Padres’ Minor League Roundup For April 27th

Tommy Medica-Mandatory Credit: Zimbio.com.

All four of the San Diego Padres’ minor league affiliates were in action on Sunday, finishing with a 2-2 record. While one of the contests were a pitcher’s duel (Fort Wayne at West Michigan), the bats were out in a couple others. Sit back, relax, and enjoy today’s Padres’ Minor League Roundup for April 27th!

Triple-A

The El Paso Chihuahuas (9-14) beat the Sacramento River Cats (13-10) by a score of 6-5.

Concluding their season opening road trip, the Chihuahuas came out on the right end of things Sunday with a series finale win, 6-5 over Sacramento on Sunday. Billy Buckner, who was making his debut in the Padres’ organization, allowed one earned run over five innings to record the victory. Tommy Medica and Kyle Blanks led the El Paso offense, each going yard. Medica drove in three, while Blanks had a pair of RBI. Jeff Francouer had the single remaining RBI for El Paso. The Chihuahuas suffered some injury losses, as Kyle Blanks and Reymond Fuentes collided while converging on a fly ball in the sixth inning. No updated injury information is available at this time.

The road to victory wasn’t smooth however, as the River Cats put together a rally in the ninth inning, scoring two runs and putting both the tying and winning runs on base before El Paso Blaine Boyer came on and slammed the door by recording the final out of the ball game.

For Sacramento, starter Sean Murphy didn’t fair quite as well as Buckner, allowing six earned runs over five and two-thirds innings of work to get tagged with the loss. Phillip Humber relieved Murphy, and tossed just over a pair of scoreless innings to silence the Chihuahua bats for the remainder of the afternoon. Eight members of the Chihuahuas recorded base knocks, and one has to believe if the big club’s offense remains anemic, that some changes are going to be made soon and some of these young ballplayers may find themselves at Petco Park sooner rather than later.

The Chihuahuas return home to open a three-game series with Fresno starting at 7:05 p.m. CST. Jason Lane (2-2, 2.52) takes on Fresno’s Chris Heston (1-2, 3.97).

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Double-A

The San Antonio Missions (8-14) fell to the Midland RockHounds (14-8) by a score of 9-2.

The Missions’ offense looks eerily similar to the parent club in San Diego, and their output of 2 runs was right on par with what the season has held thus far. After being shut out for 40 consecutive innings, Rymer Liriano led off the seventh inning with a home run. It wasn’t enough, as the RockHounds already held a 6-0 lead by the time the Missions’ bats finally broke through. The Missions added an irrelevant run an inning later from an RBI double from Luis Tejada.

For the RockHounds, Max Muncy put the ‘Hounds out in front to stay for good with a first inning 3-run double off of San Antonio starter Jesse Hahn, who only last three innings, giving up three run, two of which were earned, while striking out four. The other offensive star of the day for Midland was Chad Oberacker, who had an RBI single in the fourth, and a two-run home run in the sixth off San Antonio reliever John Hussey. Midland starter Nate Long was in control the entire day, pitching five scoreless innings, striking out two. The Missions’ bullpen wasn’t much better than Hahn, allowing five more earned runs, six in total after Hahn’s exit.

The two teams will finish up their series Monday night at 7:05 p.m. CST, as Devin Jones (3-1, 4.29) faces off against Chris Jenson (2-0, 1.86). The Missions will attempt to win the finale and avoid a series sweep at the hands of the RockHounds.

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Single-A Advanced

The Lake Elsinore Storm (13-11) defeated the Inland Empire 66ers by a score of 13-3.

The Storm unloaded the heavy lumber on Sunday afternoon against Inland Empire to sweep their weekend series. Lake Elsinore scored five runs in the first, four in the second, two in the seventh, and two in the eighth to completely obliterate the 66ers. The scoring began on a Diego Goris single that scored a pair of runs, which was followed up by an RBI single from Chase Jensen. John Nester completed the Storm’s attack by doubling home another pair of runs.

Inland Empire went down quietly again in their half of the second inning, before the Storm pounced, and put the game out of reach for good. Gabriel Quintana began where Nester left off, doubling home another pair of Storm runs, followed once again by Goris, who doubled home Quintana. A third double in the inning from Luis Domoromo scored Goris, and put the Storm up early, 9-0 at the end of two.

It was pure ugliness for the Inland Empire pitching staff, as starter Alex Keudell was chased after giving up 11 hits, 9 earned runs, and striking out 4 in only 2 frames. Relievers Chris O’Grady and Austin Adams threw a combined 4 scoreless innings before Grant Gordon and Jairo Diaz each allowed 4 more earned runs in the final 2 innings. For the Storm, Ruben Mejia picked up his second win of the season, going 6 innings, allowing 2 earned runs, and striking out 4 hitters. The win helped the Storm complete their second series sweep of the 2014 season.

The Storm continue their current home stand on Monday as they open a four-game set with Bryan Rodriguez (0-2, 2.35) taking the hill against the Visalia Rawhide and Jesse Darrah (2-0, 5.12) at 6:05 p.m. PST.

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Single-A

The Fort Wayne TinCaps (9-13) lost to the West Michigan Whitecaps by the score of 2-1. 

When you have 14 consecutive hitters retired, the odds of coming away with a victory, let alone staying in the game are reduced dramatically. The TinCaps fell by a single run, as their sticks were nowhere to be found Sunday in Michigan. The sole run came in the final frame, as both starting pitchers did well enough to win. Unfortunately for Fort Wayne’s Adrian De Horta pitched a career-best five innings, allowing two runs (one earned), and whiffed a single hitter. His counterpart for West Michigan, Kevin Ziomek tossed eight shutout innings and struck out six hitters en route to his first victory of the season.

Ben Verlander (younger brother of Detroit’s Justin) and Dominic Ficociello scored the only runs for West Michigan, and nobody in the game recorded more than one hit. Fort Wayne returns to the field Monday night back home, as they host Great Lakes. Fort Wayne has yet to announce a starter for Monday night, but Great Lakes has James Campbell (1-1, 4.91) will start for the visitors. The game starts at 7:05 p.m. CST.

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