LOS MOCHIS LEADS GUASAVE 2-0 IN LMP TITLE SET

Rodolfo Amador, Los Mochis Caneros

    The Los Mochis Caneros continued their surprising quest for a Mexican Pacific League pennant with a pair of weekend home wins over Guasave heading into three scheduled midweek games at the Algodoneros' Estadio Francisco Carranza Limon. The Caneros finished last in the LMP playoff points race in 2020-21 and 2021-22 prior to this winter, where they stand poised to win just their fourth title since their 1947 formation and first since the 2002-03 season. For their part, Guasave seeks the second pennant of that city's existence as an LMP franchise site beginning in 1965 (their first came in 1971-72).

    Saturday's Game One was a 9-6 slugfest during which the Caneros broke open a 1-1 contest with six runs in the bottom of the fourth, highlighted by a three-run homer by DH Juan Uriarte off Guasave starter Nico Tellache, who'd pitched one-run ball through three frames but did not survive the Los Mochis onslaught in the fourth. Tellache absorbed both the beatdown AND the loss, giving up five runs on five hits and two walks in 3.1 entradas, striking out four.

    Manny Barreda only fared slightly better as the Caneros opener, tossing four innings of one-run ball himself (the one run coming on an Esteban Quiroz solo homer in the second) before being chased during a four-run Algodoneros fifth that saw Sebastian Elizalde take him deep for another three-run bomb on what proved to be the last pitch the veteran lefty would throw. Fabian Cota came in and registered the third out. The Caneros scored twice more in the bottom of the fifth to make it a 9-4 lead that was never threatened. Uriarte finished with a 3-for-4 night for four RBIs and two runs scored. Elizalde went 3-for-5 for the Cottoneers in a losing cause as Cota's one inning of relief work was enough to be awarded the win.

    Things were a little tighter for Sunday's Game Two as the Caneros scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth for a 3-2 walkoff win over the visitors. Longballs factored in this one, starting with Joey Terdoslavich's line-drive roundtripper off Caneros starter Nick Struck in the top of the second to give Guasave a 1-0 lead. It would prove to be the only run Struck allowed in four innings and when he left after six inning, the game was tied at 1-1 thanks to a run-scoring Uriarte single in the bottom of the fourth that knotted the score. That was the only run Guasave starter Jeff Kinley gave up in seven innings as the former Marlins minor leaguer continued to show his move out of the bullpen after ten years as a reliever is working.

    The score remained at 1-1 until the top of the ninth, when the Algodoneros nudged ahead on an Alejandro Ortiz double off Carlos Vazquez scored Juan Carlos Gamboa from second. However, fate proved a cruel mistress to Guasave closer Brandon Koch, whose third pitch to leadoff batter Roberto Valenzuela was redirected over the wall in left-center for a homer that brought the Caneros back even at 2-2. Then, with two down and a 1-0 count on Rudy Amador, the veteran third sacker smoked a Koch offering for a line-drive circuit clout to left that ended the game and sent a second straight sellout crowd of 11,662 at Estadio Emilio Ibarra Almada home with smiles on their faces.

    Game Three is slated for Tuesday night at 8:30PM local time. Pitcher of the Year Luis Miranda will open on the mound for Los Mochis while Guasave will send Geno Encina to the hill. Miranda is 1-0 with a 3.38 ERA in four playoff starts for the Caneros while Encina has won one of three starts with a 3.60 ERA for the Algodoneros.

    The two teams reached the LMP title series with respective Game Six wins last Wednesday. Los Mochis topped Obregon, 5-2 at home behind the solid pitching of Miranda, who allowed one run on one hit with six strikeouts over six innings. The Yaquis opened the scoring in the top of the third when Dariel Alvarez launched a solo homer off Miranda, but the Caneros fought back to take the lead with a three-run fifth during which Wagner Lagrange singled in Uriarte with the go-ahead run and later scored on Isaac Rodriguez' safety.

    Obregon scored a single tally in the seventh when Yadir Drake scored from second on a Victor Mendoza one-bagger but Los Mochis put the contest away one inning later when reinforcement Valenzuela, the LMP batting leader, belted a two-run homer. Miranda got the win for the Caneros while Braulio Torres-Perez took the loss after letting in three runs over five innings.

    Strong pitching made all the difference in Wednesday's other Game Six, this time a 2-0 Guasave shutout in Hermosillo that closed out that series, 4 games to 2. Mex Pac strikeouts champion Matt Pobereyko tossed seven beautiful innings, allowing just two hits and no walks with five strikeouts to take the win home for the Algodoneros, who qualified for their first LMP championship series since 2011-12.

    Jesse Castillo socked a two-run homer to center in the top of the seventh off Hermosillo starter Elian Leyva as the Cottoneers pitching staff held the potent Naranjeros scoreless over the final 18 innings of the series. Leyva, a two-time Pitcher of the Year, absorbed the loss despite a strong start himself in which he took a shutout of his own into the seventh before Castillo broke the scoreless tie.

    At the conclusion of the Guasave-Hermosillo series, Naranjeros pitcher Wilmer Rios (who led the Mex Pac with nine wins) was removed from the reinforcement draft pool by signing a minor league contract with the Cincinnati Reds. Rios' Mexican League rights remain with the Monclova Acereros, for whom his nine wins last summer were tied for the LMB lead with Veracruz' Luis Marquez.

    In the subsequent third installment of the reinforcement draft, the Caneros picked first after some arcane proceedings and selected Obregon pitcher Manny Barreda, who himself had been picked by the Yaquis from Culiacan in the first reinforcement draft. Barreda had gone 2-1 with a 3.65 ERA in four starts for Obregon. In the second round, Los Mochis picked another Obregon starting pitcher in Torres-Perez, who we mistakenly identified as Brazilian last week. Torres-Perez, who pitched for Mazatlan during the regular season, actually hails from the tropical paradise of Auburn, Washington.

    Choosing second, Guasave fortified their infield by choosing Obregon's Juan Carlos Gamboa in the first round and Jasson Atondo from Hermosillo in the second. Neither have distinguished themselves during the current postseason (Atondo was batting just .216 at the conclusion of the semifinals while Gamboa's average was only .146), but Gamboa is a former Mets farmhand who was MVP of the 2014 Serie del Rey in Mexico City's last Mexican League title-winning season while Atondo is a former Mex Pac Rookie of the Year who can play several positions.


CANEROS' YASMANY TOMAS NAMED MEX PAC MVP

LMP MVP Yasmany Tomas

    After two consecutive last-place finishes in the playoff points standings, the Los Mochis Caneros are the surprise team in this winter's Mexican Pacific League championship series after finishing second in both the regular season combined standings and points race. One of the prime movers for that turnaround is Cuban-born outfielder Yasmany Tomas, who has been named the LMP's Most Valuable Player for 2022-23.

    Tomas finished tied for the league lead with 10 homers while topping the tables with 57 RBIs. He also hit for a .328 average (4th), a .383 OBP (6th), a .510 slugging percentage (3rd), an .893 OPS (4^th) and 27 extra-base hits (2nd). That regular season plate success hasn't yet carried over into the playoffs, where Tomas was batting .245 with just one homer and five ribbies over 13 games through Sunday, but Los Mochis wouldn't be where they are today without him.

    Nicknamed “El Tanque,” the 32-year-old Havana native spent five winters playing for his hometown Industriales between 2008 and 2014 in the Cuban National Series, batting a composite .290 with 39 homers and 151 RBIs over 272 games. He defected to Haiti after the 2013-14 season and after some legal maneuvering, the 6'2” 260-pounder was able to audition in the Dominican Republic for various MLB teams and eventually signed with Arizona to a six-year, $68.5 million contract. He made his MLB debut in 2015 and one year later clubbed 31 homers for the Diamondbacks, although he had the dubious distinction of finished in the National League's top five in errors committed by both left fielders and right fielders that year.

    Tomas appeared on his way to stardom but injuries in 2017 and a 2018 incident that resulted in speeding and reckless driving charges after he was clocked driving 105 mph in Tempe, Arizona led to a demotion to the minor and his eventual release in late 2019 despite two strong years for AAA Reno. He had only played 26 games for AAA Rochester in 2021 since prior to his arrival in Los Mochis last fall.

    Now primarily a first baseman, Tomas becomes the seventh player from the Caneros to win the Héctor Espino Trophy and the first since Brian Burgamy in the 2013-14 season. The ballot vote that prioritized members of all ten LMP team front offices, the specialized media and the fans gave 45 percent of the votes to Tomas so it wasn't really close among the six candidates to choose from.

    Other finalists included Monterrey's batting champion Roberto Valenzuela (21 percent), Hermosillo pitcher Wilmer Rios (16 percent), Caneros outfielder Justin Dean (11 percent), Obregon first baseman/DH Victor Mendoza (5 percent) and Los Mochis pitcher Luis Miranda (2 percent). While Miranda edged out Rios for Pitcher of the Year honors in the balloting for that award, Rios led Miranda by an 8-to-1 margin in MVP voting.


SULTANES TO REOPEN BASEBALL ACADEMY

El Carmen Baseball Academy

    After three years of inactivity, the former Mexican League Baseball Academy in El Carmen, Nuevo Leon will come back to life in 2023 with the support of the Monterrey Sultanes. Team's president Jose Maiz García made the anouncement, according to Septima Entrada writer Tomas Lopez. Interviewed on the Bateo Libre radio program, Maiz stated that an agreement has been reached with the Mexican League to once again develop players at the facilities.

    “Monterrey is going to continue training Mexican baseball players,” Maiz declared, “especially now that no other team in the league wanted to participate in El Carmen. Possibly we are just going to participate. It has already been arranged with the league. The other 17 teams did not want to take part in the El Carmen Academy. The Sultanes have already sent people to see the facilities and in about two or three months we will be working in El Carmen. Sultanes only.”

    Maiz, a member of Monterrey's Little League World Series champions along with future big league shortstop Hector Torres and Mexican League star Angel Macias, added that it may be called Academia Cerro de la Silla or Academy Cerro de Las Mitras.

    The academy was inaugurated in 1996 as the brainchild of then-LMB president Pedro Treto Cisneros, Mexico City Tigres owner Alejo Peralta and Mexico City Diablos Rojos president Roberto Mansur to develop prospects for future play in the Mexican League. In more than two decades of operation, thousands of young players called the dormitories home as such future MLB players as relievers Roberto Osuna and Joakim Soria plus infielder Ramiro Pena cut their teeth on the diamonds in El Carmen, as did eventual LMBers like shortstop Heber Gomez and first baseman Japhet Amador.

    The academy's expenses (which included housing, dining and education in addition to baseball development) were shared for years by all Liga teams at approximately US$500,000 each. LMB organizations would send teenage signees for some seasoning before bringing them up to the LMB if they were good enough, although the contracts of many were sold to Major League organizations while they were still at the facility.

    However, as many teams were struggling to pay the bills at home while others began building academies of their own (especially after MLB determined that teams cannot sell players to its organizations but academies can), support faded for the El Carmen operation and it was shut down in 2019. It has remained closed since.

NARANJEROS TAKE LMP LEAD, ELIZALDE HITTING .429

Hermosillo OF Jose Cardona

    The Hermosillo Naranjeros are one of the proudest teams in Mexico. Dating back to the 1940's (when the team was known as the Queliteros), Hermosillo has won a total of 19 pennants in four winter leagues, the most recent being in 2013-14 under manager Matias Carrillo, who also led that year's squad to their second Caribbean Series title. Since then, the team has gone through manager after manager seeking another flag for the Orangemen. The latest occupant of the perpetually-hot seat in Hermosillo is Juan Gabriel Castro, a former Dodgers infielder and Mexican National Team manager who has already become very well-aquainted with the vagaries of managing a baseball team south of the border.

    Castro inherited the reins of the Naranjeros from ex-skipper Juan Navarrete during the season last winter and led them to a 36-32 regular season record (21-18 under his command) before a first round playoff loss to Monterrey in seven games. He got the chance to start this season at the helm of the team and thus far has the Naranjeros at 8-3 out the gate to lead the LMP standings, good for a one-game lead over Guasave and two games up on four other teams. Defending champion Jalisco is tenth and last at 3-8.

    The Naranjeros are a veteran outfit with the likes of thirtysomethings Maxwell Leon, Luis Alfonso Cruz, Walter Ibarra and Fernando Salas along with relative youngsters Roberto Ramos, Nick Torres, Jasson Atondo and Jose Cardona. Thus far, Cardona (an eight-year Texas farmhand who hit .389 for Jalisco in last winter's Caribbean Series) is hitting .319 with three doubles, a triple and 11 runs scored in as many games while Ramos and Torres have seven homers and 19 RBIs between them.

    Hermosillo's pitching has been solid, if unspectacular, as Salas has two saves in five appearances and has yet to be scored upon while another vet hurler, Juan Pablo Oramas, is 2-0 with a 0.84 ERA and 11 strikeouts in two starts. While it's far too early to think about the postseason with 58 games and two-plus months left in the regular season, Castro is hoping to be a rarity with the Naranjeros: A manager who lasts two full seasons in orange and black.

    One player who's off to a hot start is veteran outfielder-first baseman Sebastian Elizalde of Culiacan. Now in his 12th Mex Pac season (starting at the tender age of 18 with Hermosillo in 2010-11), Elizalde is the only .400 hitter in the early LMP going with a .429 average, 35 points ahead of Mexicali's Leo Heras at .394. Hermosillo's Torres is tied with Felix Perez of Monterrey with four homers each while Perez, who's also hitting .366, is leading with 14 RBIs, three up on Torres and Navojoa's Ian Sagdal. Justin Dean (Los Mochis) and Jared Oliva (Obregon) are tied at the top of the stolen base charts with six apiece.

    At least eight pitchers are tied with two wins each, among them Guasave's Jeff Kinley, Braulio Torres-Perez of Mazatlan and Navojoa righty Luis Payan (who are all sporting 0.00 ERAs less than two weeks into the schedule). Fabian Cota of Los Mochis had four strikeouts in his last start to raise his total to 14, one more than Kinley. Brandon Koch has been a standout as Guasave's new closer, saving each of the Algodoneros' seven wins to lead the loop, while Mazatlan's Elkin Alcala has five salvados for the Venados.

MEXICAN PACIFIC LEAGUE Standings: Hermosillo 8-3, Guasave 7-4, Los Mochis 6-5, Mazatlan 6-5, Mexicali 6-5, Navojoa 6-5, Culiacan 5-6, Monterrey 4-7, Obregon 4-7, Jalisco 3-8.

MEXICO FALLS SHORT IN U-23 GOLD CUP BRONZE GAME

Angel Camacho at 13 in 2017

    Despite taking a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when Angel Camacho motored home from third base on a Lee Chen-hsun wild pitch, Mexico went scoreless the rest of the way in a 3-1 loss to host Taiwan in Sunday's Bronze medal game at the World Baseball Softball Confederation's U-23 Baseball Gold Cup tournament in Taipei.

    After surprise starter Nestor Anguamea (who'd been Mexico's closer) pitched a 1-2-3 top of the first, Camacho hit a leadoff single off Lee, took second on an Aldo Nunez bunt and moved to third on a bunt by Jose Zepeda before scampering home when Lee uncorked a wild pitch to Brandon Valenzuela. Lee settled down to end the inning without any further damage and went on to limit the Mexicans to two more singles through the fifth frame, retiring the last eight batters he faced before giving way to reliever Chuang Hsin-yen in the sixth.

    By then, Taiwan had taken the lead after tying the score on Chen Sheng-ping's RBI double in the top of the second and then going up 3-1 one inning later on Chen's two-run single up the middle off reliever Erubiel Armenta, who had just replaced Anguemea with the bases loaded. Armenta and three relievers held Taiwan scoreless for the next four innings while Chuang pitched two perfect entradas for the hosts as 481 onlookers watched at Tianmu Stadium. Besides Camacho, Zepeda and Hugo Sanchez singled for Mexico but no runner reached base after the third inning. Later in the Gold medal game, Japan shut out South Korea, 3-0, as Asian teams took all three medals home.

    It was somewhat miraculous that Mexico got as far as they did. They advanced to the Super Round with five other teams despite being shut out in both of their last two First Round games: a 2-0 loss to Cuba last Tuesday in what had been a scoreless contest until the Cubans pushed two runs across in the top of the seventh, followed by a 1-0 defeat to South Korea in Wednesday's make-up of an earlier rainout. That one was likewise scoreless until the Koreans scored the game's lone run in the top of the eighth on a throwing error by Mexican catcher Valenzeula, who was trying to nail tiebreak lead runner Kim Tae-yun at third after Kim had first advanced from second on a throwing error by reliever Manuel Castro.

    Despite failing to score over their last 15 innings and collecting eight hits over the two shutouts, Mexico was one of five Group B teams to finish 2-3 behind 5-0 South Korea, and was waved to the Super Round along with Australia due to tiebreaker arcana we won't go into here (life is short enough already).

    Mexico then went 2-1 in the Super Round, starting with a 4-3 win over Colombia last Thursday in which they overcame a 3-1 deficit with three fifth-inning runs thanks to a pair of walks and a wild pitch (all with the bases loaded). Camacho and Valenzuela each had two of Mexico's eight hits in the game.

    That was followed by 2-1 Friday shocker over host Taiwan in eight innings. Mexico recorded ten singles for the night, none more important than Ruben Salinas' poke to left field that allowed Zepeda to score from third with the go-ahead run. After getting the last two outs of the seventh, Castro held the Formosans hitless in the bottom of the eighth to nail down the victory.

    Mexico suffered their first loss of the Super Round Sunday in a 4-2 defeat at the hands of 2016 Gold Cup champion Japan. The game wasn't that close, with the Japanese scoring a run in the second inning and three more in the third as Kanta Aiba and Kaido Saida had RBI singles. Mexico finally got on the scoreboard via Salinas' bases-loaded walk in the sixth and Zepeda's double in the seventh bringing in Christopher Escarrega, but manager Che Reyes' team had just three hits overallas Japan's Raiku Katayama tossed five no-hit innings in another Mexican offensive meltdown after two solid games at the plate. Japan advanced to the title game against South Korea with the win while Mexico was sent to the third-place game against Taiwan. Sunday's loss dropped the Mexicans' overall record to 4-5 for a fourth-place finish in the 12-team tournament.

    Mexico hit .203 as a team for the Gold Cup. Camacho's .333 average the only one above .250 among individual players. A California native, Camacho's nine hits led the team, as did his one triple. Valenzuela and Javier Sanchez had three RBIs each while 2021 Mexican Winter League batting champion Oliver Carrillo's four runs scored were tops.

    The pitching was much better, as the squad turned in a collective 1.59 ERA. Castro was 2-1 in relief and one of four hurlers with a 0.00 ERA. Fernando Sanchez had no decisions in two starts but he had a 1.50 ERA while his 15 strikeouts in 9.1 innings led Mexico. Anguamea's ERA went from 0.00 to 3.32 with his rocky start against Taiwan in the Bronze medal game and he finished 0-2, but he also had both saves at the World Cup.

WHERE DO THIS YEAR'S LMP PLAYERS COME FROM?

    

While most of the the 300 players on the Mexican Pacific League's opening night rosters overwhelmingly hail from Mexico, to the surprise of nobody, there are many countries that contribute talent to the Mex Pac's ten teams. Writer Christan Vernet of Mexico's ScoreDeportes website recently took a deep dive into the numbers to find out exactly where these guys DO come from. Here are translated and edited excerpts from his column on the matter (thanks to Carlos Fragoso of Mexico City for forwarding the story):

    Two Mexican locales with a rich history and baseball tradition, Sonora and Sinaloa, top the list of States in Mexico with the largest number of players represented, according to birthplaces listed on the Mexican Pacific league's opening rosters.

    This article shows the distribution of the origin of the 300 baseball players who started in the rosters of the 10 teams for their respective opening games of the 2022-2023 season of the Mexican Pacific League. The players and places of birth were listed by the 10 teams on their respective rosters, which were distributed to representatives of the media.

    There are 234 players born in Mexican territory, or 78 percent of the total of players. In addition, there are 7 other nations represented, led by the United States, which has 52 (17.3%), including players who are regarded as Mexican “nationals.” The overall percentage of foreigners born outside of Mexico is 66 playrs, or 22 percent. Cuba is the second foreign country with the most players with seven (2.3%), followed by Colombia with three (1%) and the rest are Germany, Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico with one each (0.3%).

    Now it's time to distribute them by states: Sinaloa is unsurprisingly number one in that category, since of the 234 Mexicans, 67 (28.6%) were born in Sinaloan territory. Sonora is number two with 62 players, or 26.5 percent.

    In total there are 22 states of the Mexican Republic represented. Third place is occupied by Baja California Norte with 31 (13.2%), followed by Jalisco with 12 (5.1%), then Coahuila and Nuevo León with 9 apiece (3.8%). The “Top Ten” is completed by Veracruz with 6 (2.6%), Baja California Sur, Chihuahua and Yucatan with 5 each (2.1%).

    Regarding the distribution by municipalities, Ahome, a suburb of Los Mochis, is the leader of all with a total of 30 players, or 12.8% of the 234 Mexican baseball players. Hermosillo and Cajeme are tied for second place with 19 baseball players (8.1%), followed by Guasave with 14 (6%), Tijuana and Culiacán each have a dozen (5.1%) while Mexicali and Mazatlán both have 10, or 4.3%.

    Looking at the United States, California has 21 players, which could be the fourth best mixed with those in Mexico, just behind Sinaloa (67), Sonora (62) and Baja California Norte (31). California has 40.4 percent of the LMP's American 52 players, followed by Texas with 6 (11.5%), Arizona has 5 (9.6%), Florida and Illinois have 3 each (5.8%) and Indiana has 2 (3.8%). In total, there are 18 US states.

    As for the foreign cities with the largest number of players, they are Cartagena, Colombia; Havana, Cuba; and Dallas, Texas (all with 3), followed by Camagüey, Cuba; Tucson, Arizona; and Anaheim and Long Beach, California with 2 each.

    The Mexcali Aguilas have the most players born outside of Mexico with nine, while Guasave, Obregon and Los Mochis have 8 each followed by Hermosillo (7), Culiacan (6) and Mazatlan, Monterrey, Jalisco and Navojoa with the minimum regulatory amount of 5.

    These are only numbers and statistics of places of origin of the players who started the season. In January, we'll have a second installment to know the origin of all the players who participated during the season.

YUCATAN FORCES GAME 7 WITH 6-2 WIN AT MONTERREY

Cristhian Adames, Yucatan Leones

The Yucatan Leones have proven that they are not phased when facing elimination from a playoff series. After overcoming a 3-games-to-1 deficit to defeat Mexico City for the Mexican League South Division championship series, the Lions delayed their offseason one more day with a 6-2 Game Six win Sunday in front of a full house of 21,909 at Estadio Monterrey to force a seventh and deciding Serie del Rey game against the Sultanes Monday night. All six games of the LMB title series have had sellout crowds and with all tickets gone for Monday’s Game Seven, a total of 132,387 fans will have clicked the turnstiles, an average of 18,912 per opening.

Manager Roberto Vizcarra’s charges never trailed Sunday after taking a 2-0 first-inning lead on Cristhian Adames’ two-run double with two out off Monterrey starter Cristian Castillo, the 2016 Appalachian League Pitcher of the Year as a Royals farmhand. The Leones built a 3-1 lead before the Sultanes made it a one-run contest in the bottom of the seventh when Gustavo Nunez tagged third and scored on Sebastian Elizalde’s sacrifice fly to center, but Yucatan put the game in their hip pocket with three more runs in the top of the eighth as Yadir Drake and Luis Juarez contributed RBI singles. Jorge Rondon held the Sultanes scoreless over the last two innings in relief to close out the win.

Adames was 2-for-5 for the night with a double, a run scored and three RBIs for the winners while Juarez singled and scored twice. Victor Mendoza went 2-for-3 for Monterrey, doubling in Zoilo Almonte with the Sultanes’ first run in the fourth off Yucatan starter Onelki Garcia. Hunter Cervenka pitched one shutout entrada for the Leones and was awarded the win while Castillo absorbed the loss for Monterrey.

The Sultanes took the Serie del Rey lead by winning two of three games on the road last week in Merida, where sellout crowds of 14,917 packed Parque Kukulkan for all three tilts. After rain washed out Game Three on Tuesday night, the two teams were able to take the field Wednesday. Yucatan gained a 2-games-to-1 advantage with a 6-1 win behind the standout pitching of ex-MLBer Henderson Alvarez, who was supported by a pair of three-run innings from his teammates. Alvarez lasted until Vizcarra lifted him with two out in the top of the eight, by which time he’d scattered seven hits and allowed one unearned run.

Drake drove in the first run of the night in the bottom of the second by doubling in Jose Martinez from second. Sebastian Valle’s one-out single brought home Adames and a Norberto Obeso sacrifice fly to left plated Drake from third. The lone Monterrey run came in the fifth, when Jose Cardona’s infield single moved Ramiro Pena to third and Pena scampered home after an errant throw from Adames at shortstop. The Leones pushed three insurance runs across in the bottom of the fifth as Art Charles and Martinez each had run-scoring singles. Charles, Martinez and Adames combined for six hits, three runs and two RBI for Yucatan while Pena doubled twice off Alvarez for the Sultanes.

The visitors bounced back to win the next two games, including Thursday’s 5-0 whitewash in Game Four behind the five shutout innings from 2022 ERA champ Yohander Mendez, who allowed three hits and struck out six Yucatan batsmen. 

All five Sultanes runs came via the longball as Elizalde socked a two-run homer off Leones starter Jake Thompson in the top of the first after rain delayed the game’s start by a half-hour. Mendoza victimized Thompson, a former Phillies starter, two innings later with a three-run bomb of his own to end the scoring for the night. At that point, Vizcarra replaced Thompson with Yoanner Negrin and while the 2016 LMB Pitcher of the Year gave the Leones three scoreless innings, the damage was done as Yucatan collected just six hits (two each for Drake and Josh Fuentes) and went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position for the night.

Monterrey pulled ahead in the series Friday night by virtue of a 6-3 win to take a 3-games-to-2 advantage. Yucatan did lead, 3-2, in the bottom of the fifth after a Luis Juarez double drove in Valle from second and a Charles line-drive single brought home Obeso, but Orlando Calixte’s two-run roundtripper in the top of the seventh regained the Sultanes’ lead and Monterrey salted the contest away with a pair of runs one inning later on an Elizade single and an Almonte double. Yucatan did have runners on first and second with one out in the eighth, but reliever Carlos Morales settled down and got Drake to fly out to right and struck out pinch-hitter Lazaro Alfonso swinging on a 3-2 pitch to end the threat.

Juan Gamez earned the win after manager Roberto Kelly brought him in to replace a struggling Julio Teheran (4.1 IP, 3 R, 5 H, 3 BB) in the fifth and tossed 1.2 frames of shutout ball. Neftali Feliz held the Leones scoreless in the ninth to record his second save of the Serie del Rey. Yucatan starter Elian Leyva pitched well enough to win (6 IP, 2 R, 4H), although he did allow an Almonte homer in the second, but Cervenka gave up Calixte’s go-ahead homer in the seventh and absorbed the loss. 

Monday night’s game marks the third consecutive season that the Serie del Rey has gone a full seven games. Alvarez will start for Yucatan in the contest, which is slated to begin at 7:30PM EDT, while Mendez will open for Monterrey.

GIL: MENESES TO PLAY FOR CULIACAN IN SECOND HALF 

Joey Meneses, Culiacan Tomateros

Former major league shortstop Benji Gil, who is wrapping up his first season as a coach with the Los Angeles Angels under interim manager Phil Nevin, says he should return to his managerial post in Culiacan just prior to the coming Mexican Pacific League season, when the Tomateros will seek their fourth pennant in six winters.

However, Gil said, there is one player who will not joining him next month for the start of the 2022-23 campaign: Longtime Tomateros slugger Joey Meneses, a Culiacan native who has spent all or part of nine seasons playing for his hometown team. Gil adds that Meneses is expected to join the Tomateros when the second half of the LMP schedule begins in November.

Although he’s become a minor sensation in Washington since his August 2 big league debut for the Nationals at age 30 (becoming the first Mexican to homer in his first MLB game), Meneses’ baseball journey during the summer has taken several twists and turns since he first signed with the Atlanta Braves as a 19-year-old free agent in 2011. Beginning with a less-than-impressive 19-game stint that year with the Braves’ Dominican Summer League entry (for whom he hit .206 with no extra-base hits), Meneses spent seven years in the Atlanta system and was an organizational All-Star in both 2014 and 2019 but never rose above Class AA Mississippi, for whom he was a Southern League midseason All-Star in 2017.

After that season, Meneses filed for free agency and signed with Philadelphia, who assigned him to AAA Lehigh Valley, where he was named the 2018 International League MVP after batting .311 and leading the loop with 23 homers and 82 RBIs. That earned him a one-year US$950,000 contract with the Orix Buffaloes of Japan’s Pacific League. After struggling at the start of his first season in Asia (.206 with 4 homers in 29 games), the 6’3” first baseman-outfielder was suspended for one year in June 2019 after testing positive for Stanozolal (a steroid) and the Buffaloes subsequently voided his contract. 

After sitting out the 2020 summer season, Meneses signed as a free agent with Boston last year, splitting 2021 between AA Portland and AAA Worcester, before signing with Washington this season. Meneses hit .286 with 20 homers in 96 games at AAA Rochester before his August call-up. Since then, he’s hit .317 with 9 homers and 23 RBIs over 39 games for the Nationals. Meneses has never played in the Mexican League.

Although his summers have often been frustrating at best, Meneses has returned home every winter to play for the Tomateros since 2013-14. In 453 games over nine LMP seasons, the right-handed batter has hit .283 with 42 homers and 268 ribbies, appearing in five Caribbean Series including last February in Mazatlan, where he hit .158 as a pickup for the Jalisco Charros and manager Roberto Vizcarra.

PEREYRA: MEXICAN WOMEN SHOWING THEY CAN PLAY, TOO

The Mexican National Women’s Baseball Team secured a berth in next year’s World Championship tournament, the first time the country will appear in that event, after securing a bronze medal at the Americas Qualifier in Venezuela last month. As Beatriz Pereyra of Mexico City’s Proceso writes, it marks one more step in the process of women being seen simply as “ballplayers” south of the border instead of being limited to playing softball in the public’s perception.

The following is a Google translation of Pereyra’s piece in Proceso, lightly edited for clarity:

The members of the Mexican Women's Baseball Team have something in common: as girls they began playing baseball with boys in some leagues in the country, then were forced to switch to softball because they were not allowed to compete with men. Players like Rosi del Castillo, Dafne Mejía and Samaria Benítez from Nayarit have become known for being the first to participate in men's amateur or semi-professional leagues. On the way to Mexico's participation in its first World Cup and given the lack of infrastructure for them in the ninth, they warn: "People need to believe that women can also play baseball."

Despite the fact that Mexican women's baseball is in an incipient stage, the national team qualified for the 2023 World Championship, a tournament in which Mexico will have its first international participation.

The squad, made up of 21 players from different states, is currently ranked 12th in the world. Recently, they won the bronze medal at the Venezuela 2022 Women's Baseball Pre-World Championship, where five other teams participated: Venezuela (5th in the world), the Dominican Republic (6th), Cuba (7th) Puerto Rico (9) and Nicaragua (17th).

This is the second time in which the Mexican Women's Baseball Team gets its ticket to the World Cup which in this edition, its first stage will be played in 2023 and the rest in the summer of 2024, with dates and venues to be defined. The first time they qualified was in the 2019 Aguascalientes Pre-World Cup tournament. However, the World Baseball and Softball Confederation (WBSC) decided to cancel the 2020 World Cup event as a result of the covid-19 pandemic. 

The Mexican team is made up of “veteran” players such as Dafne Mejía (30 years old) and Thalía Villavicencio (34) plus other younger ones such as Rosi del Castillo from Puebla and María José Valenzuela from Sonora (both 24 years old), but all with a lot of experience because they have played baseball since they were very young. Regardless of her deafness since birth, Valenzuela, the only Sonoran on the team, is one of the most outstanding players.

“It has been an important achievement. We were able to transcend, we classified as we wanted and one goal was to bring the medal that we couldn't before,” says Mejia, who was Mexico’s designated hitter in Venezuela. “ Although it was not gold, we are proud of that achievement, of giving Mexico a medal.”

Sisters Laura and Melody Cortés Tapia also stand out in the team as daughters of Julio Cortés, a promoter of women's baseball in the city of Pachuca, where he runs the Rancho Beisbolero Academy. They are joined by pitchers of the quality of Adriana Palma from Yucatan, Marlene Lagunes from Veracruz and Narda Andrade from Puebla, catchers Itza Hernández and Marcela Díaz, who is a player in Mexico City’s Anahuac League. 

Almost all of them have followed the same process in their careers as ballplayers: as girls they started playing baseball with boys in some little league, then they were forced to switch to softball because they are not allowed to participate with men, but they clung to staying in the sport they love.

Players such as Rosi del Castillo, Dafne Mejía and Samaria Benítez from Nayarit have become known because they have been pioneers in participating in men's amateur or semi-professional leagues, because if women's baseball still lacks something, it is that it does not have the facilities and enough coaches that is not an appendage of men's baseball.

LEYVA KEEPS LEONES ALIVE; OJEDA SUSPENDED

C Sebastian Valle and P Elian Leyva, Yucatan

The Mexican League South Division Championships are moving back to Mexico City for Game Six on Tuesday after pitcher Elian Leyva’s masterful outing Sunday in Merida kept his Yucatan Leones afloat in their battle with the Diablos Rojos, who lead the best-of-7 series, 3-games-to-2. 

Leyva, a two-time Mexican Pacific League Pitcher of the Year (including last winter), tossed seven shutout innings of one-hit ball Sunday as the Leones outlasted the Diablos, 2-0, in front of a third consecutive sellout crowd of 14,917 at venerable Parque Kukulkan. Leyva struck out eight Mexico City batters before leaving the scoreless tie after the top of the seventh. In the bottom of the frame, Art Charles lined a two-run homer to straightaway center field off Diablos reliever David Huff, who’d replaced starter Jeffry Nino after the latter had whitewashed Yucatan over the first six entradas. Charles’ blast was enough as three Yucatan relievers held Mexico City scoreless over the final two innings with Jorge Rondon striking out the dangerous Roberto Ramos looking to end the contest, after which fans in Merida danced and sang in the ballpark’s esplanade during a postgame concert by bands El Fresca and La Sentencia.

The series opened last Tuesday at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu in the nation’s capital with an 11-10 Diablos win in eleven innings. The contest featured five homers among the 36 combined hits from the two combatants, but it was a bases-loaded walkoff single from Jesus Fabela off Rondon that scored pinch-runner Antonio Castaneda that ended the tilt in the bottom of the eleventh as 14,528 fanaticos looked on. Juan Carlos Gamboa socked two homers for the winners, including a grand slam in the bottom of the first inning, while Charles belted a roundtripper for the Leones in the top of the tenth.

After a Tuesday rainout, Game Two of the LMB South title set was played last Wednesday as the Leones triumphed, 15-8, and did something Puebla was unable to achieve in their division semis against Mexico City: Hold the Diablos to less than 10 runs. As 18,851 watched, Yucatan scored 12 times between the third and sixth innings to take a 12-6 lead and never looked back. Yadir Drake homered and drove in four runs for the Lions while Luis Juarez went 3-for-5 and two RBIs. Moises Gutierrez led the Red Devils with two hits (including a homer) and two ribbies as every starting batter for both teams had at least one of the game’s combined 31 hits except for Diablos catcher Julian Leon, the Puebla series hero who struck out three times. Sic transit gloria.

The series shifted to Merida for Game Three last Thursday, with the visiting Diablos taking an 8-3 win behind the bats of Julian Ornelas (who went 4-for-5 with two homers, scoring four runs and driving in three) and Gamboa, who had three hits, including an RBI single. Cristhian Adames hit a solo homer for the Leones while pinch-hitter Lazaro Alfonso socked a two-run bomb in the ninth to give the home crowd of 14,917 something to cheer about but it was too little, too late. Diablos reliever Huff got the win after going 2.1 scoreless innings and striking out four Yucatan batsmen while Leones starter Henderson Alvarez (5 innings, 4 runs) took the loss.

Another rainout delayed Game Four until Saturday, which saw another Mexico City road win in front of one more full house of 14,917 at Parque Kukulkan, albeit by a closer 6-5 score. The Leones led, 4-3, after one inning thanks to Josh Fuentes’ two-run single, but the Diablos tied the tilt in the fifth and a Fabela bunt scored Gutierrez with the go-ahead run one frame later. Ramos had a resourceful night for the Red Devils as the former KBO star drove in three runs and scored once on a double, a sacrifice fly and a plunking by Hunter Cervenka while Gamboa stroked a two-run single in the first. Francisco Haro came out of the bullpen to replace starter Humberto Sosa two outs into the first and pitched 6.1 scoreless innings (allowing two hits and striking out 11) for the win. Jake Thompson, normally a starter for Yucatan, took the loss in relief after giving up Fabela’s run-scoring sacrifice bunt during his two-inning stint as the Diablos found themselves one win away from the Serie del Rey going into Leyva’s season-saving heroics on Sunday. Game Six is set for 8PM Eastern on Tuesday in Mexico City.

Not all the drama in the series has been on the field. Former big league and Liga catcher Miguel Ojeda, who managed Mexico City to their last pennant in 2014 and is now the team’s sports manager, was suspended for a year by LMB president Horacio de la Vegas after it was discovered the Diablos used a television camera in center field to steal signs from Yucatan catcher Sebastian Valle during the first two games of the series at Estadio AHH. The Leones front office told de la Vega of their suspicions last week and after an investigation, Ojeda received his suspension Sunday, as did Diablos TV producer Marco Antonio Avila Toledo.

SULTANES SWEEP CHAMPS, ON TO SERIE DEL REY

Victor Mendoza, Monterrey Sultanes 1B

Given the sometimes-heated nature of the rivalry between the Monterrey Sultanes and the defending Mexican League champion Tijuana Toros over the past few years, there was much anticipation going into their LMB North Championship Series last week. As it turned out, the anticipation exceeded the event as the Sultanes swept the Toros in four straight games to advance to the pennant-deciding Serie del Rey later this week.

Monterrey took the first two games at Tijuana’s Estadio Nacional, opening the series last Monday with a 6-2 win over the Toros in front of 10,081 spectators. The Sultanes were paced offensively by homers from Sebastian Elizalde and Zoilo Almonte and Orlando Calixte’s 3-for-5 night at the plate as starter Yohander Mendez turned in a strong five innings for the winners. Mendez, who was 7-0 and led the LMB with a 2.78 ERA during the regular season, gave up just one run on a Nick Williams triple in the fifth while striking out eight to earn the win as Agustin Murillo’s RBI single in the eighth accounted for the Toros’ other run. TJ starter Nick Struck didn’t have a bad outing, going five innings and giving up 2 runs on 3 hits, but he couldn’t match Mendez’ mound mastery (no extra charge for the alliteration).

Game Two on Tuesday in Tijuana was more of the same as strong Monterrey pitching keyed a Sultanes road win, this time by a 4-1 count. It was mostly a pitcher’s duel except for one pitch: Toros starter Manny Barreda dished up a three-run homer to Calixte in the top of the fourth that decided the game for all intent and purposes. Leandro Castro broke up Monterrey’s shutout bid in the seventh with a solo homer off reliever Juan Gamez with 15,313 watching at Estadio Nacional, but the night belonged to the Sultanes pitching staff. Julio Teheran has had a great postseason thus far for manager Roberto Kelly’s troops as the former Braves starter threw six innings of two-hit baseball in blanking the potent Toros. Barreda went five frames and struck out eight while allowing five hits, but took the loss for Tijuana.

After a travel day, the series resumed at Estadio Monterrey as 17,241 were in the stands for a 2-1 knucklebiter win in 13 innings for the Sultanes last Thursday. The game was scoreless heading into the bottom of the seventh, when Elizalde scored from third after a Javy Guerra pitch eluded Tijuana catcher Xorge Carrillo. Guerra had relieved Toros starter Humberto Mejia after Elizalde opened the inning with a single, but promptly hit Zoilo Almonte with his first pitch, advancing Elizalde to second. Guerra gave himself a little breathing room by inducing Victor Mendoza to ground into a 3-6-1 double play as Elizalde moved to third on the play but Carrillo mishandled a pitch while he pitched to Calixte. Murillo tied the game in the top of the ninth by coming in from third on a bases-loaded forceout at second on a grounder from Nick Williams. The two teams battled for three more scoreless innings until Mendoza’s walkoff single off Kyle Lobstein in the bottom of the 13th brought in Gustavo Nunez with the game-winner, giving the Sultanes a 3-games-to-1 advantage.

The series (and Tijuana’s season) ended last Friday as Monterrey completed the sweep with a 12-11 home win with a sellout crowd of 21,000 fans in the stands. After allowing four runs over the first three games, the Sultanes pitching basically took the night off as a Junior Lake solo homer in the top of the ninth gave the Toros an 11-9 lead. Former MLB All-Star Fernando Rodney took the mound in the bottom of the inning and was one out away from the save after getting the first two Sultanes.

As anyone who’s followed Rodney’s career knows, however, two outs are never enough as the 45-year-old righty (second to Monterrey’s Neftali Feliz with 22 saves in the regular season) then gave up singles to Nunez and Jose Cardona and walked Elizalde to load the bases. Rodney then walked Almonte to score Nunez, making it an 11-10 Tijuana lead, then gave up a single to Mendoza to plate Cardona with the tying run and Elizalde with the game winner in what could well have been Fernando’s last pitch in Tijuana togs, given the capricious nature of Toros owner Alberto Uribe. Uribe may also be wondering why manager Homar Rojas left a struggling Rodney in to face Mendoza while leaving Struck, a successful long-time reliever in Mexico until last year who hadn’t pitched for four nights, in the bullpen. Managers have been fired for less in Tijuana.

With the win, the Sultanes will be well-rested when they seek the franchise’s eleventh pennant since 1943 and their second under Kelly, who took them to a title in 2018. The Serie del Rey is scheduled to open Friday night.

MEXICO CITY TO HOST TWO MLB GAMES IN 2023

The San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants will meet in a two-game series at Mexico City’s Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu in Mexico City on April 29 and 30 next year. Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association made the announcement last week. The games, which will serve as Padres home games, will represent the first-ever regular season series played in Mexico City. In 2016, the Padres hosted Houston in a two-game exhibition series at Fray Nano Stadium in Mexico City.  

The Mexican Series games next April mark the fourth time the Padres have traveled to Mexico for regular season games: They’ve also been a part of three MLB visits to Monterrey, including a three-games series against the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2018, the 1999 season-opener against the Colorado Rockies and a three-game series against the New York Mets in 1996.  These games will be the first games in Mexico for the San Francisco Giants in their long history. In 2004, they traveled to San Juan, Puerto Rico for a three-game regular season series against the Montreal Expos, who played part of their home schedule at Estadio Hiram Bithorn that season prior to moving to Washington a year later.

“The Padres are excited to return to Mexico and play in the first regular season series in Mexico City in MLB history,” said San Diego CEO Erik Greupner. “We are fortunate to have a loyal and passionate fan base in Mexico, and it will be an honor to showcase our team in Mexico’s capital city at the beautiful new ballpark built by and named after Padres minority owner Alfredo Harp Helú.”

“It will be an honor to represent Major League Baseball, as well as San Francisco, at historic Mexico City for the first time ever,” said Giants President and CEO Larry Baer. “We look forward to bringing the Giants and Padres rivalry to a passionate sports fan base and it will be a great opportunity to introduce the Giants to an international audience to further develop new fans across all of Mexico.”

LAGUNA P DE LA CRUZ DIES AT 37 OF HEART ATTACK

De la Cruz in his 2019 All-Star form

    A former Major League Baseball pitcher who represented the Union Laguna Algodoneros in the 2019 Mexican League All-Star game died Sunday, March 14 of an apparent heart attach at home in his native Santo Domingo, Domincan Republic. Eulogio “Frankie” de la Cruz had turned 37 years old two days earlier.

    De la Cruz was signed as an 18-year-old by Detroit in 2002 and assigned to the Tigers' Gulf Coast League affiliate in Lakeland, Florida that summer. He was a reliever his first three years in the Detroit system (saving 17 games for West Michigan of the Midwest League in 2004) before splitting time between the starting rotation and bullpen by the time he made his MLB debut for the Tigers in 2007, making six relief appearances. According to de la Cruz, that was when he got his nickname because Detroit manager Jim Leyland couldn't pronounce “Eulogio” and started calling him “Frankie” instead.

    De la Cruz was one of six players traded to the Marlins the following offseason for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis. He made his lone big league start for Florida against San Francisco at home on May 25, 2008, giving up two runs on two hits in three innings during a 5-4 Marlins win. He was sent down to AAA Albuquerque shortly after that and was named the Pacific Coast League's Pitcher of the Week as a starter in June.

    The 5'11” righty went on to appear with San Diego in 2009, pitched in Japan with the NPB Yakult Swallows in 2010 and was a reliever for Milwaukee in 2011. In 26 MLB games, de la Cruz had a 0-0 record and an 8.16 ERA over 32 innings.

    De la Cruz resumed his globetrotting ways by playing in Asia again in 2012 (going 3-1 for the Uni-President Lions of Taiwan's CPBL), made his LMB debut with Monterrey in 2014 and turned in a 4-3 record in 12 starts for the Sultanes and then went to Italy in 2016 to pitch for Nettuno (3-4, 2.65 ERA).

   De la Cruz then spent the next three summers in the Mexican League, posting an aggregate 20-18 record for Saltillo, Mexico City and Union Laguna while appearing in the 2017 and 2019 All-Star Games. In the latter year, he won the Algodoneros' pitching triple crown by leading the team with six wins, 92 strikeouts and a 4.91 ERA on a team that allowed 8.05 earned runs per game and finished 37-79.

    Although he usually spent his winters pitching in the Liga Dominicana, de la Cruz did pitch one Mexican Pacific League game for Jalisco in 2014-15 and started seven games for Mexicali (3-1, 4.65) in 2018-19. He spent the last two seasons with the LiDom's Este Toros, turning in an 0-1 record and 2.35 last winter in seven appearances (with one start). The Toros won the pennant in 2019-20 but de la Cruz did not pitch in the Caribbean Series in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

    The Algodoneros had hoped to bring de la Cruz back to Torreon this summer but there were reportedly “some immigration procedures” to hurdle before he could return to the Estadio Revolucion mound in 2021 after missing all of last year's canceled season. He would've been reunited with Union Laguna manager Omar Malave, who was de la Cruz' winterball skipper in Venezuela with Magallenes during the 2017-18 season.

THIRD LMB PRESEASON TOURNAMENT SET FOR YUCATAN

    A third Mexican League preseason tournament has been scheduled on the heels of similar four-team events in San Luis Potosi and Puebla. The Copa Maya is slated to be played between May 13 and 16 at Merida's Parque Kukulcan, home of the Yucatan Leones. The Leones will be joined by the Quintana Roo Tigres, Campeche Piratas and Tabasco Olmecas in the four-day tournament.

    The Copa Maya will be the culmination of a larger effort during which the four clubs will form what they're calling the Southeast League (or Liga Sureste). The LMB South rivals will play each other in an 11-game miniseason with single evening contests between April 29 and May 12 at each other's home ballparks.

    The Copa Maya will feature day/night doubleheaders between Thursday, May 13 and Saturday, May 15, with games scheduled for 12PM and 7PM. The event will wrap up with two games on Sunday, May 16: A 12PM contest for third place followed by a 7PM title for the championship. Seeding for the final day will be determined by team record compiled during all Liga Sureste and Copa Maya matches up until then.

    Games will include typical training camp rosters of established players, foreigners and prospects. Two of the four teams will be playing under new managers. Former pitching great Francisco “Pancho Ponches” Campos will be Campeche's dugout boss, replacing Jesus Sommers, while Tabasco has brought in veteran skipper Pedro Mere filling out the lineup cards to take Ramon Orantes' place. Adan Munoz will be back for his first full season running the Tigres (he took the place of the fired Jesus Sommers in early 2019, with Sommers sliding over to take the Campeche job later that season) and Geronimo Gil will likewise be opening his first preseason with Yucatan after replacing Luis Carlos Rivera in June 2019.

    Now that there are the San Luis Potosi Cup (Aguascalientes, Durango, Guadalajara, Leon and Monterrey), Battle of Legends (Mexico City, Oaxaca, Puebla and Veracruz) and the Copa Mayo (Campeche, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Yucatan) on the docket, that leaves the defending champion Monclova Acereros, Saltillo Saraperos and Tijuana Toros as the only Liga teams without a preseason tournament of their own. Give them time.

Mayan Cup Schedule (Kukulcán Park, Merida)

Parque Kukulcan, Merida

Thursday, May 13th
Yucatan Lions vs Campeche Pirates, 12 pm
Tabasco Olmecs vs Quintana Roo Tigres, 7pm

Friday, May 14
Campeche Piratas vs Quintana Roo Tigres, 12 pm
Tabasco Olmecas vs Yucatán Leones, 7pm

Saturday, May 15
Tabasco Olmecas vs Campeche Piratas, 12 pm
Quintana Roo Tigres vs Yucatán Leones, 7pm

Sunday, May 16
4th place vs 3rd place, 12 pm
2nd place vs 1st place, 7pm

LMP MVP SEBASTIAN ELIZALDE SIGNS WITH METS

2020-21 Mex Pac MVP Sebastian Elizalde

   Culiacan Tomateros rightfielder Sebastian Elizalde has signed a minor league contract with the New York Mets for the second year in a row. The 29-year-old Guaymas native, who was named Most Valuable Player for the Mexican Pacific League this winter, has been assigned to Class AA Binghamton and expects to report to the Mets' spring training complex in Port St. Lucie, Florida next month. He'd been slated to open the 2020 season with Binghamton before the pandemic led to all affiliated minor league baseball to cancel their seasons.

    That the Mets have assigned the veteran flychaser to their AA affiliate is somewhat curious because Elizalde had previously spent all or part of two seasons at AAA Louisville during his five-year stint in the Reds organization. After being an organizational All-Star in 2014 and playing in the 2015 Florida State League All-Star Game, Elizalde hit .297 with five homers for AA Pensacola in 2016 before putting up a .277 average and swatting eight longballs for Louisville in his AAA debut season of 2017. He then hit .254 with a pair of roundtrippers in 21 games in 2018 before the Bats loaned him to Monterrey for the rest of the year.

    Elizalde was no stranger to the Sultanes, for whom he made his professional debut in 2010 at age 18. He went 1-for-3 over 11 games with Monterrey while playing mostly as a defensive substitute in left field. After playing sparingly for the Sultanes the next two summers, Elizalde's contract was sold to Cincinnati early in the 2013 season and he was assigned to the Reds' Arizona Rookie League affiliate and placed on the 60-day disabled list twice, ending the campaign for him. He began his career north of the border with Class A Dayton in 2014 and worked his way up to Louisville over the next four years.

Elizalde as a Reds farmhand

   More polished when he returned to Monterrey, Elizalde hit. 297 and .333 with a combined 12 homers and 46 RBIs in 75 games over the two shortened 2018 seasons as the Sultanes defeated Oaxaca in the Serie del Rey to cop the Fall 2018 pennant under manager Roberto Kelly after falling to Yucatan in the Spring championship series. The six-foot, 190-pounder saw limited action with Monterrey in 2019, batting .319 with one homer and eight RBIs over 39 games. His LMB rights remain with the Sultanes.

    “El Predator” has experienced more stability playing winterball, where he has played ten seasons in the Mex Pac (five for Hermosillo, five for Culiacan). He's done well since becoming a regular for the Naranjeros in 2014-15 and gone on to bat .293 with 39 homers in 404 LMP regular season games. During his recently-concluded MVP season for the Tomateros, he batted .282 and was among the league leaders in doubles (13), homers (11), stolen bases (12) and RBIs (45). He's also represented Mexico in the last two Caribbean Series and gone 9-for-37 (.243) at the plate with a homer and five RBIs over 10 games.