San Diego Padres: Michel Baez To Begin Title Run For San Antonio Missions

The San Diego Padres AA affiliate San Antonio Missions begin their run to a Texas League title tonight.

It’s time for one last run! The San Antonio Missions will look to end their affiliation as the Double-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres as the top team in the Texas League as they begin their championship series tonight against the Tulsa Drillers (Los Angeles Dodgers affiliate).

San Antonio completed an improbable comeback in the semi-final series, winning three straight games after falling down 0-2 against the Corpus Christi Hooks (Houston Astros affiliate). Owen Miller, a 2018 draft pick of the Padres, made some noise in his Double-A debut, hitting his first AA home run and recording a hit in four of the five games of the series.

The Missions will look to start the championship round in a different fashion, putting Michel Baez on the mound for game one. Baez has largely underperformed since his promotion to San Antonio, going 0-3 with a 7.36 ERA in four starts. Opponents hit .301 against him and drew 12 walks in 18 innings of work.

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Baez is the seventh-ranked prospect within the Padres farm system and 60th overall. Standing at 6’8″, Baez will continue to work on his command and rely on his 96-97 mph fastball to work through the Tulsa lineup.

There will be a lot of familiarity in tonight’s game one, seeing as Baez faced off against the Drillers in his first two starts with San Antonio. While he struck out 11 hitters in 8.1 combined innings, he allowed 10 earned runs on 10 hits (three home runs), walking seven in the process.

The Tulsa Drillers may have ended the regular season with the third-worst team batting average in the Texas League, however, they finished first in slugging percentage (.434), home runs (184), and total bases (2,026). If Baez doesn’t have his slider or other secondaries, Tulsa hitters will be sitting on the fastball, prepared to drill….

First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 pm CT with Tulsa hosting game one tonight and game two on Wednesday.