SAN ANTONIO (Aug. 23, 2026) — Grant Gambrell and the Northwest Arkansas Naturals (21-30) pitching staff held the San Antonio Missions (23-28) to a minimum of a two-run homer from Albert Fabian in the final frame. Aside from the late score, the Naturals comfortably played with a lead for almost the entirety of the evening, scoring seven runs including a two-run dinger of their own to hand the Missions a 7-2 loss and earn a series split.
Lefty starter Fernando Sanchez greeted his second batter in Colton Becker by plunking him with a pitch in the opening frame. Spencer Nivens sent a line drive to left field to score Becker for an early 1-0 Naturals lead.
Sanchez and Gambrell dueled from the bottom of the first frame to the top of the third stanza, trading pairs of 1-2-3 innings. Although Sanchez started off the fourth frame with two walks, he bounced back with two consecutive strikeouts. After the Mexican southpaw totaled 70 pitches, Clay Edmondson came in for a relief effort to close out the inning. A wild pitch got way from Edmondson that allowed a baserunner to score before closing out the inning with a punchout.
The first Missions’ hit of the night came off Luis Verdugo in the bottom of the fifth frame after Justin DeCriscio was hit by a pitch. Verdugo's single placed DeCriscio on third base, but Gambrell remained unphased, finishing his night off with two strikeouts to close out the fifth frame, racking up his total to nine.
Jorge Alfaro smacked a two-run home run over the left-center field wall in top of the eighth stanza to increase the Northwest Arkansas lead and Spencer Nivens sent a grounder to right field for a two-run single in top of the ninth to pad their lead 7-0.
Albert Fabian helped San Antonio avoid the shutout loss with a one out two-run home run after Romeo Sanabria’s base hit. Four different Naturals relievers combined for six strikeouts after Gambrell, allowing only two runs in the San Antonio 7-2 loss.
Up Next:
The Missions take a day off before hitting the road to take on the Springfield Cardinals at 6:35 p.m. on Tuesday with starters yet to be announced. 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.
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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.