Baseball Mexico
by Bruce Baskin
Published on August 28, 2011 under Mexican League (ML)
QUINTANA ROO CLUBS MEXICO CITY, 13-9, TO CLINCH MEXICAN LEAGUE TITLE
An unlikely hero emerged from the bullpen and Carlos Gastelum's grand slam in the seventh inning busted open a tied game as the Quintana Roo Tigres polished off the Mexico City Diablos, 13-9, Friday at Foro Sol to complete a four-game sweep of their rivals and win the franchise's tenth Mexican League pennant since 1955.
Both teams were putting runs on the board in the early going as Gastelum homered in the first inning and Doug Clark went deep in the third as the two most storied teams in Mexican baseball battled to a 5-5 tie heading into the fourth inning. Enter Jorge Campillo in relief of Tigres starter Enrique Lechuga.
Campillo, a former MLB pitcher with Seattle and Atlanta who has fought with injuries over the years, turned in four superlative relief innings for manager Matias Carrillo's side, blanking the potent Diablos on one hit in four innings of work, just long enough for Gastelum to swat his second homer of the night in Quintana Roo's five-run seventh, breaking the tie and sending the Tigres to a win and a pennant. Mexico City's Luis Terrero scored on a Ivan Terrazas double off Eder Llamas to close the gap to 8-6 in the eighth, but Albino Contreras bashed a three-run homer in the top of the ninth to stretch the Tigres' lead to 11-6. The Red Devils put another three scores on the board in the bottom of the ninth, but they went for naught.
Gastelum ended up with five RBIs and Sergio Contreras batted 5-for-5 for Quintana Roo. Alexis Gomez and Leo Heras both had three hits for Mexico City with Gomez driving in three runs. Campillo won his first playoff game while Salvador Robles took the loss for the Diablos. The pennant is the first for the Tigres in Cancun and for Carrillo as a skipper.
TIGRES BEAT DIABLOS, ONE GAME AWAY FROM LIGA PENNANT
Iker Franco went 2-for-3 with four RBIs while Willie Romero reached base five times, scored twice and drove in two more runs as the Quintana Roo Tigres outlasted the Mexico City Diablos Rojos, 9-6, Thursday night before 23,553 fans at Foro Sol in the capital city. With the victory, the Cancun club took a 3 games to 0 lead in the Mexican League finals.
The contest was tied at 4-4 when Quintana Roo broke out for three runs in the top of the seventh inning when Red Devils reliever Federico Castaneda opened the frame by plunking Albino Contreras, giving up a Carlos Gastelum single and walking Sergio Contreras before making way on the mound for Martin Sotelo, who promptly walked Romero on five pitches to push across the go-ahead run. Arturo Lopez then replaced Sotelo, but after getting Doug Clark to line out to right, Sotelo dished up a two-run single to Franco to make it a 7-4 game.
The Diablos got two runs back in the bottom of the inning when Juan Sandoval came in to pitch for the Tigres with one runner on base and allowed a Luis Alfonso Cruz single before walking three straight batters to send two runners across the plate before Sandy Nin came out of the pen to get pinch-hitter Mario Valdez to strike out looking to end the threat. Pedro Castellano led off the eighth with a homer off Jean Machi, who then induced two Quintana Roo outs before giving up consecutive doubles to Carlos Gastelum and Sergio Contreras to bring the score to its eventual 9-6 final margin.
ORTEGA OUTDUELS QUEVEDO AS TIGRES GO UP 2 GAMES TO 0
Pablo Ortega combined with two relievers to outpitch Marco Quevedo and three others as the Quintana Roo Tigres squeaked past the Mexico City Diablos Rojos, 1-0, Monday night before a sellout crowd of 7,607 at Cancun's Estadio Beto Avila. With the win, the Tigres took a 2 games to 0 lead over their ancient rivals in the Mexican League championship series.
Iker Franco's single in the bottom of the second inning drove in Willie Romero with the game's only run for Quintana Roo as Ortega turned in yet another strong outing on the mound, giving manager Matias Carrillo seven innings of scoreless pitching while scattering six hits and one walk while striking out five Diablos before giving way to Juan Sandoval. Liga saves leader Sandy Nin came on in the ninth and held Mexico City scoreless in picking up his fifth save of the playoffs.
For his part, Quevedo was able to keep pace with Ortega in his 5.1 innings of work, letting in the one run on four hits, although control problems led to four walks and a pitch count of 97 before being pulled in the sixth. Although Orlando Lara walked the one batter he faced before Diablos skipper Mako Oliveras yanked him, Federico Castaneda and Jean Machi limited the Tigres to two hits the rest of the way, so pitching wasn't the problem for Mexico City...Ortega was as the 34-year-old righty took his third postseason win in four decisions while lowering his playoff ERA to 1.13. Of his 96 pitches, 71 went for strikes. If the Tigres go on to win the pennant, Ortega should be a prime contender for Playoff MVP.
MEXICAN LEAGUE DIVISION SEMIFINALS RESULTS
NORTHERN ZONE SEMIFINALS: Mexico City def. Puebla, 4 games to 2
JUL 30: Puebla 16, Mexico City 9 (Luis Suarez had 4 hits as Puebla rocked Roberto Ramirez for 9 runs in 2.2 IP)
JUL 31: Mexico City 9, Puebla 2 (Luis Terrero's 2-run homer keyed Mexico City's four-run second inning)
AUG 2: Mexico City 4, Puebla 1 (Luis Alfonso Cruz homered and Nerio Rodriguez pitched 7 strong innings for Diablos)
AUG 3: Puebla 7, Mexico City 5 (Pericos scored 4 sixth-inning runs as Serafin Rodriguez sliced 2-run single)
AUG 4: Mexico City 8, Puebla 5 (Diablos' Cruz crashed 3-run homer off Andres Meza for his 3rd playoff longball)
AUG 6: Mexico City 7, Puebla 5 (Mario Valdez' 2-run walkoff homer gave Mexico City series win in six games)
NORTHERN ZONE SEMIFINALS: Monterrey def. Reynosa, 4 games to 2
JUL 30: Monterrey 6, Reynosa 2 (Sandy Madera swatted 3-run 7th inning homer for Sultanes)
JUL 31: Monterrey 9, Reynosa 2 (Monterrey's Chris Roberson and Sergio Perez each had 4 hits)
AUG 2: Reynosa 10, Monterrey 8 (Jesse Gutierrez blasted a 3-run homer to lead Reynosa triumph)
AUG 3: Monterrey 7, Reynosa 2 (Madera singled, doubled and homered in Sultanes' third win)
AUG 4: Reynosa 14, Monterrey 9 (Marshall McDougall homered twice as Reynosa scored 5 in the 9th)
AUG 6: Monterrey 8, Reynosa 4 (Roberson slashed a 2-run single in 4-run 9th for Monterrey)
SOUTHERN ZONE SEMIFINALS: Quintana Roo def. Oaxaca, 4 games to 2
JUL 30: Quintana Roo 8, Oaxaca 3 (Tigres' Doug Clark hit a 3-run homer and Sergio Gastelum added 1-run shot)
JUL 31: Quintana Roo 4, Oaxaca 2 (Clark homered again while Albino Contreras went deep for Quintana Roo)
AUG 3: Oaxaca 6, Quintana Roo 3 (Kevin Barker went 2-for-4 with homer and 3 RBIs in Guerreros' comeback win)
AUG 4: Quintana Roo 5, Oaxaca 3 (Willie Romero homered and Enrique Legucha gave up 1 run in 6 IP for Tigres)
AUG 5: Oaxaca 2, Quintana Roo 1 (Sergio Gastelum homered and Sergio Valenzuela tossed 5 IPs for Guerreros)
AUG 7: Quintana Roo 9, Oaxaca 1 (Clark hit 3-run homer as Juan Ramirez won second game of series for Q-Roo)
SOUTHERN ZONE SEMIFINALS: Veracruz def. Campeche, 4 games to 3
AUG 1: Veracruz 10, Campeche 4 (Jorge Guzman and Victor Diaz homered in support of Aguilas P Joel Vargas)
AUG 2: Veracruz 4, Campeche 2 (Enrique Quintanilla pitched 4 scoreless innings in relief for Veracruz)
AUG 4: Campeche 7, Veracruz 5 (Piratas scored 4 runs in 9th for win despite being outhit by 16-9 margin)
AUG 5: Veracruz 3, Campeche 2 (Hector Hernandez sliced a game-winning single in the bottom of 9th for Aguilas)
AUG 6: Campeche 9, Veracruz 5 (Ruben Rivera socked a grand slam to help keep Piratas from elimination)
AUG 8: Campeche 6, Veracruz 2 (Campeche won as Alejandro Armenta pitched 7 innings of 2-run ball)
AUG 9: Veracruz 6, Campeche 3 (Diaz and Cesar Suarez homered for second night in a row in Aguilas clincher)
MEXICAN LEAGUE DIVISION CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS
NORTHERN ZONE FINALS: Mexico City def. Monterrey, 4 games to 3
AUG 9: Mexico City 6, Monterrey 5 (11) (Diablos' Geronimo Gil hit a walkoff bases-loaded single in bottom of 11th)
AUG 10: Mexico City 10, Monterrey 3 (Luis Alfonso Cruz hit 3-run homer for Mexico City, his 4th of the postseason)
AUG 12: Monterrey 7, Mexico City 4 (Edgar Quintero was 3-for-4 with HR and 3 RBIs for Sultanes in front of 23,537 fans)
AUG 13: Mexico City 5, Monterrey 4 (Starter Marco Quevedo allowed 1 hit and 0 runs in 5.2 IP for Diablos)
AUG 14: Monterrey 10, Mexico City 4 (Edgar Quintero doubled, singled twice and drove in 3 runs for Monterrey)
AUG 16: Monterrey 17, Mexico City 6 (Sultanes OF Chris Roberson batted 4-for-5 with homer, triple and 3 RBIs)
AUG 17: Mexico City 4, Monterrey 1 (Miguel Duarte combined to scatter 7 hits with 12 strikeouts for Diablos)
SOUTHERN ZONE FINALS: Quintana Roo def. Veracruz, 4 games to 2
AUG 11: Quintana Roo 10, Veracruz 0 (Pablo Ortega tossed 6 innings of 3-hit shutout ball for Tigres)
AUG 12: Veracruz 7, Quintana Roo 6 (Hector Paez hit 2-out pinch double to score Victor Diaz in top of 9th for Aguilas)
AUG 14: Veracruz 4, Quintana Roo 3 (Jorge Guzman singled and homered as four Aguilas belted solo bombs in game)
AUG 15: Quintana Roo 3, Veracruz 1 (Starting pitcher Enrique Lechuga allowed 6 hits in 6 innings for Tigres)
AUG 16: Quintana Roo 4, Veracruz 3 (11) (Doug Clark scored from second on Jaime Trejo single and an Aguilas error)
AUG 17: Quintana Roo 4, Veracruz 2 (Jose Ramirez won his 3rd playoff game as Albino Contreras hit 2B, 3B and HR)
MEXICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES RESULTS
MEXICAN SERIES: Quintana Roo def. Mexico City, 4 games to 0
AUG 21: Quintana Roo 8, Mexico City 2 (Iker Franco went 2-for-3 with solo homer in Tigres opening win)
AUG 22: Quintana Roo 1, Mexico City 0 (Pablo Ortega and two relievers shut out Diablos on Franco's RBI single in 2nd)
AUG 25: Quintana Roo 9, Mexico City 6 (Franco had 2 hits and 4 RBIs and Willie Romero got on base 5 times and scored twice for Tigres)
AUG 15: Quintana Roo 13, Mexico City 6 (Jorge Campillo had 4 IP of shutout ball and Carlos Gastelum hit grand slam in title clincher)
Mexican League Stories from August 28, 2011
- Baseball Mexico - OSC Original by Bruce Baskin
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