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Monday,
November 7, 2022
YAQUIS' LOPEZ TOSSES NO-HITTER AGAINST
NAVOJOA
Obregon Yaquis
left-hander Arturo Lopez tossed the first no-hitter of the Mexican
Pacific
League season (and 44th in the loop's history) last Saturday night,
blanking
the visiting Navojoa Mayos, 6-0, in front of 5,421 spectators at
Estadio
Yaquis. The 39-year-old Lopez struck out eleven Mayos batters, walking
one and
hitting another in allowing two baserunners en route to the third
no-hitter in
Obregon history and first ever at Estadio Yaquis.
Lopez got all the
offensive support he'd need in the bottom of the first inning when
Victor
Mendoza's double to left off Navojoa starter Rogelio Martinez brought
Josuan
Hernandez all the way around from first base. Just in case, the Yaquis
plated
three more runs off Martinez in the third, two on a Yadir Drake double.
A
Mendoza seventh-inning single scored the final two runs of the night
for the
winners.
The 5'9” Lopez,
who posted a 19.49 ERA in 2009 for the San Diego Padres over four
relief
appearances, was hitting the corners all night and threw 70 strikes in
97
pitches as neither Mayo to reach base got into scoring position. A
Culiacan
native who has represented the Mexico City Diablos Rojos in five
Mexican League
All-Star Games, Lopez is in his 16th Mex Pac season and has
a 60-38
career LMP record and surpassed 600 strikeouts during his no-no.
Despite winning
two of three games in the weekend set against the Mayos, the Yaquis
remain in a
tie for last place with defending champion Jalisco and Monterrey at
9-14, one
game behind 10-13 Culiacan. Hermosillo remains in the first half lead
at 15-8
but the race has tightened at the top, with 14-9 Mazatlan one game back
in
second and 13-10 Los Mochis two games out in third. Guasave, Mexicali
and
Navojoa are knotted up in a tie for fourth at 12-11 each.
There HAS been a
change at the top in the Mex Pac batting race, as last week's leader
(Ramiro
Pena of Culiacan) has dropped to third with a .359 average. Los Mochis'
Yosmany
Tomas went 2-for-3 against Culiacan Sunday to raise his league-leading
mark to
.378, 14 points ahead of Monterrey's Alberto Carreon (.364). Anthony
Giansanti
of Mexicali leads the winter circuit with seven homers, two more than
Obregon's
Sebastian Valle and Giansanti's Aguilas teammate Niko Vasquez.
Christian
Villanueva of Jalisco had a good week, going 9-for-24 (.378) and moving
into
first on the RBI table with 20, two more than the 18 ribbies each from
Vasquez
and Monterrey's Fernando Perez. Jose Cardona held the stolen base lead
with 10
swipes for Hermosillo, ahead of the eight steals of Mazatlan's Randy
Romero.
The number of
pitchers with three wins has grown to six, with Raul Carrillo
(Navojoa), Matt
Pobereyko and Jeff Kinley (both Guasave) joining Juan Pablo Oramas
(Hermosillo), David Reyes (Mexicali) and Tyler Alexander (Jalisco) for
the LMP
leadership in that category. Luis Miranda of Los Mochis still leads the
ERA
race with an 0.00 mark after four starts and 22 innings pitched, ahead
of
Oramas (1.25) and Gusave's Nico Tellache (1.44). Jalisco veteran Javier
Solano,
now in his 15th MexPac season, tops the strikeouts list with 30 in 33.2
innings, one more than Lopez of Obregon's 29 and three up on
Pobereyko's 27.
Brandon Koch of Guasave has edged one save ahead of Mazatlan's Elkin
Alcala, 10
to 9 while Mexicali's Jake Sanchez (who set the LMP record with 26
salvados
last winter) is third with eight.
With two weeks
left in the first half schedule, teams are starting to jockey more for
playoff
points placement. The biggest upcoming midweek series is probably going
to be
in Mazatlan, where the Venados host Hermosillo in a battle of the
current top
two clubs. Next weekend, the most intriguing three-game set may be
between
perennial power Culiacan and 2021-22 pennant winner Jalisco at Estadio
Tomateros with both teams struggling to find their way out of the
second
division.
THREE LIGA TEAM SEEK, PICK NEW SKIPPERS FOR
2023
With the Mexican
League's 2023 season five months away from opening, three LMB teams
have been
working on filling managerial openings. One of them has been the
Monterrey
Sultanes, who are seeking to replace former Major League outfielder
Roberto
Kelly. The former Yankees outfielder led the Grey Ghosts to an LMB
North
playoff title and a berth in the 2022 Serie del Rey before
falling to
the Yucatan Leones after finishing fourth with in the regular season
with a
51-39 record.
Kelly, who'd
returned to the Sultanes this year after taking the 2021 season off,
has been
named to the Texas Rangers coaching staff under new manager Bruce
Bochy. Kelly
was a manager in the Giants system before joining Bochy's staff as
first base
coach when the latter managed San Francisco to three World Series
titles
between 2010 and 2014. The Panamanian first came to Monterrey in 2018
and led
the Sultanes to their tenth pennant in the shortened Fall 2018 season,
beating
Yucatan in the Serie del Rey and being named Manager of the
Year.
Another ex-MLBer, Geronimo Gil, will
manage the Oaxaca Guerreros next year. Gil made his Mexican League
debut in
1993 as a 17-year-old catcher and went on to spend all or part of six
seasons
with Baltimore and Colorado between 2001 and 2007, hitting 12 homers
and
driving in 45 runs as the Orioles' starting receiver in 2002. After
wrapping up
his 23-year professional career in 2016, he coached for Oaxaca for one
year,
managed Ensenada to the Liga Norte pennant in 2018 and then spent 2019
managing
Yucatan in 2019. The 47-year-old Oaxacan took the Leones to a 66-52
season
record and a playoff run that ended with a seven-game loss to Monclova
in that
year's Serie del Rey.
Gil has also spent time as an
instructor at the Alfredo Harp Helu Academy in Oaxaca and managed in
the LMB
Prospect League. He's currently at the helm of the combined Mexico
City-Oaxaca
team in the Mexican Winter League. Both the Diablos Rojos and Guerreros
francises are owned by Harp, one of Mexico's richest men. Gil
will replace another former catcher, Erick Rodriguez, at the helm of
the
Guerreros, who finished 34-53 in seventh place in the LMB South, six
games out
of the division's last playoff berth.
Finally, the Saltillo Saraperos have
let Adan Munoz go as pilot and hired Mark Weidemeier as their new
manager
following a 38-52 campaign this year. Munoz stepped in at the helm in
Saltillo
after Roberto Vizcarra resigned as manager to take over in Yucatan,
leading the
Leones to the LMB pennant. Weidemeier also managed in the Mexican
League in
2022, albeit in abbreviated fashion. A first-time skipper for Dos
Laredos, he
led the Tecolotes to seven wins in their first ten games before leaving
the
border team for what the club termed “personal reasons.”
Although he never played
professionally, Weidemeier is a baseball lifer who got his first paying
job out
of college in 1982 when the Kansas City Royals hired him as a minor
league
coach. Since then, he's worked for numerous MLB organizations including
the
Angels, Yankees, Indians, White Sox, Dodgers and Diamondbacks. He
coached under
Matt Williams with both the MLB Nationals and Korea's KIA Tigers.
Weidemeier
has spent much time in Mexico as well, including managerial stints in
Laguna
and Veracruz, where he first worked for Tecos owner Jose Antonio
Mansur, who
has owned (and moved) several LMB teams over the years. One of
Weidemeier's
Tecos players, first baseman Kennys Vargas, told the Laredo Morning
Times
during training camp that “Players
love him a lot
because he is a fun manager. He tries to transfer all the experience he
has
onto us.”
MEX PAC SERIES IN TUCSON CANCELED
Just weeks after
it was first announced to the public, a three-game series between the
Mexicali
Aguilas and Obregon Yaquis slated to be played next week in Tucson has
been
called off. It would have marked the first time that Mexican Pacific
League
regular season games would be played north of the border. Instead, the
Tucson
series was canceled due to what the LMP office called “contractual
reasons” and
moved back to Obregon, the original venue of the three-game series on
the
league schedule.
The contests were
scheduled for Friday, November 11 through Sunday, November 13 at Kino
Veterans
Memorial Stadium, former spring training home of the Arizona
Diamondbacks and
Chicago White Sox as well as a pair of since-moved Pacific Coast League
franchises. The 11,500-seat facility is now the flagship ballpark for
the
annual Mexican Baseball Fiesta involving MexPac teams in October and
also the
home facility for the Tucson Saguaros, winners of three pennants over
seven
seasons in the independent Pecos League, which boasts 16 teams in six
states
stretching from California to Kansas.
The following is a translated press
release
from the Mexican Pacific League and first posted on their website
Sunday, four
days before the first game in Tucson was to have been played:
Guadalajara, Jalisco; November 7,
2022 (LMP Media) - We regret to have to inform that, for contractual
reasons,
the decision has been made to definitively suspend the series between
Águilas
de Mexicali and Yaquis de Obregón, which would have taken place in the
city of
Tucson, Arizona on November 11, 12 and 13 of this year.
This commitment will be made on the
same dates, but at the Yaquis Stadium as originally scheduled, leaving
for next
season the possibility of playing in North American territory.
We apologize on behalf of the teams
for any inconvenience this may represent for our fans.
We are convinced that the
internationalization of the LMP is of paramount importance for our
future
growth. However, this first attempt could not be realized in a
favorable way
for the parties involved.
We will continue working so that
from next season this and other activities can be carried out.
We appreciate your understanding.
The Tucson Saguaros have released their 2023 Pecos League schedule, starting with a May 31 game in Austin and a June 8 home opener against Roswell at Kino Stadium.
