Padres Down on the Farm: March 29 (Chihuahuas comeback comes up short)
Photo: Jorge Salgado
The San Diego Padres’ minor league affiliates returned to action on Saturday, going 0-1 in official games.
Here is a recap of the night’s events.
El Paso Chihuahuas (Lost 7-6 vs Salt Lake) (1-1 on the season)
Mason McCoy – 2-for-3, Double, Two RBI
Trenton Brooks – 2-for-5, Three RBI
Mike Brosseau – 2-for-4, Double, Single, Two RBI
Jared Kollar – 3 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 3 BB, 1 K (58 pitches, 35 strikes)
After a thrilling 10-3 win in their season opener, the El Paso Chihuahuas fell behind the 8-ball early. Chihuahuas starter Jared Kollar struggled with his command early against the Bees, but not in the conventional way. Kollar didn’t struggle with walks, but his pitches were not ending where he wanted them. He finished the inning having allowed four barrelled ball hits and four runs to score within the first four batters, with back-to-back home runs off the bat of NIko Kavadas and J.D. Davis giving Salt Lake a 4-0 lead. It was not the ideal start to the season for the former Seton Hill & Rutgers hurler, who finished the night having allowed five runs in three innings of work. Kollar’s stability last season helped the Chihuahuas finish the season strong, and he will look to return to form in his next start.
The Chihuahuas’ offense showed signs of life early, however, as Forrest Wall reached base to open the bottom of the first, and Trenton Brooks drove him in on an RBI single. Brooks’s speed wasn’t up to snuff, as the Chihuahuas DH fouled a ball off his knee in the first inning; nonetheless, he played the rest of the game. The team had a chance to rally for more, but Oscar Gonzalez grounded into a double play immediately after Brooks’s single (despite hitting the baseball at over 110 mph). While Salt Lake brought across another run in the second inning, Mason McCoy got that run right back with a sacrifice fly.
El Paso’s relief corps held their own throughout the middle innings, with Jason Blanchard firing off two scoreless innings with two punchouts. Kevin Kopps, who impressed Padres’ scouts and personnel in limited spring training action, rattled off a clean sixth inning with a strikeout, keeping the Bees away from making overtly hard contact against him. Before the season, EVT covered how the Chihuahuas bullpen had the potential to keep opponents at bay thanks to arsenals that induced soft contact, and Kopps’ cutter succeeded in this regard. Tom Cosgrove fired a scoreless seventh inning with a strikeout, his first appearance of the season. For Cosgrove, this one appearance marks the start of his trek back to the Majors after a disappointing 2024 campaign.
The Chihuahuas lineup trimmed the deficit in the bottom of the seventh inning, with sharp one-out singles from Clay Dungan and Mason McCoy setting up the rally. A wild pitch with two outs moved the runners to second and third, and Trenton Brooks again stepped up to the plate. Brooks delivered yet again, singling in both runners and narrowing the deficit to one run.
— El Paso Chihuahuas (@epchihuahuas) March 30, 2025
Chihuahuas manager Pete Zamora turned to right-hander Logan Gillaspie in the top of the eighth inning, and Gillaspie made quick work of the first two batters. With two outs, Scott Kingery and Yolmer Sanchez singles on ground balls under 90 mph off the bat, prompting the home team to turn to Austin Davis. The left-hander battled Bees catcher Sebastian Rivero, and on the eighth pitch of the at-bat, Rivero lined a double to left field, scoring both runners and giving Salt Lake a 7-4 lead with six outs on offense left for the Chihuahuas.
Sebastian Rivero two-run double to extend the lead in the eighth! pic.twitter.com/IA3DaSw8QV
— Salt Lake Bees (@SaltLakeBees) March 30, 2025
Even with time running out, El Paso didn’t go down without a fight. Tirso Ornelas and Connor Joe singled, and Mike Brosseau grounded a base hit to center field, scoring Ornelas and bringing the tying run to the plate. Clay Dungan punched out swinging against Bees reliever Michael Petersen, and Mason McCoy again stepped up to the dish. Despite being the nine-hole hitter, McCoy would be the one guy the team would want up at this moment, and he came through again, lining a middle-middle cutter to left field, scoring Joe, and making it a one-run game. Forrest Wall would come up with the tying run 90 feet away but was unable to come through, getting a 98 mph fastball blown past him to end the threat.
Facing Bees closer (and former Rangers top prospect) Hans Crouse, El Paso aimed to make magic happen again, but it ultimately was not meant to be in this ballgame. Crouse struck out Trenton Brooks and retired both Oscar Gonzalez and Tirso Ornelas on batted balls to first baseman Niko Kavadas to secure a one-run win for the Bees.
BALLGAME OVER!
Hans Crouse delivers his first save of the season! pic.twitter.com/ExKsIm7nxH
— Salt Lake Bees (@SaltLakeBees) March 30, 2025
The Chihuahuas return to action on Sunday in a matinee showing, at 11:05 am Pacific. Angels top prospect Caden Dana takes the mound for the visiting Bees, while right-hander Stephen Kolek makes his Chihuahuas debut for El Paso.
A born and raised San Diegan, Diego Garcia is a lifetime Padres fan and self-proclaimed baseball nerd. Diego wrote about baseball on his own site between 2021-22 before joining the East Village Times team in 2024. He also posts baseball content on his YouTube channel “Stat Nerd Baseball”, creating content around trades, hypotheticals, player analyses, the San Diego Padres, and MLB as a whole.
A 2024 graduate of San Diego State, Diego aims to grow as a writer and content creator in the baseball community.