Bill Center, longtime sportswriter for U-T San Diego, is an employee of the Padres.
Shortly after El Paso's season ended Tuesday night in a 3-1 loss to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in the Triple-A Championship Game, six members of the Pacific Coast League champion Chihuahuas were rerouted to San Diego.
Outfielders Hunter Renfroe and Manuel Margot, catcher Austin Hedges, second baseman Carlos Asuaje and left-handed relief pitchers Buddy Baumann and José Torres will join the Padres Wednesday for the final 11 games of the National League season.
Hedges spent most of the 2015 season with the Padres. Baumann had three short tours with the Padres earlier this season. The other four will be on an active Major League roster for the first time.
Hedges, Renfroe, Margot and Asuaje were all members of the post-season All-PCL team. Renfroe was the PCL's regular season Most Valuable Player. Margot was the PCL's playoff MVP. Asuaje was the PCL Rookie of the Year.
The Chihuahuas got only six hits Tuesday night in the Triple-A Championship Game played at Memphis, Tenn.
Margot was 1-for-4 and scored El Paso's lone run in the sixth. Hedges was 1-for-4 with a RBI. Asuaje was also 1-for-4. Shortstop José Rondón was 1-for-3 with a double, third baseman Nick Noonan was 1-for-3 and first baseman Patrick Kivlehan was 1-for-4.
The Yankees' Scranton/Wilkes-Barre scored all its runs before right-handed El Paso starter Walker Lockett retired a hitter in the first. Two singles were followed by a three-run homer by first baseman Chris Parmelee.
Lockett allowed three runs on seven hits with two strikeouts over five innings.
Left-handed reliever Daniel Moskos allowed a hit and a walk in one-third of an inning without being charged with a run. Right-hander Dinelson Lamet struck out two in a perfect 1 2/3 innings. Left-hander Kyle McGrath allowed a hit and a walk in a scoreless eighth.
El Paso compiled a 6-3 record in the post-season after posting a 73-70 regular season record en route to a second straight PCL Pacific Southern division title. The Chihuahuas defeated Tacoma and Oklahoma City in the playoffs to win their first PCL championship - and the first by the Padres' Triple-A franchise since 1988.
NOTES FROM THE SCOREBOOK:
-- First baseman Wil Myers set another Padres franchise record Tuesday night while extending his hitting streak to nine straight games. He is 11-for-33 during the streak with four doubles, a triple, two homers, nine RBIs and six runs scored. His eighth inning double Tuesday was his 88th hit of the season, a single-season record at Petco Park. Matt Kemp had 87 hits at Petco Park last season. Myers earlier set the Padres single-season home run record at Petco Park (16) and also became the first Padre to ever have a season that included 25 or more doubles (now 28), homers (26) and steals (26).
-- Infielder Adam Rosales tied his career high of four RBIs in a game Tuesday with a two-run homer and two sacrifice flies. He also extended his single-season home run record with his 11th in 202 at-bats and set a new career high with 32 RBIs. Rosales is hitting .286 (34-for-119) over his last 58 games with eight doubles, three triples, nine home runs and 26 RBIs. Rosales is 6-for-14 over his last five games with a double, two homers, five RBIs and four runs scored.
--Third baseman Ryan Schimpf scored three runs Tuesday without recording a hit (reaching on two walks and a hit-by-pitch). It marked the eighth time in franchise history that a Padre has scored three runs in a game without a hit. The last time it happened was on June 7, 2001, in San Francisco when Ryan Klesko and Mark Kotsay did it in the same game.
-- Right-hander Paul Clemens had worked 10 2/3 straight scoreless innings when Paul Goldschmidt hit that game-tying, two-run homer in the sixth Tuesday night. Clemens' 5 2/3-inning outing was the longest in his 10 starts as a Padre. Over his last two starts, Clemens has allowed two unearned runs on six hits and two walks with six strikeouts in 10 2/3 innings to lower his earned run average with the Padres from 5.44 to 4.29.