El Paso Chihuahuas (Lost at Sacramento River Cats, 2-4)
Jackson Wolf had his funky delivery working wonders last week. (Photo: Jorge Salgado)
Players of the week: Although they lost the series, El Paso’s two wins were 12-1 on Friday and 16-5 in the series finale, so they did bring their bats to Northern California. The Chihuahuas still have a two-game lead in the PCL East over the Round Rock Express in the second-half standings. … On the field, Yonathan Perlaza posted an OPS of 1.159 as he blasted two home runs and two more doubles to add to his franchise record of 41. Perlaza, 26, began his career on the dirt but has played exclusively in the outfield since 2021 and has proven to be a solid contributor after signing as a minor league free agent last winter to return from a season in Korea. On the season, he has a ..304/.393/.514 slash line in 516 plate appearances. … Jackson Wolf, 26, had one of the best starts of his career as he threw more than seven innings for the first time this season. He didn’t allow a run, scattered two hits had had eight strikeouts against one walk in 7.2 innings for the win. On the season, he is second on the team in innings pitched with 81.2 and has a 6-2 record with a 5.51 ERA. He has been much better on the road with a 3.90 ERA, where the altitude doesn’t affect the movement of his sinker/slider repertoire as much as it does at home.
Top Prospects and Others of Note: Tirso Ornelas, 25, blasted two home runs while reaching base at a .429 clip for a 1.048 OPS on the week. In 13 games since coming back from an extended stint on the IL dealing with plantar fasciitis, he has a .260/.387/.588 line in 62 plate appearances. … Clay Dungan continues to play a variety of positions while adding value with his left-handed bat. He posted a 1.040 OPS with six hits in six games, including a pair of home runs. Dungan, 29, leads the team with 523 plate appearances and has a solid .809 OPS on the season. … Luis Campusano, 26, continued what has been a great year in Triple-A, collecting seven hits and three walks in five games. The Georgia native also blasted a pair of home runs, and now ranks second in the league with 23. … Randy Vásquez, 26, had a nice outing in his lone appearance, throwing five shutout innings, while allowing only a pair of hits and two walks and striking out two. … Lefty, Kyle Hart, 32, continued his transition to the bullpen with three scoreless innings across two appearances. So far, the bullpen plan is paying off as he has a 1.90 ERA in 18 PCL innings after posting a 3.00 ERA in 41.2 frames as a starter in El Paso. He also 6.2 innings of shutout work out of the big league bullpen. (John Conniff)
San Antonio Missions (Lost to Amarillo Sod Poodles 2-4)
Víctor Lizarraga is looking to end the year on a high note. (Photo: Rey Holguin)
Player of the Week: It was a week to remember for right-hander Victor Lizarraga. The 21-year-old was named the Texas League pitcher of the week after his dominant start on Saturday night when he worked seven shutout innings, allowing just three hits while striking out a season-high nine batters without walking any. Lizarraga’s mid-80s slider flashed good depth while his fastball sat 92-94 mph. His arsenal generated 18 swing-and-misses and a 37.5% whiff rate while extending his scoreless innings streak to 13.2. It’s been quite the rebound considering he had allowed 19 runs in 8.2 innings in his prior three starts. … It was another rough week for the Missions offense as no player who came to the plate at least 10 times finished the series with an OPS above .703. Against that backdrop, Braedon Karpathios went 4-for-18 with a pair of extra-base hits that logged exit velocities north of 100 mph in five starts in his first week with the Missions. On his triple, he displayed some impressive power, lining a ball square off the middle of the center field wall that few batters reach at Nelson Wolff Stadium. In 108 games on the year, his .775 OPS translates to a 123 wRC+ and .371 wOBA. He’s continued to show good patience, logging a 14.8% walk rate.
Top Prospects and Others of Note: Harry Gustin made a pair of quality appearances in his debut week for the Missions. The left-hander worked a combined five shutout innings. While he allowed four walks, he yielded only two hits and punched out three. Gustin has quietly had a strong 2025 season. Across 54.2 innings of long relief, he owns a 28.5% strikeout rate that has fueled a 3.19 FIP and 3.35 xFIP. He has outperformed that with a 2.14 ERA. The pair of scoreless appearances for San Antonio stretched his scoreless innings streak to 11 innings. … Like Lizarraga, Enmanuel Pinales had a stellar shutout start, but didn’t get a win out of the performance. The righty tossed six scoreless innings, scattering five hits and a pair of walks. The 24-year-old has had up-and-down results since joining San Antonio in May, but has reached a triple-digit innings total for the second straight season. … Miguel Mendez struggled for a second straight outing. While the right-hander cruised through his first four innings of work Wednesday, things fell apart in the fifth as he allowed three straight extra base hits, including a home run, and one walk before eventually being removed. Even with the struggles, Mendez’s stuff still flashed as he logged 13 swing-and-misses and a 25.4% whiff rate on the afternoon. … Eric Yost also took his lumps for a second straight start, giving up four runs on six hits over just 3.2 innings as he walked four and struck out three. Five of the first six batters he faced reached base before he stabilized a bit. Since joining San Antonio in mid-July, Yost has struggled with his command a bit more than usual, posting a 11.8% walk rate in 21 innings. … Romeo Sanabria, the top offensive prospect who’s been with San Antonio for most of the year, had yet another slow week. The big left-handed first baseman went just 2-for-17 at the plate, though one of those was his first long ball since August 3. Since the MiLB all-star break on July 18, Sanabria has posted just a .554 OPS, 64 wRC+, and a .262 wOBA. (Clark Fahrenthold)
Fort Wayne TinCaps (Split at Lake County Captains, 3-3)
Brendan Durfee has started to square the ball up recently. (Photo: Jeff Nycz)
Player of the Week: After a hot month in April, Brendan Durfee had not hit over .200 in any month since. However, since Lamar King Jr. got promoted to join him in Fort Wayne, it has been a different story. Durfee went 5-for-17, with a double, two home runs and five RBI in the Cleveland suburbs, and over his last nine games, he’s batting 10-for-32 with a .688 slugging percentage. Prior to this stretch, Durfee only had two homers in in 74 games. … Relievers aren’t often asked to throw five innings, however Fernando Sanchez came on to piggyback Clark Candiotti in a scheduled seven-inning game and blew through his first three innings. When the game went to extras, he just kept going. While he was charged with two unearned runs as the Manfred Man came around in both of the next two frames, he earned the right to finish the game having allowed only two hits. The lefty has a 2.44 ERA over 62.2 innings for the TinCaps.
Top Prospects and Others of Note: Eguy Rosario is finally on the comeback trail after missing over two months with a sports hernia. His rehab return to the TinCaps didn’t start great as he struck out nine times in 14 at-bats. … Lamar King Jr. had a solid week, going 4-for-14 with two doubles to match his extra-base hit total from his first two weeks with the TinCaps. King has hit a solid .273, but is still waiting for his first High-A home run. Between Low-A and High-A, King is hitting .284/.364/.399. … Kai Roberts led the way with seven hits on the week, going 7-for-20 with a triple, three RBI, and two stolen bases. While Roberts has struggled, hitting just .204 with the TinCaps, he leads the club with a .353 OBP and 26 stolen bases. … Prior to Sunday’s game, Jack Costello had one home run in 52 games since June 11. Naturally, he hit two Sunday to help lead the TinCaps to a come-from-behind win and a series split. After hitting six home runs in 25 Lake Elsinore games last year, Costello has struggled to find that same power bat in High-A. The two home runs raised his slugging percentage to just .328. … Rebounding after a bad start, Clark Candiotti threw four innings of one-run ball and struck out five. This was the first time he went at least four innings since May 28, but even more noteworthy, the 24-year-old, who had walked 10 in his previous 13.1 innings, didn’t issue a free pass. While his 5.06 ERA is not impressive, Candiotti boasts a solid 27.7% strikeout rate on the season. … Luis Gutierrez pitched around some less than stellar defense to turn in five quality innings. He gave up four runs, two earned, while only walking one. The 22-year-old has already set career highs in innings (103) and strikeouts (91). … Having shutout Lake County for six innings, Ian Koenig was tagged with a tough loss after giving up three runs in the seventh. It was still the third straight game Koenig has pitched into the seventh. After having a 6.89 ERA after June, Koenig has allowed three or fewer runs in six of his last seven starts, including three times allowing one or no earned runs. … Josh Mallitz continued his excellence since returning from the IL with another 2.2 scoreless innings. Since coming back, Mallitz has been scoreless in seven of his eight outings, allowing three earned runs, while walking only one and striking out 12 in 12 innings. … After six weeks on the IL, Cole Paplham returned to throw a scoreless inning and strike out one. Since showing off a near triple-digit fastball in the AFL in 2023, Paplham has thrown only 27.1 innings. … With his best start in two months, Will Varmette tossed six innings of one-run ball. It was the first time since May Varmette has completed six innings. While he walked three and didn’t strike out a batter for the first time in three months, he dodged traffic effectively. The 22-year-old is 5-8 with a 6.43 ERA over 71.1 innings this season. (Ben Davey)
Lake Elsinore Storm (Storm lost at Stockton Ports 1-5)
Kavares Tears had plenty to celebrate this week. (Photo: Robert Escalante)
Top Performers: The Storm opened the series with a victory and then proceeded to lose five straight, including an extra-innings back-breaker on Sunday in which they allowed four runs in the bottom of the 10th. … The Storm offense homered six times in the series with Kavares Tears accounting for two of them in a huge afternoon in Sunday’s finale. The blasts were his first in 39 games since he last homered on June 28. The multi-homer performance resulted in an OPS of 1.328 in his four games on the week. Tears’ production in Stockton is very encouraging, considering he hit just .196/.316/.273 in 171 plate appearances in-between homers. … Righty Vicarte Domingo made a pair of appearances and struck out six batters in four shutout innings of work. He allowed just one hit, finishing the week with a 0.50 ERA. The 22-year-old has been the most consistent reliever for the Storm this season. In 35 games, spanning 61 innings, Domingo has a 3.54 ERA while striking out 32.4% of the batters he has faced.
Top Prospects and Others of Note: Catcher Carlos Rodriguez has quietly been one of the best hitters down the stretch for the Storm. The left-handed hitter had a .960 OPS on the week with a pair of homers and seven RBI. In 144 plate appearances with the Storm, the 22-year-old is hitting .303/.429/.465 with three homers and an 18% walk rate. … Third-rounder Ryan Wideman had a nice week at the plate, going 6-for-22 with a triple and three RBI. He also added four stolen bases to his ledger. The former Western Kentucky star has a wRC+ of 69 in his first 16 games as a professional. … After clobbering Cal League pitchers for most of August, outfielder Alex McCoy had a rare quiet series against the Ports. McCoy had a .589 OPS, but he did add a pair of stolen bases. … Infielder Justin DeCriscio joined the Storm roster after Kerrington Cross went on the injured list. In three games, DeCriscio delivered a pair of hits, including his first homer. The Orange County native played three seasons at USD before transferring to North Carolina State – where he took over at shortstop from former Padres prospect Brandon Butterworth. He was drafted in the 10th round in July. … Kash Mayfield turned in another solid outing, allowing a pair of runs as he pitched five innings for the second consecutive start. He walked one and struck out five. In 54.1 innings for the Storm, Mayfield has a 2.98 ERA with a 33.3% strikeout rate. (Kevin Charity)
