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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
September 11, 2 0 1 7
PLAYOFF COVERAGE, Serie del Rey championship finals.- September 10, 2017 - September 9, 2017 - September 6, 2017
Tijuana
bows out Puebla, 15-3, to clinch first LMB title
Cyle Hankerd
belted a pair of homers, driving in four runs,
and starting pitcher Miguel Pena allowed one run in 5.2 innings as the
Tijuana
Toros defeated the Puebla Pericos, 15-3, Sunday afternoon in Puebla to
clinch
the 2017 Mexican League championship. In
winning Game Five of the Serie del Rey,
the Toros bring Tijuana the city's first Liga pennant.
It was the second flag for TJ manager Pedro
Mere, who led the Veracruz Rojos del Aguila to the 2012 LMB title. The
Pericos
were attempting to stay alive in their quest for a second consecutive
LMB title
despite having had their roster decimated by player transfers to
Monclova
during the offseason.
Tijuana 15-19-0,
PUEBLA 3-9-0 (Tijuana wins Serie del Rey,
4 games to 1)
W-M. Pena (1-0). L-Roenicke
(0-2). A-6,954. T-3:13.
The Pericos
actually led this one early. Julio Borbon
led off the bottom off by
getting hit by a Pena pitch, then moved to second when Pena walked Endy
Chavez. Issmael Salas then grounded into
a 5-4-3 double play but Borbon was able to advance to third on the
play, then
scored when Jesus Arredondo poked a grounder past second into center
field.
Puebla held on
to their slim 1-0 lead until the top of the
third, when Tijuana scored six runs.
Isaac Rodriguez started things off with a one-out single to
right, went
from first to third on Jose Guadalupe Chavez' single to left and scored
the
tying run on a Roberto Lopez sacrifice fly to right.
Pericos starter Josh Roenicke then lost his
control while trying to record the third out of the inning, walking
Corey
Brown, Hankerd (2006 MVP of the Class A Northwest League) and Jorge
Cantu in
succession, the latter forcing Chavez across the plate with the
go-ahead
tally. Dustin Martin then cleared the
bases by launching a grand slam over the centerfield wall to make it a
6-2
contest.
The Toros posted
four more counters on the scoreboard in the
fourth to knock Roenicke out of the game and effectively put the
contest (and
pennant) out of Puebla's reach. With one
out and runners on second and third, Lopez lifted another sacrifice fly
to
right, this time scoring Alex Liddi from third.
A Brown single plated Rodriguez from third to make it an 8-2
score,
sending Roenicke to the showers and bringing in Angel Rodriguez from
the
bullpen. The first batter Rodriguez
faced, Hankerd, belted his second homer of the Serie del Rey, a two-run
shot to
right that brought the score to 10-2.
One inning later, Liddi took Henry Garcia deep to left, giving
the Toros
a nine-run bulge.
Puebla got one
run back in the bottom of the seventh when
Alberto Carreon greeter TJ middleman Mark Serrano with a leadoff homer
over the
leftfield wall, but the Toros scored twice in the top of the eighth
when
Hankerd hit his second homer of the afternoon, a two-run shot to center
off
Julio Felix that brought in Brown, who'd just doubled off Felix. The Pericos scored once more in the bottom of
the eighth when Cesar Tapia singled in Arredondo, narrowing the gap to
13-3,
but Brown put an exclamation point on the Toros' playoff run by
slamming a two-run
dinger off yet another Pericos reliever, Fabian Williamson, to bring
the count
to 15-3. Jason Urquidez then came in and ended the game and Mexican
league
season with a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth, with Salas flying out to Lopez
to
bring the 2017 schedule to a close.
While Pena's 5.2
innings were decent enough on their own
merit (giving up one run on five hits, striking out four and walking
three to
earn the win), he had plenty of support as the Toros went on to batter
six
Puebla hurlers for 19 hits, including five homers.
Hankerd finished the day with two homers and
four RBIs while Brown was 3-for-5 with a homer, three runs and three
ribbies. Tapia led Puebla with three
hits while Arredondo and Ricky Rodriguez each had two safeties. Roenicke absorbed his second loss in the Serie del Rey after being knocked around
for nine runs on eight hits and three walks.
After drawing
crowds of 10,000 for every home game in both
the LMB South championships and the Serie del Rey, attendance at
Estadio
Hermanos Serdan dipped to 6,954 on Sunday.
Pericos owner Gerardo Benavides has threatened to move the team,
perhaps
to Nuevo Laredo or Juarez along the Texas border, one year after Puebla
won the
Liga pennant over Tijuana in six games.
Benavides then bought his hometown Monclova Acereros last winter
and
shifted more than twenty members of Puebla's champions to his new club. The Steelers were a playoff team before the
massive influx of Pericos stalwarts and a preseason pick among many to
win the
flag this year, but fell to Monterrey in the first round of the
playoffs.
The Toros win
caps quite a year for what has become perhaps
the leading organization in the Mexican League. Tijuana home games were
perhaps
the loop's most-entertaining openings (finishing second to Monterrey in
regular
season attendance with an average of 10,872), the team sold a number of
prospects they'd developed to MLB organizations during the summer and
now the
"Gateway to Mexico" has its first Mexican League championship team
and first pennant winner since the 1952 Potros, led by Triple Crown
winner Pete
Hughes (.366/28/131), won the Class C Southwest International League
crown.
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