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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Monday,
August 8, 2022
TJ, DIABLOS TOP
SEEDS AS LMB REGULAR
SEASON ENDS
The Mexican League’s 2022 regular
season came to a close Sunday as defending champion Tijuana finished
one game
ahead of Dos Laredos (59-27) to finish in first place in the Northern
Division
with an Liga-best 62-28 record. The Mexico City Diablos Rojos similarly
outlasted Tabasco in the LMB South at 50-34, three games up on the
47-37
Olmecas.
Those four teams will be joined by
eight more in the postseason, beginning with three games Tuesday night
involving the six qualifying LMB North teams. The six LMB South playoff
teams
will open their respective first round series Wednesday night.
Monterrey
(51-39) will be in Monclova (54-31) for an 8:35ET contest Tuesday, Dos
Laredos
hosts Union Laguna (48-40) at the same time and Tijuana welcomes
Aguascalientes
(42-46) at 10:35ET.
On Wednesday, the LMB South first
round begins as Mexico City will host ancient rival Veracruz (41-48),
the
Quintana Roo Tigres (44-48) play Tabasco in Macuspana and Yucatan
(46-43) will
be at Puebla (48-39). The LMB will use the “lucky loser” system
employed for
decades during the Mexican Pacific League’s winterball season, in which
all
three series winners advance to their division semifinals along with
the team
that fared the best in losing their opening round matchup.
The Toros closed
out their 90-game schedule Sunday with a
13-4 drubbing of Laguna on the road at Torreon’s historic Estadio
Revolucion.
Felix Perez cracked a pair of homers while starter Arturo Reyes tossed
five
innings and allowed just one run on an Alan Cordoba RBI single in the
bottom of
the first that gave the Algodoneros a 1-0 lead.
The Toros roared
back with six runs in the second, keyed by a
2-run Junior Lake double off Laguna reliever Josh Lueke, who allowed
all six
counters on five hits, one walk and an error by Cordoba at third base.
The
Bulls lead stretched to 9-1 in the top of the seventh as the defending
champs
never looked back. The Tijuana win rendered Dos Laredos’ 4-1 win over
Aguascalientes in Nuevo Laredo moot. The Tecolotes got homers from
Kennys Vargas
and Arturo Rodriguez in support of a great start from Gabino Avalos (5
IP, 1 H,
0 R) in 100-degree heat at Parque La Junta.
Meanwhile,
Mexico City doubled up, 14-7, on little sister
Oaxaca Sunday in front of 11,509 fans at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu in
the
nation’s capital. The Guerreros jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the top of
the
first but the Diablos came back with big innings of five runs in the
third,
four in the fourth and five more in the seventh to wear down the Oaxaca
pitchers. Leadoff hitter Julian Ornelas had a banner day for the Red
Devils,
going 4-for-6 with four RBIs, including a pair of two-run homers.
Moises
Gutierrez, Alejandro Gonzalez and Emmanuel Avila combined for nine of
Mexico
City’s 18 hits, scoring eight runs and driving in two more. Bryan
Araiza
crushed a three-run homer for the Guerreros in the fourth while former
Diablos
center fielder Carlos Figueroa was 3-for-5 with two doubles and a pair
of runs
for Oaxaca.
Tabasco topped
Puebla, 9-6, Sunday to edge out the Pericos by
one-and-a half games for second place in the LMB South. Puebla had
built a 5-1
lead, thanks in part to Peter O’Brien’s two-run homer in the top of the
second,
but the Olmecas took the lead with six runs in the sixth frame as both
Edwin
Garcia and Herlis Rodriguez stroked two-run doubles to stake reliever
Francisco
Moreno a 7-6 lead. Maikel Serrano’s two-run homer to left made it a
three-run
Tabasco advantage and the Olmecas held on for the win as 4,750 looked
on at
Estadio Angel Toledo Meza in Macuspana, their temporary home while
Villahermosa’s Parque Centenario 27 de Febrero undergoes a major
facelift 34
miles away.
ROSARIO WINS HR,
RBI TITLES; MENDEZ
(7-0) COPS ERA CROWN
Although Saltillo slugger Rainel
Rosario fell short in his bid for the Mexican League Triple Crown after
contending in all three categories, the 33-year-old Dominican
outfielder still
tied for the home run crown, won the RBI title and finished tenth in
the
batting race. He was one of the few bright spots in a disappointing
season for
the Saraperos, who finished five games behind Aguascalientes for the
sixth and
final LMB North playoff slot.
Rosario, a former Cardinals farmhand
who spent 2014 and 2105 in Japan with the Hiroshima Carp, tied
Tijuana’s Felix
Perez for the lead in homers with 38 each (a good total for a 90-day
schedule).
Rosario and Perez were 1-2 in the RBI race, ending the campaign with
116 and
109 ribbies, respectively.
Rosario also
finished seventh in the batting race as his
Saltillo teammate, Cuban-born first baseman Henry Urrutia, won the
batting
title with a .420 average, ahead of Durango’s Alberth Martinez (.416)
and
Tabasco’s Roel Santo (.411). A second Durango player, Alfredo Lopez,
rounded
out the quartet of .400 hitters with a .404 average of his own.
Urrutia, who
hit .350 over five years for La Tunas in the Cuban National Series
before
defecting in 2010, has never hit below .361 in four years playing in
the
Mexican League.
Dos Laredos
center fielder Cade Gotta led the circuit with 34
stolen bases in 40 attempts to augment a .314 batting average. Longtime
Yokohama outfielder Tomo Otosaka made a successful conversion to Mexico
after
eight years in NPB by batting .367 and finishing second to Gotta with
26 steals
while splitting the season with Leon and Saltillo. The Saraperos hit
.316 as a
team with 154 homers, but their collective 7.67 ERA doomed them to
their
seventh-place finish at 38-52.
Saltillo was
hardly the only LMB team with pitching woes.
Batting averages were a combined .304 league-wide as 10 of 18 teams
finished at
.300 or better (with Durango topping the list at .341). Conversely,
Mexican
League pitchers allowed 6.11 earned runs per game, with Leon bringing
up the rear
at 8.62. Even so, there were some solid individual performers among all
the
mound carnage in 2022. Monterrey starter Yohander Mendez, a Texas
Rangers
hurler between 2016-19, was awarded the ERA title after turning in a
sparkling
2.78 mark over 15 starts and 74.1 innings en route to a 7-0 record for
the
Sultanes.
Longtime Tijuana
starter Carlos Hernandez, working out of the
bullpen this summer, was one of eight pitchers with eight wins at 8-0,
but the
wins title was shared at nine apiece by Veracruz reliever Luis Marquez
(9-1)
and Monclova starter Wilmer Rios (9-4), the latter tossing a pair of
shutouts
and three complete games (both best in the Liga). Marquez had an
excellent year
with a 2.38 ERA and 71 strikeouts in 53 innings for the Aguilas. Just
three
starters finished with 100 or more strikeouts in the shortened
schedule:
Quintana Roo’s Pedro Fernandez (103), Tijuana veteran Manny Barreda
(102) and
another vet, Erick Leal of Aguascalients (100).
The saves crown
went to Monterrey closer Neftali Perez, who
was the 2010 American League Rookie of the Year for the Texas Rangers
and
selected to that year’s MLB All-Star Game. Perez, in his first Mexican
League
season after spending all or part of 10 campaigns in the big leagues,
finished
with 24 saves to beat another former MLBer, Tijuana’s Fernando Rodney,
by two salvados.
TOROS WIN
ATTENDANCE DERBY; LMB DRAWS
3.56 MILLION
It’s become commonplace for the
Tijuana Toros to finish at or near the top of the Mexican League
attendance
tables and 2022 was no exception. While the Uribe family has sometimes
made
what could charitably called capricious decisions in running their
franchise in
the border city, there’s no question that they’ve made the right moves
in
bringing fans into Estadio Nacional consistently over the years.
The recently-concluded regular
season showed the defending champions with both the best record in the
LMB at
62-28 and the most backsides in the stands at 453,961 clicking the
turnstiles
at their 17,000-seat ballpark, an average of 10,088 that was the
highest in all
of minor league baseball this year. The Yucatan Leones, always a strong
draw in
Merida over the decades, finished second with 440,165 attending games
in their
fortieth season at Parque Kukulkan.
Overall, a total of 3,564,524 people
went to 792 Mexican League games during the regular season, an average
of 4,501
per opening. The numbers represent an increase in average attendance
from 2021.
Crowds went up 2,015 per opening over last year, a gain of 81 percent
over the
previous average of 2,486. Overall attendance naturally took an upward
spike
after the schedule was increased from 66 to 90 games per team. Still,
it’s hard
not to be impressed with the LMB more than doubling their total
attendance of
1,446,929 in 2021, the circuit’s first year back as a fully-independent
loop
after more than seven decades as a member of Minor League Baseball.
The hike in league-wide numbers does
not hide the fact that several, if not most, of the 18 Mexican League
franchises are struggling financially, some mightily. Although five
teams
averaged over 5,000 per game in attendance (with Monterrey, Saltillo
and Mexico
City joining Tijuana and Yucatan at the top of the derby), another five
clubs
drew fewer than 100,000 over an average of 44 home games. Tabasco
(81,656),
Guadalajara (78,910), Aguascalientes (74,606), Oaxaca (71,916) and
Durango
(70,771) drew fewer attendees combined than Tijuana, Yucatan and
Monterrey each
did alone while averaging just over 1,700 per opening.
