Ray Kerr in action this Spring. (Photo: Jerry Espinoza)
Sugar Land Space Cowboys 4, Chihuahuas 3
Key Stats: 3B Matt Batten 1-for-4, HR (1), BB; SS Tim Lopes 2-for-3, 2B, BB, CS (1); LF Preston Tucker 2-for-3, 3B, HR (1), HBP; DH Yorman Rodriguez 2-for-4, 2B; RHP Julio Teheran 4.1 IP, 10 H, 3 ER, 3 K; RHP Matt Waldron 1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB; 1 K; LHP Ray Kerr 1 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 K
Matt Waldron scales up his knuckleball . (Photo: Jorge Salgado)
Prospect Watch: The Chihuahuas dropped the rubber match of their opening three game homestand against (barely) in-state rivals, Sugar Land Sunday afternoon. Julio Teherán, who was in the mix for a spot in the big league rotation until late in camp, gave up three runs over 4.1 innings. The 32-year-old, who has almost a decade of big league service time but appeared in just one game in the majors over the last two seasons, mostly relied on his sinker and slider, with the former sitting 89-91 mph. Teherán gave up 10 hits and induced just six swings and misses across 77 pitches. The Colombian native worked in the zone all day, not issuing any walks and getting 15 called strikes. … Lefty reliever Ray Kerr, 28, had what’s become a typical outing for him. The 40-player roster option dialed his fastball up to 97 and got several awkward swings against his curveball, but also missed the zone with 8 of his 16 pitches and had to work around a walk and single in his inning of work. … Outfielder Preston Tucker, one of 13 players on the Chihuahuas roster who signed as a minor league free agent this winter, got the club on the board with a homer in the fifth and then tripled in his next at-bat. The 32-year-old left-handed hitter posted a .684 OPS across 600 big league plate appearances between 2015 and 2018, but spent most of 2019 through 2021 playing in Korea before returning to the U.S. last season. He owns a career minor league strikeout rate of just 17%, but has struggled with big velocity at the highest levels. … Matthew Batten, playing third on Sunday after getting the nod at shortstop the first two games of the season, connected on his first homer of the year. After missing time with a calf injury in Spring Training, the multi-positional contributor missed out on a potential big league bench spot to open the year. The 27-year-old from Connecticut had a career-high 12 round-trippers for El Paso last year.
Notes: The Chihuahuas will be off Monday, then open a typical six-game series in Sacramento Tuesday. The rest of the system begins play on Thursday. San Antonio split a pair of exhibition games against the Mexican League’s Monclava Acereros. The club’s likely top starters, Efraín Contreras and Jackson Wolf each worked just one tune-up inning in the series.
For subscribers, we’ve had features and interviews with Dylan Lesko, Ethan Salas, Samuel Zavala, and Jagger Haynes over the last week. We’ll have more interviews and previews of each of the remaining affiliates in the coming days.
