SAN ANTONIO (May 5, 2026) — A Cinco de Mayo showdown between two teams wearing their Copa de la Diversion identities—the Midland Amigos (18-10) and the Flying Chanclas de San Antonio (8-20)—saw former MLB All Star Lucas Giolito pitch four innings and a trio of consecutive home runs hammered over the center, right and left field walls of The Wolff by San Antonio, leading to a 10-5 Flying Chanclas win.
In his first start with San Antonio, Giolito allowed five runs (three earned) on eight hits with two walks and two strikeouts across four innings.
Midland starter Mitch Myers struck out four Chanclas early, but he also allowed San Antonio to take the lead on Francisco Acuña’s double in the second. A 1-0 lead then grew exponentially in the third when the Chanclas’ offense erupted.
Salas singled in the third and took second base off a balk to get the Chanclas flying at the Wolff. A solid start for Myers was quickly turned on its head after allowing a free pass to Romeo Sanabria. Designated hitter Leandro Cedeño followed by launching one over the center field wall to inflate the lead 4-0. The hitting parade continued off the bat of Tirso Ornelas as he crushed the very next pitch over the right field wall to smash some pixels off the Wolff's video board. Ryan Jackson made it three straight homers for the Flying Chanclas as his first dinger of the year went flying to the left field berm as San Antonio’s ballooned to a whopping 6-0 after three. For San Antonio, this was their first time hitting back-to-back-to-back homers since May 25, 2022 when Connor Hollis, Esteury Ruiz and Yorman Rodriguez did in Frisco.
Meanwhile, Giolito danced around trouble in the first three innings and remained poised until unraveling in the fourth. Giolito allowed a single in each of the first three innings and two walks, but Midland tagged him in the fourth.
Brayan Buelvas hit a long ball off Giolito to deep left to chip away at the Flying Chanclas lead 6-1. After Giolito allowed two more hits, a rare Acuña fielding error allowed for another Amigos run to score to make it 6-2. After what was a sure double play to stop the bleeding, the Flying Chanclas' mistakes kept having the lead slowly diminish. Instead of a double play, De Vries reached first to load the bases on Giolito off a Salas catcher’s interference to set up Kuroda-Grauer for a left field single to drive in two runs. The fifth hit of the inning for Midland was hit right back to deep left by Brennan Milone for the last run of the inning to cut the lead 6-5. Giolito just clung onto the one run lead with a strikeout to escape the Amigos’ onslaught.
After quiet middle frames, Karpathios found himself a golden opportunity in the seventh with nobody out and the bases loaded. Karpathios grounded sharply to second and barely got called out at first off, a hustling effort on a bobbled infield play. Although Karpathios was called out, Cedeño trotted over home plate to extend the San Antonio lead 7-5. Luis Verdugo joined the hitting committee on a whiffed infield grab that passed by Kuroda-Grauer to drive in Ornelas for a run in the rally. Acuña chopped one right back to Kuroda-Grauer for a ground out and Jackson scored to pile onto the runs before Salas continued his excellent night with an RBI single to conclude the Flying Chanclas’ blitz of runs in the seventh as San Antonio pulled away 10-5.
Flying Chanclas reliever Victor Lizarraga kept the Amigos offense in check through five innings out of the bullpen. Lizarraga didn’t allow any runs, grabbed two strikeouts and shut the door on Midland en route to a Flying Chanclas 10-5 victory.
Up Next:
The Missions and RockHounds continue their six-game series on Wednesday at 11:05 a.m. at The Wolff. Our annual Education Day welcomes schools from across the community for a unique daytime ballpark experience that combines baseball, fun, and school spirit! Catch all the action on Country Legends KKYX, 680 AM, 104.9 FM and kkyx.com. Tickets are available at samissions.com or by calling 210-675-7275.
The San Antonio Missions are the Double-A affiliate for the San Diego Padres. The Missions were established in 1888 and have brought affordable family fun to the Alamo City for more than 120 seasons. The 13-time Texas League champions play their home games at Nelson W. Wolff Municipal Stadium. For more information and tickets, call 210-675-7275 or visit samissions.com.