San Diego Padres Daily Farm Report: June 4

Sugar Land Space Cowboys 4, Chihuahuas 1

Key Stats: DH Will Wagner 2-for-4; 1B Marcos Castañon 2-for-4, HR (8); LHP Marcos Gonzales 4.2 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 8 K, BB; RHP Ethan Routzahn 2 IP, H, K, BB

Prospect Watch: Marcos Castañon homered for the second straight game, but that was all the offense the Chihuahuas could muster as they lost at home and fell 10 games under .500. Castañon has hit in six straight games, going 10-for-22 with a pair of walks in the process to push his line or the year to .309/.371/.500. While he’s a bit miscast at first base, where he has logged the plurality of his innings this year, the 27-year-old has cut his strikeout rate to a career-best 16.2% in his first extended taste of Triple-A competition. … Big league veteran Marco Gonzales turned in his most impressive outing for El Paso, but still settled for the loss. The 34-year-old lefty allowed a little traffic through the first four innings, but cruised through unscathed. He opened the fifth inning by recording his seventh and eighth strikeouts of the game, looking primed for his first five-inning start since the beginning of May. Instead, Sugar Land put up three hits in the next five pitches, plating the game’s first run and chasing Gonzalez. Misael Tamarez came on and surrendered a bloop single to the first batter he saw, plating both the inherited runners before he could get out of the inning. That pushed Gonzales’s final line to three earned runs over 4.2 innings with a season-best in strikeouts. He’s carrying an ugly 9.16 ERA with opponents’ average of .393.

Missions 5, Wichita Wind Surge 1

Key Stats: RHP Jhony Brito 5 IP, 3 H, ER, 2 K; RHP Josh Mallitz 2 IP, H, 3 K; RHP Andrew Moore IP, H, 3 K, BB; 1B Romeo Sanabria 2-for-4, HR (6); RF Braedon Karpathios 2-for-3, HR (4), BB; DH Tirso Ornelas 1-for-3, 2B, BB

Prospect Watch: While the Padres have been aggressive in stockpiling back-of-the-rotation arms from the free agent ranks, Jhony Brito is pushing for consideration among that group. The 28-year-old righty started six games for El Paso but worked exclusively in relief at the big league level for the Padres in 2024 after they acquired him in the Juan Soto trade. He spun five more strong innings for San Antonio in what will be his last outing before the Padres have to officially activate him from the 60-day IL and make a move to clear a spot on the 40-player roster. In four starts with the Missions, Brito has allowed only four earned runs over 18.1 innings despite only eight strikeouts against five walks. He’s found success by inducing a mind-blowing 67.3% ground ball rate as Texas League hitters have consistently rolled over his sinker and wicked changeup. … Romeo Sanabria collected his third consecutive two-hit game, adding a homer for the second straight night. The big first baseman now has his slugging percentage up to .398, the highest it has been all year. Sanabria got off to a brutal start, finishing April with a .176/.290/.282 line, but strung together a .813 OPS in May. He’s hitting .294/.384/.529 away from Wolff Stadium, but has just a .620 OPS at home on the year. … Braedon Karpathios had a pair of hits including his fourth homer of the year to extend his on-base streak to nine games. Through that stretch, he’s raised his OBP from .299 to .350 while striking out seven times in 39 trips to the plate. Oddly, the left-handed outfielder has had better results in the rough confines of the Wolff than on the road on the year.

Lake County Captains 10, TinCaps 4

Key Stats: RF Kavares Tears 2-for-4, 3B, HR (5); CF Jake Cunningham 1-for-4, 2B; RHP Carson Montgomery 5 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 6 K, 5 BB; RHP Will Varmette 0 IP, H, 3 ER, 2 BB; RHP Tucker Musgrove IP, 2 K

Prospect Watch: Carson Montgomery walked five batters through five innings, but limited the damage and gutted through 87 pitches. The 23-year-old righty, who has struggled to command his impressive arsenal going back to his high school days, ultimately surrendered three runs despite giving up only two hits – both singles. On the year, the Padres’ 2023 11th-round pick has held opponents to a .181 average despite a middle-of-the-road 23.1% strikeout rate and pedestrian contact data. The Padres’ primary hope for this year is that Montgomery will take the ball once a week and approach triple digit innings totals as he works back from Tommy John surgery that cost him nearly two full years. … While the bullpen behind Montgomery generally had a rough day, giving up seven earned runs, Tucker Musgrove struck out two of the three batters he faced in a nine-pitch outing. The righty has recorded 11 of his last 13 outs by strikeout and, encouragingly, hasn’t issued a walk in his last four appearances. If Musgrove can keep the ball in the zone, he will push to the top of the list of bullpen options in the system. … Kavares Tears stayed red hot with a triple and homer. After tallying only three homers and one triple in his first 37 games of the year, he has a pair of each in the last three. He’s added 94 points to his OPS since Sunday.

Storm 10, Fresno Grizzlies 4

Key Stats: RF George Bilecki 2-for-2, 2B, 3 BB, 2 SB (7); SS Jose Verdugo 1-for-5, 3 RBI; RHP Bryan Balzer 5.1 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 5 K, 2 BB; RHP Sean Barnett IP, 2 K, BB

Prospect Watch: Righty Bryan Balzer picked up his fifth win of the year with 5.1 innings of two-run work. Perhaps no pitcher in the organization has taken bigger steps forward in the last year. The 21-year-old, who originally signed out of high school in Japan in 2023, continues to flash an impressive three-pitch mix while settling into the finer points of pitching. He’s already just two thirds of an inning off his total from last year and has shaved more than three-and-a-half runs off his ERA. Balzer has improved his strikeout rate to 24.6%, cut his walk rate to a strong 8.2%, and has shown an impressive growth in his feel for game management. Balzer struck out five and walked two on Thursday. … Sean Barnett continued his strong run, throwing a scoreless inning while striking out two. On May 9, the righty got blown up for four runs without recording an out and finished the day with a 17.61 ERA. Since then, he’s allowed just one run in 9.1 innings, striking out 12. He continues to fight control, walking seven batters in that stretch, but his ERA is half of what it was a month ago. … Outfielder George Bilecki had a standout performance to lead the offense. The Lewis University product, who the Padres drafted in the 12th round last year, had a single, double, and drew three walks. Bilecki has had a fun week in Fresno, going 4-for-7 with four walks and a pair of extra-base hits. He also swiped a pair of bases on Thursday as the Storm added four more to their total. The club has 153 stolen bases on the year, the second-highest total in affiliated baseball.

ACL Padres 13, ACL Royals 4

Key Stats: SS Santiago Vargas 4-for-5, BB; 3B Dawson Willis 2-for-5, 2B, SB (2); LF Cardell Thibodeaux 3-for-5, 2B; RF Santiago Contreras 2-for-3, 2B, 2 BB; 1B Nick Vincent 2-for-3, HR (1), BB;  2 RBI; LHP Zack Qin 4 IP, H, 6 K, 2 BB;

Prospect Watch: The Padres went from cruising to a winning a laugher when the offense sent 11 batters to the plate and scored seven in the sixth inning. Cardell Thibodeaux‘s bases-clearing double was the big hit in the frame and came as part of a three-hit night. The left-handed hitter was the Padres’ 16th-round pick out of Southern University last July. He struggled mightily in Lake Elsinore at the end of the 2025 campaign and then dealt with injuries this spring, so he’s is just ramping up now. The 5-foot-8 outfielder/second baseman now has five hits in 18 at-bats on the year. … Switch-hitting infielder Santiago Vargas went 4-for-4 with a walk. The 18-year-old from Colombia has now reached base in 11 of his last 12 trips to the plate. He’s seen balanced playing time at second, third and shortstop in his first taste of professional ball. … How good has undrafted free agent Dawson Willis been to start his career? The 22-year-old third baseman had a single and double in five trips to the plate, and it dropped his OPS by 16 points. The Louisiana native has hit in all nine of his professional games and has at least one extra-base hit in six of his last seven. Willis had mixed results in his lone season at the University of Oklahoma, but had big production in two years at Division II LSU-Eunice, where he also earned national Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2024. … While every starter in the Padres lineup reached base at least once, lefty Zack Qin once again dominated on the mound. The 20-year-old, who is now 21 months post-Tommy John surgery, tossed four more scoreless innings, allowing just one single and a pair of walks while striking out six. Through five outings as he has built up, Qin has allowed two runs in 15.2 innings, putting up a ridiculous 30:3 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He’s punched out 46.2% of the batters he has faced as he prepares to join the Lake Elsinore staff shortly.