier owners.  Ballesteros reports that Monclova allowed a week for the Bravos' June installation check to arrive before taking Zazueta back for a nanosecond prior to shipping him off to the Tecos in exchange for pitcher Jose Pina, a useful righty who's gone 45-37 with a 3.52 ERA in six seasons pitching for mostly dreadful teams in Tabasco, Veracruz and Dos Laredos (he was 4-5 with a 4.07 ERA this Spring for the Tecos, who had the worst record in the Liga at 18-39.  The two-time All-Star is a much better pitcher than even his decent stats would indicate and the 6'2" Dominican will finally give Acereros star Josh Lowey a decent complement in the starting rotation.  While their moves were definitely draconian, it's hard to blame Monclova for making them after a second straight first-round playoff exit.  Owner Gerardo Benavides has proven that, if nothing else, he is a hands-on guy who'll make a move at the drop of a hat to improve his hometown team (often at the expense of his Puebla franchise).

But what of the Bravos?  This would be embarrassing to any self-aware ballclub seeking to build credibility among an already-skeptical fan base.  Manager (as of this week) Luis Rivera will likely move Niko Vasquez (.341/10/36) back to his natural position of shortstop with little drop-off in production, but he's left with former Diamondbacks prospect Joe Munoz, a 2014 Midwest League all-star, at third base for Fall 2018 after Munoz played just seven games for Tijuana and Leon in Spring.  The bigger question mark may be regarding what credibility the Bravos have with Leon baseball fans after letting one of their best players leave with nothing in return but even more egg on its face after yet another front office snafu.

One more note worth passing along.  Ballesteros reports that Zazueta may choose to not report to Dos Laredos, one of the few franchises more rudderless than the one he was reclaimed from.  This may all end up in the lap of Liga president Javier Salinas, who certainly doesn't need any more problems in what has been a tough first year for the former Liga MX soccer marketer after replacing Plinio Escalante at the top of the circuit last September.


Managerial firings: Firova out in Monclova, Sandoval canned in Oaxaca

Former Monclova Acereros manager Dan Firova

After showing remarkable restraint throughout the Spring 2018 season, Mexican League owners are using June to make some corrections of their dugout bosses.  Two more managers lost their jobs over the past week after only one midseason firing in Dos Laredos, when the Tecolotes cut Eddie Castro loose last month.  After Tabasco fired skipper Alfonso "Houston" Jimenez in a rather puzzling move, given that Jimenez spun some silk from a sow's ear of a roster (Castro will be Jimenez' replacement n Villahermosa), Oaxaca severed ties with first-year manager Jose Luis "Borrego" Sandoval, a 2008 MVP shortstop for Mexico City during his playing days and a favorite of Diablos/Guerreros owner Alfredo Harp Helu, but the most surprising firing would have to be Dan Firova's reported ouster in Monclova.

 Owner Gerardo Benavides has proven with both the Acereros and Puebla that he has an affinity for hiring managers with Major League Baseball backgrounds such as Wally Backman, who was brought in to Monclova for a disastrous term last despite the former Mets second baseman only having enough prior experience speaking Spanish to order off the menu at Taco Bell.  Hired last December, Firova was seen as a compromise choice of sorts, possessing a less-extensive MLB background but also a Mexican-American who'd both played and managed successfully in the Liga in past years (winning Manager of the Year laurels in 2000 with the Quintana Roo Tigres).  Language and experience in baseball south of the border were not concerns with the former catcher from Texas.

The Acereros finished a disappointing 29-27 in the Spring 2018 regular season, coming in fourth in the LMB North before a first-round playoff exit at the hands of Monterrey.  While fault for failing to meet expectations may lie more with a dissension-ridden clubhouse of transient ballplayers yo-yoing between Monclova and Puebla (star second baseman Manny Rodriguez left the team and was subsequently traded to Quintana Roo) or a pitching staff that allowed more men to reach first base than Stormy Daniels (Josh Lowey notwithstanding), but it's easier to scapegoat a manager and that appears to be what may happening with Firova.  His firing, which has been reported in the Mexican baseball media, had not been officially confirmed by either the Acereros or MXL offices as this story was written and no replacement has been announced.

The firing of Sandoval in Oaxaca was not so surprising.  The 49-year-old Los Mochis native spent 14 seasons between 2000 and 2013 with Mexico City and remained as a coach or manager in the Diablos system before owner Alfredo Harp Helu send him to manage the billionaire's other Liga team in Oaxaca this year.  The Guerreros serve a similar, if not as direct, role to the Diablos that the Kansas City A's used to serve as the New York Yankees' de facto Class AAA affiliate in the American League (which both teams conveniently played in).   Sandoval took Oaxaca's perennial red-headed stepchild team to a last-place finish in the LMB South at 22-35.  While he had more talent than Castro in Dos Laredos or Jimenez in Tabasco had to work with (including such notables as Yuniesky Betancourt, Adan Munoz and Erick Rodriguez), Sandoval's roster reflected the old wartime song, "They're Either Too Young or Too Old," and sank out of contention early.

Sandoval will be replaced at the Guerreros helm by Cuban Jose Alvarez, the former Durango manager who was recently hired to manage Mazatlan this winter in the Mexican Pacific League.  Alvarez won two Gulf Coast League rookieball pennants and one Class A Florida State League title between 1986 and 1990 managing in the Dodgers system.  He spent 2017 as the helmsman in Durango, keeping the newborn Generales at .500 while the team played their first month on the road while their ballpark at home was being readied, but the team ran out of steam the rest of the season as players missed paychecks as the schedule played out (many were traded to save costs) and Durango missed the playoffs.

Guerreros playing exhibition games in Cuba

The Oaxaca Guerreros are spending a portion of their 2018 training on a trip to Cuba, where manager Jose Luis "Borrego" Sandoval has had his Warriors go up against one Cuban National Series team and among a number of exhibition games.  Oaxaca opened the island portion of their preseason schedule last Friday with a 1-1 tie against Matanzas of the CNS.  Raymundo Torres went 3-for-3 for the Guerreros, driving in Carlos Paulino all the way from first with a single in the third with his team's lone run of the game. 

A former Twins farmhand, Paulino had a 2-for-2 game for Oaxaca, who started Patrick Johnson on the mound after team owner Alfredo Harp Helu decided in the offseason to drop his "Mexicans-only" player policy after both his Guerreros and Mexico City Diablos Rojos failed to make the playoffs in 2017 while finishing near the bottom of the league attendance tables.  Johnson tossed three scoreless innings, walking one Cocodrilos batter and striking out three before he gave way to relievers Luis Payan, Rodolfo Aguilar and Axel Rios.  The Matanzas roster features longtime veteran Yoandy Garlobo, who finished second to the USA's Ken Griffey, Junior among batters in the 2006 World Baseball Classic with a .480 average en route to being named to the All-WBC Team that year.

The Guerreros then took on Occidentales, a team comprised of 25 players from CNS West Division clubs, Saturday in Havana.  Occidentales took a 5-1 victory over the guests as Oaxaca didn't score until the ninth, with Iker Franco singling in Manuelo Cruz from third.  The Westerners roster includes outfielders Yoelkis Cespedes and Frederich Cepeda.  The Guerreros came back Sunday by walloping Orientales (25 CNS East players, including several National Teamers) by an 8-0 count as Oaxaca's batters collected 12 hits to support aptly-named starter Daniel Guerrero and five relievers in their shutout effort. 

After an off-day Monday, the Guerreros will meet Occidental again Tuesday in Matanzas as starting pitcher Salvador Valdez makes his debut in a Oaxaca uniform.  The Guerreros will open the Mexican League's 2018 first season on March 23 at Leon.


Toros meet KBO, CPBL clubs in Tucson

The Tijuana Toros are conducting their training camp in Tucson, Arizona for the fourth year in a row and the 2017 Mexican League champions have spiced up their stay in Optics Valley with preseason games against visiting teams from the Korea Baseball Organization and Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Manager Pedro Mere's champions first met the CPBL's Chinatrust Brothers, a Taichung-based squad managed by former major leaguer Cory Snyder, last Wednesday afternoon.  The game was a reunion of sorts between Mere and Snyder, who last managed on the same field during the 2016 LMB title series between Tijuana and Snyder's Puebla Pericos, who won the series and pennant.  Snyder has been joined in Taiwan by two other ex-MLBers, pitching coach Rick Waits and batting coach Tommy Cruz, brother of Jose and Hector.  The Brothers are in their 29th season, winning seven CPBL titles.

The Toros came from way back Thursday to top Chinatrust, 7-6, thanks to Pedro Arenas' tiebreaking single in the eighth.  The win went to reliever Fabian Williamson while the save was credited to Jesus Pirela.  The contest was notable for a remarkable Tijuana comeback after the Toros were behind, 6-1, in the fifth inning.  Things culminated in the eighth when Gabriel Gutierrez singled Juan Kirk in with the tying run and Gutierrez scored the game-winner on Arenas' safety.

One day later, Tijuana met the Nexen Heroes of the Korea Baseball Organization, making it two wins in a row by beating the Heroes, 6-1, at Kino Stadium as the Toros plated four runs in the bottom of the second and scored two more in the fifth in what turned out to be an easy win.  Ageless reliever Rafael Diaz, entering his 21st season at age 47 as the only hurler in LMB history with more than 100 wins and 100 saves, earned the win by tossing a scoreless fifth.

The Toros and Nexen, whose roster includes 2-time KBO MVP and former Twins first baseman Byung-Ho Park plus 2017 KBO Rookie of the Year Jung-Hoo Lee (who hit .324 last year at age 19) met again last Thursday.  This time, the Heroes were victorious, 10-5, to earn the split.  Joe Munoz swatted a two-run homer for Tijuana, but not before Nexen had already built a commanding 6-1 lead by the time Munoz clobbered his panoramic shot to left in the seventh frame.  Alex Sanabia absorbed the loss for the Toros, but he was hardly the only pitcher touched up by the Koreans.

The Toros then played the Quintana Roo Tigres, also training in Tucson, in a three-game series at Kino Stadium over the weekend starting with a 7-1 win over manager Tim Johnson's Cancun nine on Saturday.  The two teams then played to a scoreless draw Sunday before the third and final game Monday before the Toros start playing MLB teams this week.  Rumor has Angels prodigy Shohei Ohtani pitching against Tijuana on Friday.


Fernandez out in Mazatlan; Gil fined 100K pesos

It's already been a busy offseason in the Mexican Pacific League, whose season officially ended less than a month ago when Guadalajara hosted the Caribbean Series at Estadio Charros.  The Mazatlan Venados have said "adios" to manager Daniel Fernandez, Culiacan manager Benji Gil was fined 100,000 pesos by the LMP after he celebrated his team's Game Seven win in the championship series at Navojoa with an obscene gesture and speculation is that three-time pennant-winning manager Eddy Diaz is returning to Obregon, but not as dugout boss.

Let's begin with Fernandez, one of the all-time great batters of Mexican baseball (representing the Mexico City Diablos Rojos in 15 All-Star Games) and the LMB's Manager of the Year with Veracruz in 2008.  Fernandez also excelled for Mazatlan as a player, and he was brought back to the Pearl of the Pacific in 2016 to replace Juan Jose Pacho at the Venados' helm.  Although the Deer appeared in the postseason both seasons under Fernandez, they were first-round casualties each time.  Mazatlan improved eight games last winter to a composite regular-season record of 37-31, but owner Jose Toledo and GM Jesus "Chino" Valdez will be looking for a manager with a "smallball" philosophy of creating runs from scratch instead of one swing.

Now we move on to Gil, already known as a combustible sort during his first stint in Culiacan, where he won a title in 2014-15 but also nearly came to blows in the dugout with outfielder Rico Noel during a game and essentially wore out his welcome with the Tomateros and the Ley family, who has owned the franchise since its 1966 inception.  The former Angels shortstop was brought back this winter and rewarded the Leys and Culiacan with a second pennant, but made a gesture (think PeeWee Herman in an adult theater) during a celebration after the Tomateros won the LMP Championship Series deciding game in Navojoa in January.  Gil's rewards were a verbal rebuke from league president Omar Canizales and a fine of 100,000 pesos (about $5,300 in US dollars).  A statement signed by Canizales states that Gil violated Article 36 of Mexico's federal labor laws "based on maintaining respect and discipline."  Gil faces suspension or outright expulsion from the LMP if he commits any further transgressions.

Finally, there's Diaz, who managed Obregon to three consecutive LMP titles in 2011, 2012 and 2013 (the only skipper in MexPac history with a three-peat), winning the Caribbean Series in 2011 and 2013.   Things have gone south with the Yaquis after promised player bonuses tied to that 2013 CS title were never given, resulting in a lawsuit from former MLB pitcher Luis Ayala, a five-year suspension handed to then-GM Francisco Minjarez by the LMP and Diaz' eventual exit from the franchise.  The Yaquis missed the playoffs last winter while attendance at 15,000-seat Nuevo Estadio Yaquis was noticeably down.  Diaz has visited Obregon in recent weeks, leading to speculation that he may replace manager Juan Navarrete (who will not return next winter) or even move into the front office as GM.  Then again, Minjarez' suspension has been completed and the current Diablos Rojos general manager, embroiled in the "Rookiegate" scandal at present, may return to his old post in the Sonora city.