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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Monday,
September 13, 2021
TOROS
AVOID SWEEP, SERIE DEL REY HEADS BACK TO TIJUANA
After losing the first three games
of the 2021 Serie del Rey, things were looking grim late last week for
the
Tijuana Toros, who had to beat the Yucatan Leones twice in Merida to
stay alive
and send the series back home to Estadio Nacional, let alone avoid an
embarrassing sweep.
As things turned out, that's exactly
what happened and now both teams will be flying to Baja California
Norte for
Game Six of the Mexican League's championship series on Tuesday night.
The
following is a wrap of each of the first five games of the series:
GAME
1
(Monday, September 6): Yucatan 7, TIJUANA 3
The Leones drew first blood by
scoring four runs in the top of the seventh inning to blow open a 3-2
game en
route to a four-run win over the Toros in front of 14,297 fans at
Tijuana's
Estadio Nacional. Sebastian Valle's three-run homer off TJ reliever
Brennan
Bernardino with two out was the key blow. At that point, Jesus Pirela
relieved
Bernardino and recorded the third out but the damage was done and the
Liones
never looked back.
Valle combined with Walter Ibarra
and Humberto Sosa for six hits and six RBIs to lead Yucatan while
starter
Rhadames Liz allowed two runs on five hits over five innings for the
win.
Although Bernardino suffered a nightmarish seventh, the loss went to
Toros
starter Michael Devine, who was charged for three runs on four hits and
four
walks after exiting with two out in the fifth.
GAME
2
(Tuesday, September 7): Yucatan 7, TIJUANA 1
The Leones made it 2-for-TJ with
another big inning to break a close game open. The Toros took a 1-0
lead in the
bottom of the first when Junior Lake scored on Gabriel Gutierrez'
groundout to
second. Tijuana starter Carlos Hernandez tossed four shutout innings
before
Humberto Sosa, Sebastian Valle and Jose Juan Aguilar led off the fifth
with
consecutive singles to load the bases. Hernandez walked Jorge Flores on
a
3-and-2 count to push Sosa across with the tying run. With two outs,
Yadir
Drake stepped up and crushed a grand slam to straightaway center,
giving the
visitors a 5-1 advantage they'd never relinquish.
After giving up that one
first-inning run, Yucatan starter Yoanner Negrin didn't allow another
score
through seven frames to earn the win. Sosa, Aguilar and Alex Liddi each
had two
of the Leones' ten hits, but it was Drake's homer that made all the
difference
in sending 14,989 onlookers at Estadio Nacional home disappointed.
GAME
3
(Thursday, September 9): YUCATAN 2, Tijuana 0
After going 1-for-7 over the first
two games, Luis Juarez broke his relative silence with a two-run homer
(his
tenth of the postseason) in the first inning and that was all Yucatan
starter
Jake Thompson and four relievers would need in posting a combined 2-0
shutout
as 6,420 aficionados watched in Merida's “sold out” Parque Kukulkan,
which was
limited to 40 percent capacity due to the pandemic. Yadir Drake had
drawn a
two-out walk before Juarez stepped up and slammed Joe Van Meter's first
pitch over
the left field wall.
Thompson, who had to wait through a
pregame rain delay lasting over two hours, scattered five hits over
five
innings for the win and Josh Lueke earned the save for Yucatan with a
1-2-3
ninth. Van Meter settled down to pitch scoreless ball until two outs in
the
fifth inning, but that one pitch to Juarez proved to be his undoing.
Tijuana's
Gabriel Gutierrez was the lone batter with more than one hit,
collecting two
singles off Thompson.
GAME
4
(Saturday, September 11): Tijuana 6, YUCATAN 2
After Thursday's rain delay held up
Game 3, Friday's Game 4 was postponed until Saturday by more rain.
Yadier Drake
singled in one run and scored another on Alex Liddi's sacrifice fly to
give
Yucatan a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first. The Toros stretched
their
scoreless streak to 19 innings before Isaac Rodriguez tallied on Junior
Lake's
sacrifice fly in the top of the third. Tijuana would then score at
least one
more run in the third, fourth and fifth innings as Efren Navarro belted
a two-run
homer in the fourth and Gabriel Gutierrez singled in two more in the
fifth,
putting the game out of reach.
Teddy Stankiewicz replaced Michael
Devine in the third with the Toros trailing 2-1, then pitched 3.1
innings of
one-hit ball and was the beneficiary of TJ's mid-game offensive
awakening,
earning the win. Leones starter Casey Harman dished up Navarro's homer
and was
tagged for the loss as the visitors outhit Yucatan by a 14-to-5 margin
as
another “sellout” crowd of 6,420 watched the contest.
GAME
5
(Sunday, September 12): Tijuana 4, YUCATAN 3
Junior Lake singled and Leandro
Castro lofted a homer off Yucatan starter Rhadames Liz over the left
field wall
to give Tijuana a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. The Toros scored
again in
the top of the second when Luis Alfonso Cruz launched Liz' first pitch
of the
frame for a homer to left. A Cruz throwing error from third base in the
bottom
of the second allowed Jose Juan Aguilar to score from first with the
Leones'
first run. The teams traded zeros into the bottom of the fifth, when
Yadir
Drake sliced a two-out, opposite-field double and later motored home
from
second on an Alex Liddi single up the middle to narrow the Bulls' lead
to 3-2.
That's where the score stayed until
the bottom of the ninth, when Fernando Rodney gave up a double to Alex
Liddi
that scored Yadir Drake from second and ultimately sent the game into
extra
innings. The game remained tied until Xavier Carrillo's bloop single in
the top
of the eleventh plated Gabriel Gutierrez, giving the Toros a 4-3 lead.
The
Leones had runners at first and second with one out in the bottom of
the
eleventh, but Junior Lake made a diving catch of Luis Juarez' sinking
liner to
center for one out, then threw to second to double up Walter Ibarra for
the last
out of the game, which drew another 6,420 onlookers.
Rodney tossed the final three
innings on 47 pitches to earn the win while Yucatan reliever Manuel
Chavez, who
gave up Carrillo's RBI single was tagged with the loss.
MANNY
BARREDA CALLED UP BY ORIOLES FOR MLB DEBUT
There's an old adage that life is
about the journey than the destination, but pitcher Manny Barreda may
be
forgiven if he thinks, “Forget that noise...give me the destination!”
After 15 years of pitching for four
Major League Baseball organizations, the 5'11” righthander finally made
his big
league debut last Wednesday (one month shy of his 33rd birthday) when
Barreda
entered a game for Baltimore in the eighth inning trailing Kansas City,
5-0, at
Camden Yards. Barreda not only retired the Royals in order (striking
out the
Royals' Michael Taylor looking to end the top of the eighth), he was
awarded
the win after the Orioles scored NINE runs in the bottom of the eighth
and held
on to beat Kansas City, 9-8, as a gathering of 4,965 watched the
hapless O's
bring their record up to an MLB-worst 45-93.
Not that Barreda minded the sparse
attendance nor the lost season his new team was in when he first joined
them
after his September 7 call-up. For the native of Sahuarita, Arizona, it
was the
culmination of a long apprenticeship that began in 2007 when he was
taken by
the Yankees in the 12th round of that year's draft.
After going 5-0 with a 3.00 ERA in
eleven outings (including three starts) for the Yanks' Gulf Coast
League team,
Barreda spent eight summers in their system before being released in
2014,
after which he signed with Milwaukee. He spent two years in the
Brewers' minors
before signing with Tijuana of the Mexican League in late 2015 as a
middle
reliever, a role he'd held his entire career except for six starts with
Class A
Charleston in 2011. Barreda continued as a middleman for the Toros in
2016,
going 2-1 with a .350 ERA in 25 outings that summer.
Then a funny thing happened in Los
Mochis, where he spent the 2016-17 Mexican Pacific League winterball
season:
The Caneros made Barreda a starter and he was 4-3, leading the LMP with
a 2.20
ERA and finishing third with 66 strikeouts. He threw a no-hitter
against
Hermosillo that season, requiring 138 pitches to subdue the Naranjeros,
2-0.
Weeks later, Barreda signed a free agent contract with Atlanta.
The Braves then shipped him back to
Tijuana for the 2017 season, and he rewarded the Toros with his second
no-hitter in eight months, beating Tabasco, 4-0, that July on 145
pitches. He
was eventually brought up to Atlanta's AAA Gwinnett affiliate and
rewarded them
by turning in a 3-1 record and 1.83 ERA in seven starts, earning the
International League's Pitcher of the Week award on September 4. Even
with
those credentials, Barreda not only didn't get called up to the big
leagues, he
was sent back to Tijuana for 2018 and 2019.
After missing the 2020 season due to
the pandemic, Barreda had a strong LMP season for pennant-winning
Culiacan and
earned the Tomateros' lone win at the Caribbean Series in Mazatlan,
after which
he was signed by Baltimore. The Sahaurita, Arizona native pitched one
inning in
relief at AA Bowie and was promoted to AAA Norfolk in June, where he
was 1-2
with two saves and a 4.19 ERA before last week's call to Baltimore.
Although he's been rocked a bit in
subsequent relief appearances for the Orioles against Kansas City and
Toronto
(his ERA as of Saturday night was 13.50 and he'd given up homers to the
Royals'
Hunter Dozier and Teoscar Hernandez of the Blue Jays), Manny Barreda
has to be
ecstatic to finally be getting his first chance to pitch at the major
league
level after years of waiting. It's been a long, long journey he hopes
is
finally over.
FIFTY
YEARS SINCE LONE TEAM WON LMB FINALS AFTER 0-3 START
The Tijuana Toros got off to a rocky
start in the this season's Serie del Rey, losing the first three games
to
Yucatan in an attempt to win the border city's second Mexican League
pennant.
They aren't the only team to face similar long odds for a comeback, of
course,
but just one team overcame an 0-3 deficit to capture the flag fifty
years ago
this week.
Carlos Meza of Septima Entrada took a look back in time
last week to
recall when that team roared back with four straight wins to stun the
Saltillo
Saraperos for the championship. Here's an edited Google translation of
his
column:
Fifty years ago, an unprecedented
event occurred in the Mexican Baseball League: For the first and only
time in a
championship series, a team recovered from a 0-3 deficit to win the
title. The
protagonist of that story? The Jalisco Charros.
And there can't be a great story
without drama. In that season, the Charros made the playoffs on the
last day of
the regular season as the Mexico City Diablos Rojos fell in Veracruz,
so
Jalisco remained with the leadership of the LMB South and would face
the
leaders of the North, the Saltillo Saraperos.
But a few days before the Final
Series, Charros owner Álvaro Lebrija ran out of patience with pitchers
Cecilio
Acosta, Enrique Romo and Martín Raygoza and suspended them. "Discipline
is
more important than the title," they say the owner declared after the
decision.
But Saltillo manager Tomás Herrera's
team delivered three almost-fulminating hits: On August 10 and 11,
1971, the
Saraperos won games at the Estadio Tecnologico in Guadalajara and on
the 13th,
they also took a victory in Saltillo.
Everything was ready for a great
party in Coahuila in the fourth game of the series. However, rain
canceled the
game and the Saltillo board decided to carry out a doubleheader the
next day so
that local fans could see their club be crowned in Sunday.
But everything changed. The Charros
showed pride and beat Saraperos, 6-3 and 4-2, at Estadio Francisco I.
Madero,
narrowing the margin to 3-games-to-2 and forcing the Final Series to
return to
Guadalajara.
“The God Tlaloc helped them with the
rest day and the series returned to Guadalajara,” recalls current
Charros
Mexican Pacific League co-owner Armando Navarro, who as a fan
experienced those
finals in a packed Estadio Tecnologico. “They couldn't stop them
anymore.”
In the sixth game, reliever Manuel
Lugo had to start the game and although the plan was for him to pitch
four
innings, he ended up pitching all nine. The Saraperos led, 2-0, on the
scoreboard but the Charros rallied with run-scoring singles by Bill
Parlier and
Clemente Rosas to win the game, 3-2, and equalize the grand finale.
Then on Wednesday, August 18, the
decisive game was played. Pablo Torrealba opened for Jalisco and Andrés
Ayón
for Saltillo, and the latter had a bad night.
Jalisco scored in the first inning
and Torrealba hung up six zeros. At the end of the sixth, Parlier hit a
home
run to make it 3-0 and sent Tech Stadium boiling. Singles by Francisco
Campos
and Francisco Menchaca would add two more scores for the five runs the
Charros
would score that day. The visitors responded with a home run by Jungla
Salinas
in the ninth inning, but everything was already written with a 5-1 on
the
board.
