The Charros from Jalisco Y Culiacan tomato growers will play the Final for the title of the Mexican Pacific ARCO League (LaMP) seven years after the last confrontation between the two in this instance. As of January 14, the Guadalajarans will fight for their second crown since their return to the circuit in 2014 and the ninth icing will seek the three-time championship with which they would reach 14 titles in the winter circuit.
It will be the Charros’ third final in the LaMP since 2014, when the franchise returned to professional baseball. On that occasion (2014-15) they also faced Tomateros de Culiacán, against whom they lost in five games. From then on, a golden age began for those from Culiacán, who have won four of the last 7 championships that have been distributed in the LaMP.
The other Final for the Charros came in the 2018-2019 campaign, in which they defeated the Ciudad Obregón Yaquis in six games to lift their first Pacific League title and their third professional title, since in 1967 and 1971 they were crowned in the Mexican Baseball League (LMB).
The Charros, under manager Roberto Vizcarra, will have to be cautious when facing the Tomateros, who, although they struggled to enter the postseason and do not arrive with home court advantage, have won all the finals they have entered since the 2000 season -01 (6 of 6), 4 of these commanded by Benjamin Gil. The last pending for the manager of the cherries is to be crowned in the Caribbean Series.
The Tomateros, who with 13 championships are the second team with the most crowns in the winter circuit (only behind the Orange trees from Hermosillo with 16), they are on the hunt for the three-time championship. The only teams that have managed to win 3 consecutive titles are the Mazatlan deer, from 1952 to 1955, and the Yaquis of Ciudad Obregon, from 2010 to 2013.
Since the 2000-01 season, the Final Series has been played 18 times in the state of Sinaloa, this has four of the 10 teams that currently make up the circuit: Guasave cotton growers, Cañeros de Los Mochis, Tomateros de Culiacán and Venados de Mazatlán, the latter is the third team with the most championships in the Mexican Pacific League with 9. In total, Sinaloa has 26 Winter League Championships.
With the opportunity to strengthen their novenas, the current two-time champions preferred pitching, choosing Sultanes de Monterrey right-hander Nick Struck as their first option. The pitcher with 4 seasons of LaMP experience is a reliable starter. In these Playoffs, Struck has 4 outings of 22 innings pitched in which he has only allowed 7 earned runs, giving an ERA of 2.86 with a total of 18 strikeouts.
The second option for the guindas is the left-hander Édgar Torres, from the Sultanes de Monterrey, who was also taken as reinforcement from the Venados de Mazatlán.
The Charros decided to strengthen their batting, for which they chose Esteban Quiroz as their first option, a player from the Algodoneros de Guasave, who this postseason registered .270 AVG, 2 home runs and 6 RBI in 11 games.
The Charros’ second choice was Sultanes de Monterrey infield Ricardo Serrano.
The teams will have until 10:00 a.m. on Friday, January 14, to register one of the two options.
The Final Series will start the same Friday at 7:30 p.m. in Central Mexico in Jalisco and will be played in a 2-3-2 format, to win 4 of 7 games. The duels will be broadcast on Sky, VeTV and extrabase.tv.
In addition to obtaining the trophy, the winner will represent Mexico in the Caribbean Series which will be played from January 28 to February 3 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx