Sugar Land Space Cowboys 1, Chihuahuas 0 (11 innings)
Key Stats: LHP Omar Cruz 6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 6 K; RHP Lake Bachar IP; RHP Logan Gillaspie 2 IP, H, K, BB; RHP Alek Jacob IP, H; RHP Francis Pena 0.1 IP, H, 1 R (0 ER); 3B Clay Dungan 1-for-2, 2B, 2 BB; LF Tirso Ornelas 1-for-5, SB (7)
Omar Cruz has maintained his breakout since his promotion to El Paso. (Photo: Jorge Salgado)
Prospect Watch: Omar Cruz and a trio of Chihuahuas relievers kept Sugar Land off the board for nine innings, but the El Paso offense never got going, and the club dropped a rare 1-0 Pacific Coast League game. Cruz, 25, continued his massive breakout in his first season back in the organization, tossing six innings of two-hit ball. The lefty struck out six without issuing a walk, pushing his strikeout-to-walk ratio to 30:9 in 25 innings since reaching Triple-A. On the verge of becoming the rare minor league Rule 5 selection to reach the big leagues, Cruz has held opponents to a .185 average across his two levels of work this year while striking out 34.3% of the batters he’s faced. Sunday, he posted a strong 36% whiff rate and didn’t allow a ball in play off his offspeed stuff over 83 mph off the bat. … With the big league shuttle to support the Padres’ overworked bullpen running frequently over the last several days, El Paso also asked several relievers to return on short rest. Alek Jacob, who picked up the save Saturday, tossed a scoreless tenth inning on Sunday, tossing 10 of 16 pitches for strikes. … Lake Bachar needed just five pitches to get through a perfect inning of relief after starting Friday night’s bullpen game. The righty, recently added to the 40-player roster, punched out 28 over his last 20 innings. Infielder Clay Dungan had the Chihuahuas’ only extra-base hit of the day with a double. He also drew a pair of walks, pushing his OPS for the season .808.
Missions 5, Springfield Cardinals 4
Key Stats: DH Michael De La Cruz 2-for-4; 2B Ray-Patrick Didder 1-for-4, 2B; RHP Victor Lizarraga 4 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 5 K, 2 BB; RHP Raul Brito 2 IP, 3 H, 2 K; LHP Ryan Och 1.1 IP, 1 H, 2 K; RHP Bradgley Rodriguez (S, 1) 0.1 IP
Prospect Watch: San Antonio rallied for four runs in the eighth inning to claim the victory and seize a series split in Missouri despite managing just four hits on the day. In the eighth, the Missions strung together three walks, three hits, and a costly error on a shallow fly to the Springfield left fielder to surge back ahead. … Working on four days’ rest for only the third time this year, Victor Lizarraga worked around traffic in the first three innings to keep Springfield off the board. Still, he gave up three runs in the fourth inning, including a loud two-run home run. The 20-year-old righty did strike out five against one of the toughest teams in minor league baseball to punch out, bouncing back a bit from a rough start to open the series. The San Diego native, who has seen an uptick in his walk rate in the second half of the season, has thrown 90 innings on the year, sixth among Padres pitching prospects. … As he had each of the previous two weekends in Fort Wayne, Bradgley Rodriguez came back to finish the game after throwing an inning in Saturday night’s game. The 20-year-old is the only young reliever who has worked on back-to-back nights in the system all year, and he’s now done it successfully three times. The righty was called on with a runner on and two outs, and after getting ahead 0-and-2, induced a grounder to first to end the game and secure his first save at the Double-A level. Across three levels in his first season working stateside, Rodriguez has held opponents to a .181 average while striking out 29% of the batters he’s seen.
South Bend Cubs 7, TinCaps 2
Jagger Haynes is on track to finish the year with 100 impressive innings. (Photo: Jeff Nycz)
Key Stats: 2B Rosman Verdugo 2-for-5, 2B; DH Ethan Salas 1-for-4, 2B; SS Wyatt Hoffman 1-for-3, 2B, BB, SB (2); LHP Jagger Haynes 4 IP, 4 H, 8 K, 2 BB; RHP Tyler Morgan 2 IP, H, 2 K
Prospect Watch: The TinCaps dropped their second straight in South Bend but still claimed a series victory over their in-state rivals. Jagger Haynes blanked the Cubs for four innings but needed 85 pitches as he allowed four hits, walked a pair, and struck out eight. The heavy workload meant he failed to get through at least five innings for the second time in his last eight outings. The 21-year-old, who hoped to get to 100 innings pitched this year after managing just 25.1 last season, is up to 90 frames. After a brutal start to the year, he’s posted a 2.94 ERA since May. The lefty, who is the last remaining member of the club’s abbreviated 2020 draft class, has struck out 67 against 29 walks in his previous 57.2 innings of work. … After going 1-for-10 with five strikeouts in his first three games in the Midwest League, Rosman Verdugo collected a pair of hits including a double Sunday. The 19-year-old put together a .770 OPS in his second season in the Cal League. … In the lineup as the designated hitter, Ethan Salas connected on his fifth extra-base hit of the series. The left-handed hitting catcher is only hitting .194 in 39 trips to the plate this month, but with three doubles and a pair of homers, he has a solid .444 slugging percentage. Remarkably, he’s only struck out five times in August, but a .226 average on balls in play has cut into his overall production this month.
Storm 7, Stockton Ports 4
Key Stats: SS Leo De Vries 1-for-3, 2B, 3 BB, SB (13); C Brendan Durfee 3-for-5, 2 2B, HR (1); 1B Lamar King Jr. 2-for-5, 2B; CF Braedon Karpathios 2-for-4, BB; RHP Johan Moreno 0.2 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 3 BB; RHP Bernard Jose 3 IP, 3 H, 3 K, 2 BB; LHP Braian Salazar 2 IP, H, 4 K, BB
Prospect Watch: After losing five of six in Fresno last week, Lake Elsinore bounced back to win five of six in Stockton and return home with a .500 record on their final two-week road trip of the year. The two teams combined for 27 hits in the game. Still, while Lake Elsinore only went 5-for-22 with runners in scoring position, the Ports were even less effective, collecting just two hits in 19 opportunities with runners at second or third. … Leo De Vries collected his 20th double of the year and walked three times to finish off a series in which he reached based 16 times in 32 trips to the plate. The 17-year-old phenom has pushed his on-base percentage up to a season-best .367. Since the start of July, the switch-hitter has been slugging .618 while only striking out in 18% of his plate appearances. … Braedon Karpathios remained red hot, collecting two more hits and a walk. He reached base multiple times in all six games in the series and has a cool .467/.528/.733 line so far in August. After carrying a strikeout rate of over 30% through the first half of the season, the 21-year-old has cut that to 19.9% since the start of July. He continues to lead the league in walks by a large margin. … The new draftees who joined the Storm for this series have taken turns putting up big numbers, and catcher Brendan Durfee took up the mantle Sunday, pounding out a pair of doubles and his first professional homers. The 14th-round pick out of UC Santa Barbara, who has already turned 23, posted a 1.020 OPS in his lone season for the Gauchos after spending three weeks at Cal Lutheran. … Bernard Jose and Braian Salazar, who both joined Lake Elsinore after the ACL season, combined for seven strikeouts over five scoreless innings of relief. In their first two Cal League appearances, the duo kept runs off the board. Salazar, just 19, missed much of last year with shoulder issues but flashed some encouraging signs in the desert this summer.
