San Diego Padres Daily Farm Report: May 31

Chihuahuas 20, Las Vegas Aviators 5

Key Stats: RHP Angel Sánchez 4 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, BB, 4 K; LHP Jose Castillo IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 2 K; SS Matthew Batten 4-for-7, 3 R, 2 RBI, SB (16); 2B José Iglesias 5-for-7, 2 2B, 3 HR (4), 5 R, 8 RBI; DH Brett Sullivan 2-for-5, 2 R, RBI, BB; 3B Jantzen Witte 4-for-6, HR (5) 2 R, 7 RBI; RF Taylor Kohlwey 2-for-3, 2B, R, RBI, 3 BB; C Kevin Plawecki 2-for-5, HR (2), 2 R, RBI, BB

Prospect Watch: Two weeks ago, I mentioned how improbable it was for José Iglesias to hit for the cycle considering he had no triples and just three home runs as the Rockies starting shortstop last year.  Wednesday night, he one-upped himself and hit as many home runs as he did all of last year for Colorado. His 16 total bases are the most he has produced in any game as a professional. Despite a month of games under his belt, this one game raised his slugging 130 points.  The 33-year-old has found his power stroke with the Chihuahuas, and the more he hits, the more pressure he puts on the Padres to call him up. … El Paso drove in 20 runs, and 75% of them came from a pair of 33-year-olds.  Iglesias and third baseman Jantzen Witte. Witte hit a grand slam in the third inning, then came up again with the bases loaded in the fifth and singled home a pair.  After striking out with two runners on in the seventh, Witte redeemed himself with another RBI single in the eighth. Witte came up four times with a runner on third and had a hit in three of them. He will finish May hitting .381/.444/.603.  … Right fielder Taylor Kohlwey reached base five times on the night.  Kohlwey has now reached base in 10 consecutive games and firmly left his April struggles behind with a .474 on-base percentage and a .609 slugging percentage for May.

Roster Moves: The arrival of Gary Sanchez in San Diego had a domino effect on the system. With Brett Sullivan returning to El Paso and the recently-signed Kevin Plawecki on the roster, Yorman Rodriguez was squeezed out of Triple-A. The 25-year-old catcher/first baseman will return to San Antonio, where he enjoyed a career-best season last year. It will be interesting to see if he spends the majority of his time as a catcher. Last season, he played mostly first base and designated hitter.

Missions 3, Frisco RoughRiders 0

Key Stats: RHP Daniel Camarena (W, 1-2) 6 IP, H, BB, 5 K; RHP Alek Jacob (S, 2), 2 IP, 4 H; C Michael De La Cruz 2-for-4, HR (3), 2 RBI, SB (3); LF Connor Hollis 1-for-3, 2B, RBI, BB, SB (7)

Prospect Watch: Lefthander Daniel Camarena outdueling a Double-A pitcher is noteworthy.  It is even more noteworthy when the Double-A pitcher is top prospect Jack Leiter.  Leiter himself pitched extremely well, only giving up a solo home run to catcher Michael De La Cruz, but Camarena was the story of the game. In his other four May starts, Camarena had given up 14 earned runs in 11.1 innings. The last time Camarena threw six scoreless innings was in June 2021, shortly before being called up to San Diego.  … The only blemish on Leiter’s six innings was De La Cruz’s third homer of the year. The 30-year-old backstop would later single in the Missions’ second run of the game. Over his last four starts, De La Cruz is 8-for-15 with two doubles and the home run. … After winning the Texas League batting title last year, Connor Hollis has had a much tougher start to the year.  After a .512 OPS in April, he will finish May with a more respectable .724.  Hollis has reached base in four straight games and has doubled in back-to-back games. Alek Jacob worked two more scoreless innings to pick up his second save. The 24-year-old righty hasn’t allowed a run over his last six outings and, despite no strikeouts on Wednesday, has 11 without a walk over his last 9.2 innings.

Roster Moves: Korry Howell, who just came off the Injured List last week, returned to it Wednesday. He had singled, walked, and stolen a base Tuesday before needing to be removed.

TinCaps 5, South Bend Cubs 2

Key Stats: RHP Jared Kollar (W, 3-0) 5.2 IP, 4 H, 3 K; SS Jackson Merrill 2-for-4, HR (4), SB (5), 2 R, RBI; CF Jakob Marsee 1-for-3, R, BB, SB (15); C Juan Zabala 2-for-3, HR (2), 3 RBI, BB

Prospect Watch: After spending the better part of the last month battling illnesses, shortstop Jackson Merrill ended the month by reminding people why he is one of the top prospects in all of baseball. Merrill had his third straight multi-hit game, collecting his first home run – albeit of the inside-the-park variety – in three weeks and fifth stolen base of the year.  On May 6, Merrill was hitting .182/.244/.338. Since then he has reached base safely in all but two games and has hit .357.  He has raised his overall OPS by 140 points in a little over three weeks. … Center fielder Jakob Marsee stole his team-leading 15^th base of the season, good for fifth in the Midwest League. While he is only hitting .225, his 36 walks rank third on the circuit for an excellent .381 OBP while mostly hitting at the top of the order. … Continuing to make the most of his opportunities, undrafted free agent righthander Jared Kollar dominated again on the mound.  The Seton Hill and Rutgers alum has allowed one earned run in 14.2 innings across his last three starts, striking out 13 while only allowing nine walks. Part of the 24-year-old’s success has been his ability to attack the strike zone with all of his pitches. He has not walked a batter over his last three starts and tonight only had two batters all game get to a three-ball count. Since joining the TinCaps on April 22, Kollar has a 1.52 ERA and 0.89 WHIP.

Visalia Rawhide 9, Storm 4 (10 innings)

Key Statistics: C Ethan Salas 2-for-2, R, 2 BB; LHP Jagger Haynes 3.1 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 3 ER, BB, 3 K; RHP Manuel Castro 5.2 IP, H, 3 K; RF Albert Fabian 1-for-5, HR (7), 3 RBI; CF Nick Vogt 1-for-2, R, BB

Prospect Watch: A night after collecting two hits in his professional debut at designated hitter, Ethan Salas caught his first career game Wednesday. He again had two hits and walked twice.  With Salas turning 17 on Thursday, his .875 OPS will undoubtedly go down as the highest any Padres prospect ever produced at 16 years old. Defensively, Salas made a strong play from behind the plate, but did allow a stolen base, showing that he is not perfect… yet.  … After leading the club in home runs last year, right fielder Albert Fabian is on pace to do it again.  Fabian hit his team-best seventh home run of the season to bring a 4-0 deficit to a close 4-3 game. The Padres wanted to work with Fabian on cutting down his strikeouts after he went down on strikes 113 times last season. Over the last month, the 21-year-old struck out just 15 times in 23 games to go with a .529 slugging percentage … Lefthander Jagger Haynes continued his slow return from Tommy John surgery.  His 3.1 innings tonight was his longest outing as a professional.  While his overall line did not look good, he maintained velocity and didn’t show signs of slowing down until the fourth inning. … Righty Manuel Castro followed him to the mound and was excellent, allowing just two baserunners over 5.2 innings. The 21-year-old from Sinaloa, Mexico, had a few tough outings to start the month but finished it by allowing one run on four hits over his last 9.1 innings. His riding fastball has overmatched Low-A hitters, who are hitting just .195 against him on the year.

Roster Move: The Storm activated outfielder Kai Murphy from the seven-day injured list. To make room on the roster, outfielder Braedon Karpathios was sent back to the ACL. Righty Luke Boyd also joined the staff from the ACL to bring the Storm back to a full 30-man roster.