Batters dish out battering from start
Three-game sweep of Amarillo powered by 39-run outburst
The San Antonio Missions ended last season cold at the plate after finishing last in the Texas League in home runs. But with the addition of new prospects, the Missions started off scorching hot in their season-opening series against Amarillo.
The Missions hit a Texas League-high seven home runs in a sweep of Amarillo.
“Everybody in the Texas League knows that ballpark can be a real hitters-friendly ballpark,” Missions manager Luke Montz said. “Our offense did a lot of good things all around the board. It's early in the season, and we'll continue to keep working and moving forward.”
In the Missions' second game of the three-game series, shortstop Ray-patrick Didder caught fire by going 2-for-4 with two home runs, the latter a grand slam.
This was Didder's third career multi-homer game and his first career six-rbi performance.
“Ray-patrick Didder is another guy who spent quite a bit of time with us last summer before we sent him up to Triple-a,” Montz said. “He had a great weekend and hit the grand slam. We took advantage of the guys. (Amarillo) walked quite a bit, and they made a couple of errors, and we had guys on base. It seemed like we always came up with a big crucial hit, and Ray-patrick Didder was one of those guys.”
Nathan Martorella and Marcos Castañon, who spent time with the Missions last season, helped them outscore Amarillo 39-14 in the away series.
Martorella, the San Diego Padres' 13th-ranked prospect, batted 8-for-14 (.571) with two doubles, one home run and four RBIS.
Castañon, the Padres' 18thranked prospect, went 3-for-13 (.231) with two doubles, one home run and four RBIS.
“Those guys carried it over from spring training,” Montz said. “There were some guys swinging it well down there. Just some guys got up to a really hot start, and we took really good atbats. I thought we attacked them very well and stayed within ourselves, and those guys really showed it.”
The Missions had one of the best starting pitcher rotations and bullpens after posting the lowest ERA (4.27) in the Texas League last season. They've started this season on a similar track by being third in the Texas League in ERA (4.33) and strikeouts (37).
The Missions' top pitching prospect, Robby Snelling, walked three batters in only four
innings, but he had four strikeouts and gave up just one run.
“It's always easy to talk about a three-game sweep, but we did a lot of good things,” Montz said. “Our pitchers threw strikes, and for the most part, our bullpen guys did a real good job of coming in and continuing to throw strikes and get guys out.”
Missions pitcher Adam Mazur, the Padres' seventh-ranked prospect only allowed one walk and two hits in five innings against Amarillo.
“He was phenomenal,” Montz said. “It goes back to saying the way he had pounded the strike zone. You just have to get ahead of hitters there. …He went right after hitters, he stuck to his game plan and his strength, and he was dominant.”
On Tuesday, the Missions return to San Antonio to play their first home series of the year against the Northwest Arkansas Naturals.
“It's not like we're just going to show up to the ballpark and cakewalk, everybody,” Montz said. “These guys work hard, they show up every day, prepared, ready to go and that's the mentality and the mindset that we're taking. These guys all have goals and set up things for their summer. So we're going to continue to keep going day in day out the best we can and and go out there and win ballgames at seven o'clock at night.”
Prospect watch
Mazur had a 1.80 ERA with eight strikeouts and 0.60 WHIP in five innings pitched.
Standout hitters
Didder batted 4-for-7 (.429) with two home runs, six RBIS and a team-high 1.922 OPS.
Zach Reks went 5-for-13 (.308) with one home run, two doubles and a teamhigh eight RBIS against Amarillo.
Standout pitchers
Ryan Bergert had a 2.25 ERA and was second on the Missions with five strikeouts against Amarillo.
By the numbers
7 — Home runs hit by the Missions in their series against Amarillo, which leads the Texas League over that span.
24 — Walks taken by the Missions, which leads the Texas League.
34 — RBIS by the Missions in their series against Amarillo, which leads the Texas League over the last week.
4.33 — Missions' ERA, third lowest in the Texas League last week.
39 — Runs scored, which leads the Texas League by 10 after the first three games.