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LMB: Diablos Rojos First to Clinch Playoff Berth With Friday Win Against Veracruz

 Leif Skodnick - World Baseball Network  |    Jul 21st, 2025 1:00pm EDT

It was inevitable. It was expected. It was just a matter of time.

With a 6-3 win against El Aguila de Veracruz Friday, the Diablos Rojos del Mexico recorded their 51st win of the season and clinched a berth in the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol playoffs, which will begin August 9.

The Diablos of the past two years have been the closest thing to a “superteam” that professional baseball has, though they have been a little less dominant this season compared to last. They’re 53-22 this year, they’ve scored the second-most runs in the league with 583, and they’ve got the best run differential in the league at +149.

They’ve got a player atop the league in batting, with Carlos Sepulveda hitting .407, and last year’s batting champion, Robinson Cano, is in the league’s top 10 in batting with a .371 mark.

WBN’S International Player of the Week: Robinson Cano, 2B, Diablos Rojos del Mexico

If they have any weakness, it might be on the mound, where the Diablos have a 5.50 team ERA and a 1.640 WHIP, though some of that can be chalked up to playing home games at 7,300 feet of elevation, where the ball refuses to break and flies quite a bit further than it does at sea level due to the thinner air.

The Diablos Rojos made the playoffs continuously from 1983 to 2015 — 34 consecutive seasons — before missing the postseason in 2016 and 2017. They haven’t missed since, and 2025 is the ninth consecutive year, counting the split season of 2018, that the Reds have qualified for the playoffs.

And they didn’t stop on Friday. The Diablos swept the three-game set from Veracruz to improve to 53-22.

Another One Bites The Dust – Yet another LMB manager has been handed a pink slip. Gregg Zaun, who took over the Tigres de Quintana Roo on May 18 when the struggling club fired C.J. Retherford, was relieved from his duties as manager of the Tigres on July 18. Zaun took over an 8-19 team and went 23-28, but it wasn’t good enough to maintain his employment in Cancun. Former Tigre and Mexican baseball legend Karim Garcia took over the club on Friday and led the team to a pair of wins in their three-game weekend series against Tabasco.

LMB: Of 20 Managers Who Started The Season, Only Four Remain; Several Notable Players Head to LMB

Donnie Hart Joins Dos Laredos’ Coaching Staff – Former Major League pitcher Donnie Hart joined the Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos last Thursday, replacing Lyle Yates. Through Sunday’s action, the Tecos had the fifth best team ERA with a 5.13 mark and lead the league in strikeouts with 605.

Notable Series This Week:

July 22-24
Acereros de Monclova (41-33) at Algodoneros de Union Laguna (41-36)
Charros de Jalisco (39-38) at Toros de Tijuana (45-32)

July 25-27
Tigres de Quintana Roo (31-47) at Diablos Rojos del Mexico (53-22)
Leones de Yucatan (36-41) at Guerreros de Oaxaca (41-36)
Algodoneros de Union Laguna (41-36) at Sultanes de Monterrey (49-28)
Charros de Jalisco (39-38) at Acereros de Monclova (41-33)
Saraperos de Saltillo (38-39) at Toros de Tijuana (45-32)

WBN Mexico: https://worldbaseball.com/league/mexico/

Photo: The Diablos Rojos del Mexico celebrate clinching a berth in the 2025 LMB playoffs with a 6-3 win over El Aguila de Veracruz on July 18. (Photo courtesy of the Diablos Rojos del Mexico)

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Leif Skodnick - World Baseball Network