Padres Minor League Report: Blake Hunt Homers Twice, Nick Solak Has 4 Hits As Chihuahuas Romp

[Steve Drumwright]

 

Sunday wrapped up another series for the four full-season San Diego Padres affiliates, who finished with a sweep of the day's action. The Triple-A El Paso Chihuahuas beat Las Vegas 15-9, the Double-A San Antonio Missions blanked Frisco 6-0, the High-A Fort Wayne TinCaps prevailed over Lake County 7-5 and the Low-A Lake Elsinore Storm held on for a 2-1 win over Visalia.

Padres Minor-League Transactions

• San Antonio Missions activated C Brendan Durfee from the 7-day injured list.
• San Antonio Missions transferred C Colton Vincent to the Development List.

Blake Hunt's 2 HRs, Nick Solak's 4 Hits Lead Chihuahuas' Charge

Box score

Blake Hunt homered twice and drove in five and Nick Solak went 4-for-6 as the Triple-A El Paso Chihuahuas used a nine-run third inning to dump the host Las Vegas Aviators 15-9. The Chihuahuas (44-57, 9-17) snapped a four-game losing streak, bookending the six-game series with wins.

Hunt had three hits, Solak (two doubles) drove in two and scored three times, Mason McCoy went 2-for-4 with a walk, two RBIs and two runs scored, Carlos Rodriguez had two hits, two RBIs and two runs scored and Bryce Johnson had two hits, a walk, an RBI and two runs scored. Will Wagner homered and Romeo Sanabria walked twice, had a hit and scored twice. Solak had multiple hits in four of the five games he played this week, going 11-for-25 (.440) with three doubles, a triple and a homer.

Facing former Cy Young Award winner Dallas Kuechel, who just signed a minor-league contract with the A's, the Chihuahuas welcomed the left-hander back to pro ball with three runs in the first. John walked, stole second and came in on Rodriguez's third triple of the season. Solak then doubled home Rodriguez and two outs and a wild pitch later, McCoy plated Solak. After Las Vegas got one in the bottom of the first, Hunt hit his first homer of the game leading off the top of the second. With Kuechel now out after two innings, the Chihuahuas quickly put this one out of reach with nine runs in the third, sending 14 hitters to the plate. Wagner hit a two-run homer, Hunt a three-run shot (his seventh of the year), Rodriguez had an RBI single, Solak a run-scoring double, Marcos Castanon drew a bases-loaded walk and McCoy had an RBI double.

Missions right-handed starter Sean Boyle gave up five runs in 5⅔ innings. Rehabbing Padres right-handed reliever Jeremiah Estrada faced just two batters in replacing Boyle, walking one and striking out one.

Eric Yost's 6 Shutout Innings Fuel Missions

Box score

Right-handed starter Eric Yost pitched six shutout innings, Jake Cunningham drove in three runs and Braedon Karpathios hit a two-run homer as the host Double-A San Antonio Missions blanked the Frisco RoughRiders 6-0. The Missions (44-52, 13-14 second half) won three of the six games in the series and shut out the RoughRiders after being blanked on back-to-back nights Thursday and Friday.

Yost only gave up three hits while walking two and striking out five. He has allowed just three runs over his last 15 innings, striking out 17, lowering his ERA to 3.11. Left-hander Harry Gustin, right-hander Tucker Musgrove (Padres Mission's No. 9 prospect) and right-hander Garrett Hawkins each pitched a scoreless inning to finish.

Chris Sargent had a pair of hits for the Missions, who scored four runs in the third and two in the eighth. Carson Tucker had a sacrifice fly and Cunningham a bases-clearing double in the third, with Karpathios (Padres Mission's No. 12 prospect) hitting his two-run blast in the eighth. It was Karpathios' nine homer of the year.

Zach Evans' HR, Ryan Wideman's 3 SBs, Jack Costello's 4 RBIs Lift 'Caps 

Box score

Zach Evans cracked a tiebreaking two-run homer in the eighth inning as the host High-A Fort Wayne TinCaps overcame giving up a five-run third inning to pull out a 7-5 victory over the Lake County Captains. The TinCaps' third straight victory gave them four wins in the six-game series. The TinCaps are 41-54, including 14-15 in the second half.

Ryan Wideman (Padres Mission's No. 4 prospect) had three hits, three runs scored and three stolen bases, boosting is minors-leading total to 57, Jack Costello had three hits and drove in four and Justin DeCriscio also homered for the TinCaps, leading off the bottom of the first with his ninth of the season.

MLB reliever Jose Leclerc, on a rehab assignment from Triple-A after having surgery on his right shoulder in August, started and went one perfect inning, striking out one. This was Leclerc's third appearance of the week for the TinCaps after six in the Arizona Complex League. He has three scoreless innings, giving up just one hit with no walks and two strikeouts. Right-hander Abraham Parra followed and gave up all five runs in 1⅔ innings. But after that, right-handers Luis German (2⅓ innings), Will Varmette (2⅔) and Nick Falter (1⅓) combined for seven strikeouts over the final 6⅓ innings.

After the Captains' five-run third, the TinCaps came back with a pair in the bottom half on Costello's two-run double with two outs that made it 5-3. Costello trimmed it to 5-4 on a one-out RBI single in the fifth and then tied it in the seventh with another run-scoring single with two outs. Evans made Costello's work pay off by launching a 2-0 pitch deep to left, snapping a 5-5 tie. It was his third homer of the year.

The series drew 40,057 fans to Parkview Field, the third-largest attendance figure for the franchise since the new six-game set went into effect in 2021. That included a crowd of 8,048 Thursday, the fourth-largest attendance of the night across all the minors and the first of three sellouts this week.

Luis Maracara, Relievers Combine On 2-Hitter In Storm Win

Right-hander Luis Maracara and two relievers combined on a two-hitter, while Yoiber Ocopio and Truitt Madonna homered as the host Low-A Lake Elsinore Storm edged the Visalia Rawhide 2-1. With their third straight win, the Storm (50-46, 11-19) won four of six in the series.

In his third start and fifth appearance for the Storm since coming up from the Arizona Complex League, the 18-year-old went a season-high five innings and matched his season best with five strikeouts. He walked two and the only hit he allowed was a leadoff homer in the fifth inning on an 0-2 pitch that tied the game 1-1. Right-hander Brandon Langley struck out six in 2⅓ hitless innings and right-hander Sean Barnett picked up his second save of the season and of his career with one hit over the final 1⅔ innings, striking out two.

Ocopio had staked the Storm to a 1-0 lead with a one-out homer, his fifth this year, in the bottom of the second. After the Rawhide tied it on a homer in the fifth, the Storm regained the lead in the bottom half on Madonna's second homer of the year. Madonna was in his second game back after a week in the ACL.

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