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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Monday,
April 9, 2 0 1 8
March 26, 2018 - March 19, 2018 - March 12, 2018 - March 5, 2018 - February 26, 2018
February 19,
2018, Rookiegate!
- February 5,
2018
- January 29,
2018 - Culiacan
wins LMP pennant
Four teams
bunched one game apart
atop LMB South
While the
Monterrey Sultanes were able to maintain their
three-game lead in the Mexican League North Division over the past
week, only
one game separates the top four teams in the LMB South in what's been a
very
competitive start out the gate for what has been considered the weaker
of the
Liga's two eight-team divisions.
The Quintana Roo
Tigres continued to surprise many observers
by holding on to a tie for first with Yucatan in the South after a 12-6
win
Sunday in Durango to lift their Spring 2018 record to 11-4. Third baseman Brian Hernandez had five of the
Tigres' 20 hits on the night, doubling twice and scoring two runs while
driving
in two more. The Leones kept pace with
an 8-3 victory over Union Laguna in Torreon as former MLB All-Star
Freddy
Garcia tossed five innings of four-hit ball for the victors, allowing
one
unearned run for Garcia's first LMB win in three decisions.
Sitting one game
behind the leaders with identical 10-5
records are the Mexico City Diablos Rojos and Puebla Pericos. The Red Devils completed a three-game home
sweep of defending champion Tijuana with a 3-1 win over the defending
champs
Sunday. Ricardo Valenzuela's two-run
single with the bases loaded in the fourth inning broke a scoreless tie
and
starter Luis Niebla (4 IP, 0 R) combined with closer Jean Machi and two
other
relievers to make the lead stand. Puebla
stayed even with the Diablos by recording a 7-2 triumph in Monclova
over their
big-brother Acereros, thanks to Jesus Arredondo's three-run homer in
the third
and starter Rogelio Bernal's 6.2 innings of one-run pitching against
his former
teammates. Oaxaca, Leon, Tabasco and
Campeche are all under .500 and in danger of falling out of contention
early in
the shortened format, but the LMB South overall has fared better thus
far in
2018 than they collectively showed last summer.
Monterrey
struggled a bit on the road against South teams
last week, dropping two of three games against Tabasco in Villahermosa
before
rebounding to win twice in Campeche, maintaining their three-game LMB
North
leadership with an 11-4 record after winning eight of their first nine
games of
the year. The Sultanes missed their
chance for a three-game sweep of the Piratas Sunday by dropping a 6-4
contest
as Uriak Marquez had three hits with a run scored and another driven in
for the
hosts. Even so, Monterrey is up three
games on the only other North team with a winning record, the 8-7
Aguascalientes Rieleros, who rode a two-hit shutout from starter
Guillermo Trujillo
and four relievers. Olmecas opener
Alejandro Astorga (2 R, 4 H) pitched seven strong innings but lacked
support in
absorbing a tough loss.
Dos Laredos,
Tijuana and Durango are all tied for third in
the LMB North with 7-8 marks while Monclova sits a game behind in sixth
at 6-9,
but the season has gotten off to bad starts in Saltillo (5-10) and
Union Laguna
(3-12). Mexican baseball has never been
the most secure for managers and drumbeats in Torreon and Gomez
Palacios for
Algodoneros skipper Ramon Orantes' replacement only got louder after
Sunday's
home loss to Yucatan and Freddy Garcia.
None of the
upcoming midweek series would make the menu at a
five-star restaurant, but the most interesting set may be when Monclova
visits
Merida to take on Yucatan in a matchup between two the Liga's top teams. Next weekend's fare looks more palatable,
with longtime rivals Mexico City and Monterrey squaring off in the
northern
city for three games.
Ricky Alvarez
off to torrid start in
first year with Sultanes
It would be hard
to blame first baseman Ricky Alvarez if he
got off to a slow start with Monterrey this spring.
After all, the Sultanes are the Tijuana-born
slugger's third Mexican League team since he was traded by Laguna to
Yucatan
late last June in a seven-player swap even though he was leading the
LMB with
75 RBIs in 66 games and mentioned often in early MVP conversations. Alvarez cooled off over 43 games with the
Leones, playing home games in Merida's pitching-friendly Parque
Kukulkan, and
finished the 2017 campaign with a .311 average and 17 homers to go with
his 105
RBIs to nudge out Satillo's Rainel Rosario by one ribbie for the crown.
What ended up a
solid season by any standard wasn't enough to
keep Alvarez in Yucatan, however, as he was a centerpiece in a major
offseason
deal between the Leones and Sultanes that sent Alvarez and outfielder
Francisco
Lugo to Monterrey for shortstop Walter Ibarra and designated hitter
Luis
Juarez. Rather than struggle to fit in
with yet another new team or wonder what it takes to keep from having
to change
teams, the 5'11" 220-pounder is off to a torrid start for the
Sultanes. Alvarez hit three homers over
the weekend in Campeche to take LMB lead with six roundtrippers in his
first 15
games while his four RBIs at Estadio Nelson Barrera on Saturday and
Sunday gave
him 16 for Spring 2018 to put him in a five-way tie at the top in that
category. With a .410 average, the
former Tigers farmhand ranks sixth on the batting derby table. Now in his seventh Liga season after
debuting with Monterrey back in 2012, Alvarez has LMB career totals of
.293/82/365 over 552 games while going 50-of-69 on stolen base attempts. In short, it doesn't appear to really matter
whose uniform Ricky puts on because he's going to produce for that team.
Leading the LMB
bat race through last weekend is Tijuana
outfielder Maxwell Leon, a journeyman utility player who spent five
years in
the Detroit Tigers system before his 2011 LMB debut with Minatitlan,
where he
hit .341 with 14 homers and 43 RBIs in 57 games for the Petroleros. While the Mexico City native didn't
approached those numbers over his subsequent six seasons with four
teams, Leon
has proven to be a useful player who can plug a defensive hole while
offering a
.290 hitting average with some gap power.
Leon has taken the lead in the Mexican League batting race with
a .515
average, 33 points higher than Durango's Yadir Drake and 53 points up
on
Drake's Generales teammate, newcomer Dustin Geiger.
Drake and Geiger are tied with Alvarez,
Quintana Roo's Brian Hernandez and Monclova's Manny Rodriguez (who
else?) for
the RBI lead with 16 each while Tijuana's Justin Greene and Jeremias
Pineda of
Dos Laredos are knotted up at eight stolen bases in what is already
shaping up
to be a tight race for both 2018 seasons in Mexico.
Four Liga
pitchers are carrying identical 3-0 records, but
the hurler who's gotten the most out of the least amount of time on the
mound
is Yucatan middleman Jesus Barraza, who has yet to be scored upon over
eight
innings in seven appearances out of the Leones bullpen.
Monterrey's Marco Tovar has a 0.96 ERA in
three starts (tops among LMB starters) while Puebla's Mitch Lamson's
effectiveness has been an even 2.00 per nine innings.
Javier Solano of Monterrey, the fourth 3-0
hurler and a past Mexican Pacific League Pitcher of the Year, saw his
ERA rise
to 4.20 after being touched for four runs on ten hits in five innings
at
Tabasco last Wednesday. Josh Lowey's 24
strikeouts for Monclova is one better than the 23 of Tiago Da Silva,
who is in
Durango's starting rotation after being one of the LMB's top closers in
2017. Three men are tied with four saves
apiece: Yucatan's Ronald Belisario, Anthony Carter of Aguascalientes
and
Campeche's Pedro Rodriguez.
Villanueva swats
three homers in
single game for Padres
Third baseman
Christian Villaneuva's impressive major league
debut for San Diego after a September callup last year (.344 with four
homers
and 7 RBIs in 12 games) wasn't enough to keep the Padres from
reacquiring
former first-round draft pick Chase Headley to play some third base at
Petco
Park in 2018 along with incumbent starter Cory Spangenberg, another
onetime
first round pick who hit .264 with 13 homers and 11 steals in 2017. The crowded situation at the hot corner
carried over throughout spring training, when there was some
speculation that
Villanueva might be sent back down to AAA El Paso (for whom the
Guadalajara
product was .296/20/86 over 109 contests while splitting time between
third and
first base).
Villanueva, who
has appeared in two winterball seasons with
Obregon (winning BBM's Most Valuable Player award in 2015-16 for his
play with
the Yaquis), ended up sticking with the parent club and has been the
starter at
third for most games thus far. While
he's had his ups and downs, like most rookies, Villanueva solidified
his
standing by belting three homers in a home game against Colorado on
April 4 as
the Padres topped the Rockies, 8-4.
With his trio of longballs, Villanueva became the fourth
Mexican-born player
to whack three homers in a single MLB game, joining Erubiel Durazo
(2003,
2005), Vinny Castilla (1999, 2002) and Roberto Avila (1951). For the record, he went deep with two homers
off Colorado starter Kyle Freeland in the second and fourth innings
while
touching Antonio Sentazela with a three-run blast in the seventh. All three roundtrippers were to left field at
Petco Park, one of the hardest ballparks to homer at in MLB.
After the game,
San Diego manager Andy Green sagely allowed
as to how Villanueva's outburst would probably earn a little more
playing
time. Word does travel and pitchers are
now working the 26-year-old a lot more carefully than they might have
and the
subsequent five games have seen him go 3-for-18 at the plate with eight
strikeouts to drop his batting average from .429 to .240.
Still, no matter what Villanueva does the
rest of the season (or his career, for that matter), he'll have had a
night
that precious few of his countrymen have experienced at the highest
level of
the game.