Former Diablos Rojos de Mexico star closer Roberto Osuna Jr. surpassed his father Roberto Osuna Sr’s first mark in the Mexican Baseball League playoffs, saving his fourth postseason game on Monday against Águila de Veracruz.
Osuna Jr. pitched in his seventh playoff game and scored his fourth rescue in the game that Mexico secured a pass to the South Zone Championship Series, which starts on Friday by hosting the Yucatan Lions in the Mexican capital.
The former majorista – who has been out of the league in his relief performances in the first two postseason series – saved two games against Tigres de Quintana Roo in the first playoff and added another two in the zone semifinal against Veracruz.
His father – he has the LMB record since 1997 with 75 appearances in a regular season as a pitcher for the Saraperos de Saltillo – played 16 seasons from 1984 to 1999, and was in six postseason, making three saves – without being a closer. full-time.
Osuna Sr saved two games for the Sultanes de Monterrey in the 1988 postseason facing Tuneros de San Luis Potosí in the first playoff and Saraperos in the North Zone Championship Series.
In 1988 Osuna Sr made five playoff appearances pitching 11 innings and striking out 17 after pitching an inning with a playoff strikeout a year earlier.
The third rescue came in the first playoff of 1995 with the Tecolotes de Dos Laredos, in a 4-3 win over Broncos de Reynosa in the third game of the series.
In 18 career postseason games, Osuna Sr pitched 41.2 innings striking out 42. His son with Diablos has thrown 7.2 innings and has 12 “chocolates.”
The scion added two saves against Tigres in the first South Zone playoff in games 2 and 4, pitching 2.2 innings with three “chocolates.” In the zone semifinal against the Eagle, he saved games 3 and 5, in addition to finishing the first two – Diablos triumphs – without a save chance. In total he pitched 4 innings with 8 strikeouts.
Osuna Jr. made his debut in the Mexican Baseball League on April 11, 2011, at age 16, 63 days old, pitching an inning and striking out his first two batters. He appeared in 12 more games until June 9 and the next day he was placed on the reserve list.
At 50 days, on August 30, 2011, the Toronto Blue Jays signed him as a free agent to a minor league contract. In the majors, Osuna Jr. has 155 saves and another six in the postseason.
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