SAN ANTONIO — Playing under their Copa de Diversion Chanclas identity, the San Antonio Missions dropped their third straight game despite scoring three runs in the second inning to break a 17-inning scoreless streak.
Those were the only runs San Antonio scored on the night, though, and Frisco took the game 6-3.
Miguel Mendez is one of San Diego’s top pitching prospects. (Photo: Vashaun Newman)
Three of San Antonio’s six hits came in the second inning when Ryan Jackson reached on an infield single and came around on a Francisco Acuña double to right. Albert Fabian followed with his fourth home run of the season to right field to give the Chanclas a decent lead with staff ace Miguel Mendez on the mound.
Unfortunately for the club, after retiring six of the first seven batters he faced, Mendez ran into problems in the third, struggling to land his slider and changeup.
The 23-year-old hit the first batter, and gave up a single with the next hitter before getting the next two outs. Then Frisco opened it up for five straight hits, including back-to-back doubles to plate five runs.
“He was getting ahead of guys, and the command was good – he just couldn’t find that extra little bit to put the guys away,” said Burres. “Their offense also did a really good job of taking advantage of it, and they put together a bunch of hits.”
The Dominican right-hander did return for the top of the fourth and got three straight fly outs to end his night. Mendez needed 81 pitches to get through four innings, with 53 for strikes. His fastball was consistently in the upper 90s, but he struggled to command his secondary pitches.
Omar Cruz struck out eight on Thursday. (Photo: Vashaun Newman)
“We’ve had some decent wind blowing in here – and that’s not an excuse – but sometimes it bounces your way, and sometimes it doesn’t,” said Chanclas manager Brian Burres.
“The important thing is to keep getting your work in. The loss gets washed, and tomorrow is a clean slate. You have to approach it that way as a professional when you play this many games; it’s just what it is.”
Lefty Omar Cruz replaced Mendez and had one of his best outings of the season, tossing three innings with eight strikeouts and only allowing a run on a passed ball. After giving up the run, Cruz came back to strike out the last two hitters.
“He does a great job of flooding the zone with all three of his pitches [four-seam fastball, changeup, and curve],” said Burres. “When he can add and subtract like that, he can make some hitters look silly.”
Chanclas Notes: The Missions will attempt to get their first win of the homestand on Friday night, when left-hander Jagger Haynes takes the mound. … Braedon Karpathios returned to the lineup after missing two days for personal reasons. He was 1-for-3, with a walk. … Jackson had three of the club’s six hits on the evening, which was half of San Antonio’s total. Ethan Salas went hitless and didn’t reach base. After a big April and May, where he posted an OPS of .883 and .849, he is off to a slow start in June with a .156/.270/.156 slash line as he starts to face teams for a second time.
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