While the San Diego Padres are battling to stay neck and neck with the Dodgers in the race for the NL West division crown, the Rookie-level DSL Padres Gold team set an example for its parent club by winning a league title.
DSL Padres Gold outslugged the DSL Athletics, 12-5, in Game 3 of the best-of-3 finals to close out the first-ever Dominican Summer League Cup on Saturday. DSL Padres Gold went 39-17 over the DSL regular season, then won two straight games to advance through pool play and took a best-of-3 semifinals against DSL Pirates Gold before besting the A's affiliate to become champions.
Jhoan De La Cruz, the Padres' No. 16 prospect, scored two runs in the finale and put up a .962 OPS over seven games of postseason play. In the regular season, the 17-year-old middle infielder posted a .259/.477/.360 line with 11 stolen bases, five doubles, three triples and a homer over 53 games.
Center fielder Moises Valdez doubled twice from atop the DSL Padres Gold lineup on Saturday, and he led the club with five triples while batting .309/.410/.422 during the regular season.
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The championship club also featured Deivid Coronil -- MLB Pipeline's No. 35 prospect for the 2025 international signing period, now San Diego's No. 9 prospect -- during the regular season, although he did not play during the playoffs.
Edgar Montero, the A's No. 25 prospect, homered and plated three during a 2-for-4 showing in the losing effort. The 18-year-old shortstop was among the league leaders in home runs (T-3rd, nine), RBIs (4th, 50), OBP (T-9th, .484), slugging (T-4th, .580) and several other offensive categories after bopping 26 extra-base hits over 55 games.
The Athletics' Franco Zabaleta -- who surrendered two runs over two innings of relief on Saturday -- led the DSL with a 0.51 ERA, going 4-0 over 11 games -- eight starts. The 18-year-old lefty out of Colombia amassed 44 strikeouts while issuing 14 walks over 52 2/3 innings in his second professional campaign.
It was the DSL Rockies who entered the postseason as the team to beat. Colorado's Rookie-level club had a gaudy .750 winning percentage with far and away the best record in the league at 42-14. They boasted the league's batting leader in Cristian Arguelles (.422) as well as its RBI champion in Ronny Ugarte (68). But their 1-1 record in pool play was insufficient to get them a berth in the semis.