For the second straight day, all four full-season affiliates won Sunday as the offenses went wild at every level.

Chihuahuas 9, Oklahoma City Dodgers 6

Key Stats: C Luis Campusano 3-for-4, 3B, BB; RF Patrick Kivlehan 2-for-4, BB; 3B Ivan Castillo 2-for-5, 3B; 2B Tucupita Marcano 1-for-4, BB; RHP Sam McWilliams 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K, S (1)

Luis Campusano has been showing his offensive potential in El Paso. (Photo: Jorge Salgado)

Prospect Watch: Eight different El Paso batters drove in a run as the Chihuahuas took their second straight against the Dodgers’ top affiliate. Catcher Luis Campusano led the offense with three of the club’s 12 hits, including his first triple of the year. The 22-year-old backstop is hitting .308/.400/.538 and has struck out just five times in 45 trips to the plate this month. After being forced into duty for the big league club to open the year, Campusano took a few weeks to find his footing in Triple-A but has brought his season OPS up to 730, nearly league average. … Tucupita Marcano singled to extend his hitting streak to five games since returning to El Paso and drew a walk to nearly even out his strikeout-to-walk ratio in Triple-A at 11:10. … Spotted an early lead Jerry Keel couldn’t get through the fifth inning, but a trio of Chihuahuas relievers combined for 4.1 scoreless frames. Sam McWilliams, claimed off waivers from the Mets last week, worked around a pair of walks to pick up his first save in the Padres organization. The 6-foot-7 righty has issued seven free passes in 3.2 innings since joining his seventh organization.

Missions 12, Midland RockHounds 6

Key Stats: 2B CJ Abrams 3-for-4, 2B (7), BB, SB (9); RF Jack Suwinski 3-for-5, 2 HR (10); LF Esteury Ruiz 1-for-2, SB (15); RHP Reiss Knehr 5 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 6 K, 1 BB

CJ Abrams continues to excel for San Antonio. (Photo: Joe Alexander)

Prospect Watch: Every Missions starter contributed to a 16-hit attack that gave them their fourth consecutive victory and eighth in their last 10 games. CJ Abrams, making his fourth start of the year at second base, collected a pair of singles, a double and a walk in five trips to the plate, pushing his batting average up to .301. The youngest qualified hitter on the circuit, Abrams has been nearly 20% better than league average through the first seven weeks of the campaign. … Jack Suwinski continued his breakout season with the Missions’ first two-homer game of the year. The 22-year-old slugger pulled into a tie for the league lead with 10 round-trippers and moved up to second with a 1.093 OPS. The lefty from Chicago has always shown big-time raw power but is bringing it into games more consistently in his first pass at the upper minors. … Esteury Ruiz made his second start of the year in the leadoff spot and collected a single and walk in his first two trips to the plate. However, the talented, but inconsistent outfielder left the game in the top of the third. Ruiz, who missed the last month of his 2019 campaign with an injury to his wrist, appeared to injure his right pinky swiping his organization-best 15th stolen base in the Missions’ five-run second inning. … Reiss Knehr gave up a two-run homer in the top of the first, then settled in and held the RockHounds scoreless over the next four frames. The 24-year-old New Yorker matched his season-high with six strikeouts and now sports a 30:16 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 40.2 innings.

Ethan Skender hitting on San Diego Sunday in Fort Wayne. (Photo: Jeff Nycz).

TinCaps 7, Lake County Captains 6

Key Stats: 2B Ethan Skender 3-for-4, SB (5); RF Tirso Ornelas 2-for-5, 2B (15), 2 RBI; 1B Yorman Rodriguez 2-for-4, BB 2 RBI; C Jonny Homza 2-for-4, BB; RHP Anderson Espinoza 3 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 1 K, 1 BB, HBP, WP; LHP Erik Sabrowski 2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 4 K, 1 BB; LHP Sam Williams 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K

Prospect Watch: The TinCaps scored six in the second inning, watched the lead get away, then got a Yorman Rodriguez RBI single in the eighth to pull out the victory. Ethan Skender led the TinCaps season-high 16 hit attack as five others added multiple hits. Tirso Ornelas, 21, collected his league-high 15th double – his sixth extra-base in as many games – to drive in two runs in the home club’s big inning. The lefty has a .738 OPS for the month. The right fielder had a scare in the third when he ran into the wall down the line, but looked to be fine later in the game. … Jonny Homza came up with two more hits in the leadoff spot and has now hit in 17 of 18 games to move his on-base percentage up to .406. … Anderson Espinoza, working on four days rest for the first time this year, wasn’t especially sharp. The righty still showed easy mid-90s velocity, but missed with location and seemed to be fighting for feel on his change-up. The righty gave up a monster homer to the Indians top prospect Brayan Rocchio as part of a three-run third inning. In both of his starts during the series, he looked gassed as he approached 50 pitches. … Erik Sabrowski made his professional debut three years after the Padres drafted him out of Cloud County (Kansas) Community College. Signed for the $125,000 maximum available to a 14th-round selection without counting toward the signing pool, the Edmonton, Alberta native underwent Tommy John surgery several months later and missed all of the 2019 season. He was in early minicamp last spring and got a chance to work in instructs last fall, but otherwise missed the development year as a 22-year-old. A lefty with prototypical size, Sabrowski worked in the low-90s as he struck out four over two one-run innings.

Few players can match Joshua Mears’s game-changing power. (Photo: Mike Wilson)

Storm 8, Rancho Cucamonga Quakes 5

Key Stats: RF Joshua Mears 2-for-4, 2 HR (5), 3 RBI; SS Jordy Barley 0-for-2, 3 BB, K, 5 SB (18), 2 R, E (15); 3B Zack Mathis 2-for-4, HR (1), 2 RBI; LHP Ramon Perez 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 4 K, 0 BB

Prospect Watch: The Storm rode a five-run seventh inning to their second straight victory and a series split with Rancho Sunday afternoon. Joshua Mears connected on two mammoth homers as he wrapped up a series in which he clubbed four round-trippers in 20 at-bats. Perhaps as encouraging as the offensive barrage for the big man is that he struck out only three times over the last five games – though his season K rate is still just below 40%. Even with the contact problems, Mears owns an .828 OPS in his full-season debut. … Zack Mathis got in on the longball action with his first professional homer. An undrafted free agent out of LSU last year, the left-handed batter has a solid .385 on-base percentage on the year. … Even by Jordy Barley‘s standard, Sunday was a wild game. The dynamic shortstop drew walks in each of his final three trips to the plate, then swiped five bases – and only missed out on the chance to steal third base again because he advanced on a wild pitch. Barley has now converted on 18 of 19 attempts on the year. On the other end of the spectrum, the 21-year-old flubbed an easy pop fly behind second base for his minors-worst 19th error in 32 games in the field.

Posted by David Jay

David has written for MadFriars since 2005, has published articles in Baseball America, written a monthly column for FoxSports San Diego and appeared on numerous radio programs and podcasts. He may be best known on the island of Guam for his photos of Trae Santos that appeared in the Pacific Daily News.

3 Comments

  1. Hafa adai, DJ !!! We want to see the photo !!!

    Also, which Padres prospects do you anticipate will be called up in September?

    Reply

    1. Remember that rosters will only expand from 26 to 28 in September this year. It’ll really depend on roster needs at that point.

      Reply

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