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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Monday,
May 8, 2 0 1 8
April 30, 2018 - New Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame Nearing Completion
Baseball Mexico Foreign Expansion but All-star game dropped
April 23, 2018April 9, 2018 - March 26, 2018 - March 19, 2018 - March 12, 2018 - March 5, 2018 - February 26, 2018
February 19,
2018, Rookiegate!
Leon
win streak snapped at 11; Bravos fourth in LMB South
Danny Vasquez'
two-run single
in the top of the second inning gave Campeche a 4-3 lead in Leon and
the
Piratas pulled away to an 8-3 Mexican League win over the Bravos Sunday
afternoon at Parque Domingo Santana. The
defeat ended an eleven-game win streak for the surprising Bravos, who
have
moved into the fourth and final playoff slot in the LMB South with a
22-17
record, three games behind third-place Mexico City but four games up on
defending division champion Puebla with three weeks remaining in the
Liga's
Spring 2018 season.
Leon had
posted their
eleventh straight victory Saturday night with a 5-3 triumph over the
visiting
Piratas when consecutive RBI singles by Junior Lake and Quincy Latimore
in the
bottom of the seventh broke a 3-all tie and gave Eder Llamas the win
out of the
bullpen. Llamas was one of seven
relievers to follow starter Dustin Crenshaw, who tossed 5.1 innings for
the
Bravos and gave up two runs (one earned) on six hits and no walks,
striking out
two Campeche batsmen. Leon was 11-16 when
they began their skein on Tuesday, April 24 with a 5-1 win at Tabasco
despite
batting only 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position.
Manager Luis
Carlos Rivera's
team is second in the league with a .322 batting average (trailing only
Durango's .329) while the Bravos' 48 homers tops the loop.
Leon has three batters in the top ten:
outfielder Felix Pie (sixth at .392), shortstop Amadeo Zazueta (eighth
at .381)
and second baseman Niko Vasquez (ninth at .376) while Pie is tied for
third in
homers with nine. The Bravos' pitching
has been middle-of-the-road with a 5.08 ERA, ninth in the 16-team
league,
although Crenshaw has done well so far with a 3-1 record and a 3.30 ERA
over
eight starts, winning the first game of the streak in Villahermosa and
picking
up another W five nights later in Campeche.
Leon barely snuck into the playoffs last year in their debut
season, but
with Puebla fading badly (losing nine of their last ten) and only 21
games left
in the abbreviated regular season, the Bravos are sitting pretty.
While Leon has
zoomed past
Puebla for fourth in the LMB South, there remains a spirited three-team
battle
for the division lead, with Yucatan (27-12) holding a one-game lead
over
another surprising team, Quintana Roo (25-12) while Mexico City (25-14)
is two
games out of first. The Tigres, who were
not expected to contend this year under new manager Tim Johnson, have
won eight
of their last ten to vault past the Diablos Rojos into second heading
into a
crucial three-game set against Leon opening Tuesday in Cancun. In the LMB North, Monterrey (26-13) won two
of three games in Dos Laredos over the weekend to maintain a 3-5-game
lead over
defending Liga champs Tijuana (22-16).
The Sultanes topped the Tecolotes, 8-4, Sunday at Uni-Trade
Stadium in Laredo
as DH Yadir Drake came one homer shy of hitting for the cycle, scoring
twice
and driving in two more runs.
Aguascalientes (22-17) and Monclova (20-18) hold the final two
Zona
Norte playoff berths with none of the division's other four teams
within five
games of the .500 mark.
First-year
Durango first
baseman Dustin Geiger, a former Cubs and Marlins farmhand, leads the
Mexican
League with a .408 batting average, six points ahead of Puebla first
sacker
Daric Barton. Monterrey's Ricky Alvarez
is tops with 13 homers and tied with Tijuana's Cyle Hankerd for the RBI
lead at
41 while Hankerd's Toros teammate Justin Greene's 18 stolen bases leads
the
league despite Greene only playing twice since April 24.
Pitcher Carlos Hernandez (also of Tijuana)
pitched six innings in the Toros' 7-1 home win over Saltillo Saturday
to post
his sixth victory of the Spring, best in the LMB. Yucatan's
Jose Samayoa's 2.17 ERA leads all
starters, Josh Lowey of Monclova looks like a lock for another
strikeout title
with 58 (17 more than his nearest rival) and former MLBer Josh Lueke of
the
Acereros has ten saves to top Liga closers in that category.
Coming up this
week is a huge
series in Tijuana, where the Toros host LMB North-leading Monterrey in
a
three-game set starting Tuesday. Next
weekend's top series will be in Cancun when the Tigres host Mexico City
in a
renewal of Mexican baseball's oldest rivalry, which has been spiced up
by the
Rookiegate scandal and Tigres owner Fernando Valenzuela's open
frustration over
the Liga office's "What Me Worry?" response.
First
MLB no-hitter in Mexico tossed during series in
Monterrey
As if there
wasn't enough
history being made last weekend in Monterrey, where Major League
Baseball
played its first regular season games since 1999, Los Angeles Dodgers
pitcher
Walker Buehler combined with three relievers to toss the first MLB
no-hitter
outside the USA and Canada on Friday night in the Dodgers' 4-0 win over
San
Diego at Estadio Monterrey. Five
no-hitters
had been spun in Montreal or Toronto previously.
Buehler, a
23-year-old righty
who was the Dodgers' 2015 first-round draft pick, pitched the first six
hitless
innings for Los Angeles, striking out eight and walking three to go to
2-0 on
the season. He was followed in order by
relievers Adam Cimber, Kazuhisa Makita and Phil Maton, each of whom
contributing a hitless frame to seal the no-no for the Dodgers, who
then lost
the last two games of the series. San
Diego evened the set Saturday with a 7-4 triumph behind two-run homers
by first
baseman Eric Hosmer and catcher Rafael Lopez, then took Sunday's rubber
match
by shutting out the defending National League champs, 4-0, as starter
Eric
Lauer combined with three relievers to scatter eight hits while Hosmer
homered
once more with a two-run shot in the bottom of the fifth.
While Buehler
and his bullpen
mates stole the lion's share of attention for the series on Friday
night, it
ended up being three games that Padres third baseman Christian
Villanueva would
probably just as soon put in the taillights.
Villanueva, a Guadalajara native who has received much early
notice as a
potential Rookie of the Year candidate, went 0-for-11 over the series
and
committed two errors in the field Sunday.
Villanueva has gone 1-for-20 in May to bring his season batting
average,
which stood at .355 on April 22, down to .265 after Sunday's contest.
The series,
which sold out in
less than two hours, was well-received by fans and media alike as a
total of
65,116 attendees in 22,000-seat Estadio Monterrey.
The success of the Mexico Series brought out
calls for a future MLB team south of the border, either in Monterrey or
Mexico
City. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said
during Friday's ESPN2 broadcast that both Mexico and Montreal are
potential
candidates for expansion teams, but some Mexican baseball columnists
quickly
pointed out that the country's political and financial instability
would be
tough obstacles to overcome and that it's a lot harder to get people to
attend
81 home games as opposed to a single three-game series.
Mazatlan
Venados tab Joe Alvarez as new skipper
The Mazatlan
Venados front office
decided after last winter that one season with Daniel Fernandez as
manager of
the Mexican Pacific League team was enough and that a change was needed
at the
helm. After a months-long search, the
Venados last week introduced Cuban-born Joe Alvarez as their pilot for
the
2018-19 LMP campaign.
The
61-year-old Alvarez will
make his LMP managerial debut with Mazatlan this October, but he is no
stranger
to the MexPac after previously serving as a coach with the Obregon
Yaquis under
Eddie Diaz. However, Alvarez' Mexican
baseball bonafides have been mostly been built in the Mexican League. After winning Gulf Coast League pennants in
1986 and 1987 managing the Dodgers' Rookie league entry and a Florida
State
League title with Vero Beach in 1990, the former minor league infielder
spent
time in the Rays and Phillies organizations before taking over in
Puebla on an
interim basis in 2014 after Houston Jimenez was fired during the season. Alvarez then guided the Pericos to second
place in the LMB South and won playoff series against Campeche and
Quintana Roo
before falling to Mexico City in the Serie del Rey for the Liga pennant.
He went on to
serve as a
coach with the Korea Baseball Organization's SK Wyverns before
returning to
Mexico last summer as manager in Durango, leading the Generales to a
.500
record playing the first month on the road while their ballpark was
undergoing
renovations. The team eventually fell
victim to injuries and front office mismanagement and finished seventh
in the
LMB South with a 43-66 record. Alvarez
could hardly be blamed for the Generales' misfortunes, but he was not
rehired
after the 2017 season.
Alvarez, who was born in Manzanillo, Cuba but attended high school in New Jersey before making his pro baseball debut in 1974 in the Yankees organization (later playing in the Astros and Orioles systems), takes over a Mazatlan team that finished the regular season with a 37-31 record and qualified for the postseason under Fernandez before falling to defending MexPac champion Mexicali in the first round, four games to two.