San Diego Padres Daily Farm Report: September 3

Chihuahuas 9, Las Vegas Aviators 3

Key Stats: Mason McCoy 2-for-4, SF, SB (34); 2B Gage Workman 3-for-4, SF, SB (3), 4 RBI; RF Carlos Rodriguez 3-for-5, 2B, 2 SB (20); C Blake Hunt 3-for-4, 3 R; RHP Ian Koenig 5 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 8 K, 2 BB; RHP Logan Gillaspie 3 IP, H, 5 K; RHP Hunter Stratton IP

Prospect Watch: The Chihuahuas snapped a five-game losing streak using a 15-hit attack to back Ian Koenig in his first Triple-A victory. Koenig, 25, allowed three runs over five innings, but in the hyper-charged offensive environment of Las Vegas, that was enough. The undrafted free agent ran his sinker up to 96 while getting a 50% whiff rate with his slider and recording 51 strikes on 82 offerings. While he showed off his five-pitch mix, those two offerings have been his calling card since coming into the organization. Koenig matched his season- and career-high with eight strikeouts while walking only two. His 131.1 innings on the year putting him fifth in all of minor league baseball. … Hunter Stratton worked a clean inning of relief with his four-seamer and sinker both sitting at 96. The 29-year-old, acquired at the deadline when the Pittsburgh Pirates had a 40-player roster crunch, has allowed just two earned runs in 13.2 innings in his third organizational stop of the year. Stratton has amassed a 3.88 across 62 big-league innings over the last three years. … Fellow trade acquisition Gage Workman fueled the offense with a 3-for-4 day and a sacrifice fly. The long-levered left-handed hitter went 12-for-59 over his first three weeks in El Paso, but has gone 6-for-11 with a pair of walks in this series. The 2024 Rule 5 draft pick will have two option years remaining going into next season. … Blake Hunt collected three more hits, keeping his OPS above 1.000 in a year that started late after a significant oblique strain. The 27-year-old backstop, who hasn’t topped 300 plate appearances since 2023, is on track for his most successful career offensive campaign.

Midland RockHounds 3, Missions 0

Key Stats: RF Braedon Karpathios 2-for-3, BB; 1B Romeo Sanabria 3-for-4; RHP Abraham Parra 5 IP, 3 H, 3 R (2 ER), 4 K, 3 BB; RHP Francis Peña 2 IP, 2 H, K; LHP Harry Gustin 2 IP, 2 H, 3 K

Prospect Watch: Midland used an ugly three-base error and wild pitch to push a run across in the first, which would have held up for San Antonio’s ninth shutout loss of the season even if the Hounds hadn’t added on later. Missions batters combined for seven singles while striking out 12 times on the day. Braedon Karpathios and Romeo Sanabria once again delivered, as each reached base three times. Sanabria collected his third three-hit game in his last five contests. Since returning from a nightmare stint in the PCL, the left-handed first baseman has hit .456/.525/.559 across 19 games. While the Miami native still has to find a way to get to more power, he now has a solid .292/.394/.429 line for the Missions. … Karpathios, who had a pair of singles and a walk, hasn’t been far behind in trying to keep the offense going. The left-handed outfielder had a pair of hits and a walk out of the leadoff spot and now sports a .333/.413/.583 line over the last month. He has five straight multi-hit games. The 23-year-old has been among the most productive hitters in Double-A since the start of August, but continues to post whiff and strikeout rates well north of 30%. Karpathios pushed over 500 plate appearances for the third straight season. … After a brutal first start for the Missions when he couldn’t get out of the first inning, Abraham Parra pitched much better this time out. After taking the unearned run in the first, the 20-year-old worked around a walk in each of the next two innings, but didn’t allow his first hit of the game until there was one out in the fifth. He ultimately gave up two more singles – one on the infield – and settled for a line of five innings and two earned runs. The Venezuelan righty has a chance to hit 100 innings for the first time as a professional in his last start of the year next week; he currently sits at 94.2. … Righty Francis Peña needed only 18 pitches to work two scoreless innings and lower his ERA since the start of July to 2.55. Encouragingly, he’s walked only eight batters over 24.2 innings in that stretch after struggling mightily to find the zone earlier in the year. Now 25 years old and two years removed from his breakout campaign, Peña has put himself back in the mix for a bullpen spot next year with his showing in the second half.

Lansing Lugnuts 8, TinCaps 2

Key Stats: SS Rosman Verdugo 1-for-2, 2B, 2 BB; 3B Kerrington Cross 1-for-3, BB; 1B Yoiber Ocopio 1-for-4, HR (1), 2 RBI; RHP Bryan Balzer 3.1 IP, 6 H, 5 R (3 ER), 2 K, 3 BB, HBP; RHP Sean Barnett 1.2 IP, H, 2 K, BB;

Prospect Watch: Yoiber Ocopio put the TinCaps on the board first with a two-run homer in the second inning, but Fort Wayne’s offense couldn’t get another runner past second base all night. Working with the lead, Bryan Balzer again struggled to turn his tantalizing arsenal into consistent results as he allowed six hits, three walks and a hit batter over 3.1 innings of work. The talented 21-year-old recorded only 42 strikes on 81 pitches and just two punchouts. While the Japanese hurler flashed interesting stuff as he nearly doubled his workload to 98.2 innings this year, he’s been in the bottom quartile of High-A pitchers in zone percentage and hitters have learned they can simply wait him out rather than chasing out of the zone. If he can land more of his fastballs for called strikes, his breaking ball and split-finger fastball have the potential to be big weapons. … Rosman Verdugo had a double and drew a pair of walks as he looks to finish his second full season in the Midwest League strong. The 21-year-old from Baja California has generated career-bests in both strikeout rate (25.6%) and isolated power (.159) but has somehow not been able to translate that into better overall production this year.

Inland Empire 66ers 11, Storm 1

Key Stats: SS Elliot Lascelles 1-for-4, 2B, SB (5); 2B Jose Verdugo 2-for-3, 2B, SB (35); CF Dawson Willis 1-for-3, 2B; RHP Lan-Hong Su 4.2 IP, H, 2 ER, 9 K

Prospect Watch: Starter Lan-Hong Su was stellar through four perfect innings, striking out eight and allowing just one ball out of the infield, but he hit a batter to break up his perfect game with one out in the fifth. One out later, he gave up a two-run blast over the high wall in right field in Elsinore to finish an otherwise fantastic night on a down note. The 19-year-old hadn’t made it to the fifth inning in any previous professional start, but earned the opportunity by using only 47 pitches through the first four frames Thursday. After tuning up and dealing with blisters in the desert early this year, Su finished his Cal League campaign with a 5.63 ERA over 32 innings in 11 starts for the Storm. That doesn’t tell the full story though, as the Taiwanese righy gave up 12 runs in his first three outings, but just eight over his final 24.1 frames. Su still has plenty of physical development ahead of him, but he’s shown the ability to land his four-pitch mix for strikes and ended the year by setting career strikeout highs in each of his last three contests. … When Su was off the mound, Storm fans had almost nothing to cheer for. Jose Verdugo had a double as part of Elsinore’s only multi-hit night. The 18-year-old later added a single and stole his 35th base of the year in the seventh, but he got hit in the head by the shortstop on the play as the throw tailed toward right field. Verdugo was on the ground for a minute before getting up. He remained in the game at the time, but was pinch hit for in the ninth in what appeared to be a precautionary move once the game was out of hand. The diminutive infielder skipped over the complex league when he came stateside this year, but more than held his own in full-season ball. Verdugo has hit .273 while striking out only 16.7% of the time. He’ll need to add strength to boost an anemic .086 isolated power rate, but even if he returns to the Cal League to open next year, he’ll be among the younger players on the circuit.

Roster Move: Righty Michael Salina was placed back on the IL to end his year after he exited Wednesday night’s game with the trainer. The Padres’ fourth-round pick in 2025 after he had already undergone Tommy John surgery, the New York state native only managed to log 7.2 innings on the year as he endured repeated setbacks in his recovery. At the end of last summer, the organization hoped he would be ready to go out to an affiliate by May. Instead, he was slow to get going in spring training and only got into two games in the desert in mid-May before shutting it down for two more months. He finally got to Elsinore in early August, but exited his first appearance there. After visits with the medical staff in San Diego, he returned to action on the 19th. We’ll hope to have more on his situation next week.