Missions' De Los Santos perfect for six innings

The only thing that stood between Enyel De Los Santos and another chance at making history on Friday night was an innings limit.
After taking a no-hitter into the fifth inning of his Double-A debut last Saturday against Northwest Arkansas, the Padres No. 17 prospect threw six perfect innings with seven strikeouts in a combined one-hitter for San Antonio as beat the Naturals 2-0 at Nelson Wolff Stadium.

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"That was the fifth time we've faced this team in nine days and we were just talking about his last outing and how he attacked hitters and just sticking with that," Missions pitching coach Jimmy Jones said. "He was being aggressive down in the strike zone and elevated when he needed to. He just stuck with that game plan of what was successful last game and ran with it."
Featuring a fastball in the mid-90s and what Jones called a good mixture of off-speed pitches, De Los Santos struck out five in a row in the third and fourth.
"He has great stuff, first of all," Jones said. "But secondly, one of his assets is him just going out there and going, 'This is what I'm going to do and this is how I'm going to do it.' He makes it kind of simple and it's been fun to watch him.
"Nothing really rattles him and I haven't seen him in tough situations either. He's like an iceberg. Nothing fazes him. He just continues to do what he's supposed to do out there."
After throwing just 66 pitches, the right-hander was lifted in the seventh for T.J. Weir.

"First two or three starts, [De Los Santos is] not supposed to go over six innings," Jones said. "So once he got to that innings limit, he was done. But he was very efficient with everything. With all the [potential] injuries and stuff, that was a good plan of attack with him. It didn't matter what he wanted, that's what he was going to go and he was fine with it. He's a professional."
De Los Santos is in his third professional season after signing with Seattle in July 2014. The native of the Dominican Republic was acquired by San Diego in a November 2015 trade that involved Joaquin Benoit. The right-hander posted an 8-5 record with a 3.72 ERA in 22 starts with Class A Fort Wayne and Class A Advanced Lake Elsinore last year.
In his brief time with the 21-year-old, Jones said he hasn't had to provide much instruction.
"I've never really seen him throw bullpen yet," the pitching coach said. "So I couldn't dive in there that quickly. But I have not said anything to him at all as far as approach, mechanics or anything like that. I havne't had to. His delivery is clean and his finish is good. It's just been more of a game plan thing and that's all we've done."

Weir followed De Los Santos with two perfect innings before Eric Yardley gave up an infield single on a swinging bunt by Ruben Sosa with one out in the ninth.
"It was a little bit of a letdown, especially because it was an infield hit and the play was so close," Jones said. "Everybody in the stadium knows what's going on. It was like you're on that high, you're on that high and then, 'Boom!' And you had to switch gears really quick because the tying run was up."

Yardley fanned two of the final three hitters to record his first save of the season.
Noah Perio hit a solo home run in the sixth and Padres seventh-ranked prospect Luis Urías added an RBI double in the eighth.
Royals No. 17 prospectMiguel Almonte was locked in a pitchers' duel with De Los Santos, allowing two hits and one walk with four strikeouts over four scoreless innings.