MAZATLAN 4, MEXICALI 3 IN MAZATLAN (11 INNINGS)
Batting stars: Ramon Rios was 3-for-4 with a double. Jose Augusto Figueroa was 2-for-5 with two RBIs. Francisco Hernandez was 2-for-5. Ricky Alvarez was 1-for-5 with a two-run homer, his second.
Pitching stars: Carlos Morales pitched six innings, giving up two runs on five hits and one walk and striking out three. Alejandro Soto pitched a scoreless inning, walking one. Ivan Zavala pitched a scoreless inning, walking one. Roberto Espinosa pitched two perfect innings and struck out one.
Opposition stars: Javier Solano pitched eight innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and no walks and striking out five. Luis Juarez was 2-for-5. Eric Aguilera was 1-for-3 with a home run (his third) and a walk. Thomas Malgarejo pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit and striking out one.
The game: In the first inning Rios hit a one-out double and Alvarez hit a two-out two-run homer, putting Mazatlan up 2-0. Mexicali got on the board in the third when Xorge Carrillo walked, went to third on a Fabricio Macias double, and scored on a ground out. Aguilera homered leading off the fifth to tie it 2-2.
There was no more scoring until the eleventh. One-out singles by Daniel Castro and Juarez put men on first and third, and a wild pitch put Mexicali up 3-2. In the bottom of the inning Carlos Munoz drew a one-out walk. With two out, Ricardo Valenzuela singled and Chris Roberson walked, loading the bases. Figueroa then delivered a two-run single to win the game for Mazatlan.
WP: Ryan Newell (1-1). LP: Edgar Gomez (0-2). S: None.
Notes: Figueroa is batting .500. Munoz was 0-for-4 and is batting .310.
Zavala's ERA is 2.25. Espinosa has an ERA of 1.04.
If we must have the "start with a runner on second" rule, the way the Mexican League does it, starting that rule in the twelfth inning, makes more sense to me. Give them a couple of extra innings to try to settle it with real baseball before using a gimmick to get the game over.
Mexicali was 0-for-7 with men in scoring position.
MEXICALI 11, MAZATLAN 5 IN MAZATLAN (10 INNINGS)
Batting stars: Jose Augusto Figueroa was 3-for-4 with a walk. Carlos Munoz was 2-for-4 with a home run, a walk, two runs, and two RBIs.
Pitching stars: Fernando Burgueno pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up three hits and striking out one. Adolfo Ramirez pitched a perfect inning.
Opposition stars: Xorge Carrillo was 4-for-6 with a double and two RBIs. Javier Salazar was 3-for-6. Eric Aguilera was 2-for-3 with a double, three walks, four runs, and two RBIs. Alex Mejia was 2-for-6 with a double and three RBIs. Greg Mahle pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit and striking out one. Roque Gutierrez pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two walks.
The game: Munoz homered with two out in the first to give Mazatlan a 1-0 lead. Mexicali responded in the third, scoring three times. Daniel Castro and Luis Juarez opened the inning with walks, Aguilera delivered a two-run double, and Carrillo had a two-out RBI single, making it 3-1.
Mazatlan came back to tie it in the sixth. Figueroa had a one-out single. With two down, Hector Mora singled and Francisco Hernandez walked, loading the bases. Walks to Ramon Rios and Munoz forced in two runs, making the score 3-3.
Mexicali went back in front in the eighth. Aguilera singled, went to third on two wild pitches, and scored on a Mejia single to make it 4-3. They added an insurance run in the ninth when Aguilera walked, Miguel Choice singled, and Carrillo had an RBI single. But Mazatlan came back to tie it again in the bottom of the ninth. Munoz singled, Isaac Paredes walked, Ricardo Valenzuela had an RBI single, and a passed ball tied it 5-5.
But Mexicali put it away in the tenth. A single, an error, and a walk, loaded the bases. A sacrifice fly brought home the go-ahead run, Jose Manuel Orozco tripled home two, a walk and a sacrifice fly made it 9-5, and back-to-back doubles by Carrillo and Mejia made it 11-5. Mazatlan loaded the bases in the bottom of the tenth on two walks and a hit batsman, but could not come back.
WP: Jake Sanchez (1-0). LP: Ryan Newell (1-2). S: None.
Notes: Figueroa is batting .563. Jose Luna was 0-for-1 as a pinch-hitter and is batting .333. Munoz is batting .323.
Burgueno has an ERA of 2.70. Roberto Espinosa gave up a run in two-thirds of an inning to make his ERA 1.93.
Mazatlan has been using Newell as a closer, but he's just not getting it done. In this game he gave up four runs (two-earned) in a third of an inning to raise his ERA to 10.29.
There were eighteen walks and three hit batsmen in the game. Mazatlan pitchers walked seven and Mexicali pitchers walked eleven. You'd think eleven walks and nine hits would produce more than five runs, but Mazatlan stranded sixteen and went 1-for-13 with men in scoring position. Mexicali, on the other hand, went 7-for-15 with men in scoring position.
Record: Mazatlan is 6-11, tied for seventh, nine games behind Obregon.
Next game: Mazatlan goes to Guasave (6-11) Tuesday night.