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Bruce
Baskin /
Jackie
Robinson Moments
B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
July
17, 2 0 1 7
Toros' Barreda
hurls no-no; Romero fired in Yucatan
Although the
2017 season has not likely gone the way Manny
Barreda hoped it would after a good enough start to the year, the
Tijuana
Toros' right-handed pitcher from Sahuarita, Arizona has accomplished a
rare
feat by tossing his second no-hitter in eight months in Sunday's 4-0
win over
Tabasco. Barreda turned in a similar
performance for Los Mochis last November 28 when he blanked Hermosillo,
2-0,
giving him a no-hitter in both the Mexican and Mexican Pacific Leagues
within
eight months of each other.
Similar to his
November no-no, which required 138 pitches,
Barreda had to work deep into counts to Olmeca batters en route to a
145-pitch
performance but only walked two Tabasco batsmen while striking out 14. The contest was scoreless until the bottom of
the third inning when Jose Guadalupe Chavez scored on a Juan Apodaca
line-drive
single to left. Apodaca later came
around to plate a run on Jorge Cantu's single up the middle. Tabasco starter Angel Araiza found more
trouble in the bottom of the fourth when Dustin Martin's 20th double of
the
year brought in Gabriel Gutierrez and Corey Brown to make it a 4-0
contest.
That would turn
out to be more than enough cushion for
Barreda to work with as he retired eleven Olmecas in a row before
allowing a
walk to the dangerous Sandy Madera in the seventh, then put away
Tabasco's
final seven men to seal the no-hitter and win.
Araiza was at times his own worst enemy on the mound for the
visitors. Despite only pitching those
first four innings, the eighth-year veteran righty tossed 104 pitches
but only
55 went for strikes as he walked five Toros hitters among the 25 he
faced.
Barreda's strong
winterball campaign for the Caneros (a 2.20
ERA and 1.077 WHIP with 66 strikeouts over 69.2 innings) led to his
signing
with the Atlanta organization in December, but he was returned to
Mexico
without ever pitching a regular-season inning in the Braves system. Although the 28-year-old has pitched
reasonably well for the Toros since arriving in the border city on
April 4,
showing a 3.63 ERA after 16 starts and striking out 88 hitters over
89.1
innings, Sunday's win was only his fourth in ten decisions for the team
with
the best record in the Liga.
A throng of
13,598 (equal to a week-long homestand in
Villahermosa) looked at at Tijuana's Estadio Gasmart as the Toros won
their
seventh straight contest and widened their LMB North lead to
three-and-a-half
games over Monterrey, who lost at Oaxaca Sunday by a 6-2 count. The Sultanes have lost six of their last ten
games and now have to worry less about catching up to TJ and more about
holding
off a hard-charging Monclova team sitting one game behind them in the
standings
after the Acereros swept a road series in Oaxaca and took two of three
games in
Veracruz last week. Aguascalientes is
now six games behind Monterrey in fourth place and the Rieleros
continue to
play well for manager Homar Rojas, a past expert at working with
low-budget
rosters who's led the Railroaders to eleven wins in 14 games this month.
The Yucatan
Leones continue to hold a comfy lead in the LMB
South, but surprised observers by firing manager Willie Romero on
Saturday. Romero got into a heated
argument with a fan following a heartbreaking 1-0 home loss to Puebla
on July 9
and was serving a resulting suspension handed down by the Liga office
when the
axe fell on the two-time LMB Manager of the Year. Romero
arrived in Merida as a player in 2003
and was well-liked by Leones fans (except for at least one, apparently)
after
being a key performer for Yucatan's 2006 pennant winners and had led
the Lions
to an overall 193-110 (.637) record since taking the helm in 2015 and
had them
at 50-31 before his suspension began Friday.
Bench coach
Oswaldo Morejon, who retired as a player last
year after hitting .296 with 2,011 hits in his 20-year LMB career, has
taken
over for Romero and may remain manager the rest of the season although
with the
Arellano brothers in charge, one never knows for sure...don't be
shocked if
Union Laguna helmsman Ramon Orantes (like Morejon a longtime Liga
infielder who
retired last fall after 24 seasons) is brought in and reunited with
former
Vaqueros MVP candidate Ricky Alvarez.
Speaking of
Alvarez, the stocky first baseman has struggled a
bit since arriving from Torreon June 20 in a one-sided trade between
the two
teams owned by the Arellanos involving eight players.
Alvarez was hitting .330 with 13 homers and a
LMB-high 75 RBIs in 66 games at the time of the trade (attendance in
Laguna has
plummeted in the aftermath), but has hit .295 with two homers and 14
ribbies in
22 games with Yucatan. The Leones split
road six games in Durango and Laguna last week while Puebla won four of
six
crossover home games against Aguascalientes and Saltillo to shave
Yucatan's division
lead to seven-and-a-half games. The
Pericos beat the Saraperos twice over the weekend as well-traveled Jon
Del
Campo (playing for his third team in 2017 and seventh Liga squad since
2011)
socked a grand slam on Saturday and a two-run homer Sunday for his
first two
longballs of the year.
WIth three weeks
remaining in the regular season, the batting
title is Yadir Drake's to lose. The
former Durango outfielder from Cuba left his .385 average behind when
he left
to pay for Japan's Nippon Ham Fighters, for whom he's batting .138
after eight
games. Monterrey's Daniel Mayora is
second at .372 after going 11-for-26 in his first six contests for the
Sultanes. Aguascalientes' Jesse Castillo
hasn't dropped off since winning the All-Star Game MVP award in
Campeche,
belting two homers in Leon Friday to tie Tijuana's Corey Brown for the
Liga
lead. Yucatan's Alvarez continues to top
the list for RBIs with 89, but underrated Manny Rodriguez of Monclova
(if a
career .317 hitter can be called "underrated") drove in five runs
last week to bring his total to 79.
Manny's new teammate, Justin Greene, swiped a base in each game
of the
Acereos' weekend series against Veracruz to continue running away with
the
stolen base title at 42. And, yes, I'll
use that line until I get bored with it.
It may be a good
thing the Liga doesn't let gringos like me
vote for postseason awards because I have no idea who I'd mark down for
Pitcher
of the Year. Mexico City's Octavio
Acosta beat Campeche last Friday in Estadio Fray Nano, which is no
pitcher's
park by any stretch, to run his season record to 12-1.
Acosta leads the LMB in wins, ranks sixth
with 88 strikeouts in 104.2 innings and his 2.67 ERA is eighth on that
list. Then there's Nestor Molina, who
has somehow posted an 11-1 mark for a very marginal Veracruz club. Then again, his 1.63 ERA over 19 starts would
take care of the "somehow" part of the equation, as would his 95
strikeouts (second to the 117 recorded by Monclova's Josh Lowey). It's hard not to consider Yucatan's Yoanner
Negrin, too. Although he's not having
anywhere near the year he had in winning this award in 2016, Negrin is
11-3 and
fourth in ERA at 2.48. The Cuban exile
has a combined 33-5 record since joining the Leones from the Cubs
organization
just over two years ago.
Reliever of the
Year won't be easy for voters either. Last
year's winner, Chad Gaudin, is tops with
24 saves to augment his 2.25 ERA while Monterrey closer Wirfin Obispo
is one
behind at 23 saves with an even better 2.07 ERA. Still,
I'd cast my vote for Durango's Tiago
da Silva, who's third with 21 saves in 28 appearances after missing
over a
month with an arm injury. The Brazilian
tossed a scoreless ninth in Sunday's win over Quintana Roo to lower his
ERA to
1.78 in his first appearance since June 11.
The Generales are in seventh and 23 games out of first in the
LMB North,
but it's hard to imagine where they'd be without the 32-year-old righty.
Perhaps the
biggest upcoming midweek series on the schedule
will be played in Aguascalientes, where
the Rieleros try to stay hot against a Puebla team that's been playing
better
themselves in recent days. The
inter-divisional games continue next weekend with no huge sets on the
docket,
although Veracruz at Monclova hold some intrigue. The
Rojos del Aguila are trying to cement
their hold on third place in the LMB South while the Acereros try to
continue
their climb up the North ladder. Nestor
Molina is scheduled to pitch Wednesday in Monterrey amid this buzzsaw
of a road
trip the Eagles will take this week and will not open in Monclova.
LMB STANDINGS
(as of July 17)
North Division:
Tijuana 61-28, Monterrey 57-31, Monclova 56-32, Aguascalientes 52-38,
Union
Laguna 47-41, Mexico City 46-43, Durango 38-51, Saltillo 35-52
South Division:
Yucatan 52-32, Puebla 47-42, Veracruz 40-46, Quintana Roo 36-48, Leon
34-50,
Oaxaca 33-53, Campeche 32-52, Tabasco 30-57
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