De Los Santos Homers for Lone Sod Poodles Run on Wednesday

Amarillo, Texas (September 13, 2023) – The Sod Poodles dropped game two of the final regular season series of the year by a score of 10-1 to the Frisco RoughRiders. The teams traded runs in the first inning before Amarillo was kept off the scoreboard over the final eight innings.

Making his first professional start, Gunnar Groen caught a pair of RoughRiders looking in the opening frame. The two strikeouts helped to limit the damage to just one unearned run after a leadoff single came around to score after a stolen base and errant throwdown allowed the runner to move to third and later score on a sac fly. Deyvsion De Los Santos knotted things up at a run-a-side in the home half of the first. The D-backs' no. 5-rated prospect took an 0-1 pitch to the opposite field for his 19th home run of the season.

Each of the first two Frisco batters in the top of the second reached base, but Groen worked around it in part to a double play and fly out to keep things all square. After a scoreless bottom of the second, Frisco re-gained their lead with a three spot in the third. Wyatt Langford, the fourth overall pick in this year's draft made it back-to-back games with a home run as he hit a two-run shot. Another pair of hits in the inning including a RBI single made it 4-1 RoughRiders.

Carlos Meza took over on the bump for Groen after going three innings in his spot start for the Sod Poodles. Meza struck out the first batter he faced ahead of an error and consecutive walks to load the bases. A two-RBI single was followed by Meza's second strikeout of the game before another call to the bullpen. Emailin Montilla got a fly out to leave a pair of Frisco runners on base and a 6-1 deficit for Amarillo. The RoughRiders added another run in the top of the fifth and two more in the sixth to build a 9-1 lead over Amarillo. The Sod Poodles ended the bottom of the sixth with a pair of baserunners on board and their fifth straight scoreless frame after the De Los Santos homer in the first.

Montilla gave way to Eli Saul who made his HODGETOWN debut with 1.1 IP without allowing a baserunner and earned a strikeout. He kept the RoughRiders off the scoreboard for the first time since the second as he worked a scoreless seventh in his first full inning of work on Wednesday. Langford hit his second homer of the night with a solo shot in the top of the eighth to put a cap on the night's scoring with Frisco ahead 10-1.

Juan Centeno pitched the top of the ninth for Amarillo, working a scoreless half-inning with a couple of ground outs and a fly out hauled in by Neyfy Castillo along the short fence in right field. Centeno then led off the bottom of the ninth by putting a charge into a ball to dead center field that was tacked down to rob Centeno of extra bases. It was the first of a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth as the RoughRiders took game two of the series.

Amarillo will send left-hander Yu-Min Lin to the mound in game three on Thursday night. The D-backs' no. 4-rated prospect made his Double-A debut against the Frisco RoughRiders back on July 16th where he worked six scoreless innings, allowing just a pair of hits and racked up eight strikeouts. First pitch from HODGETOWN is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.

NOTES:

1913: Deyvison De Los Santos hit his 19th home run of the year on Wednesday night, his first since having back-to-back games with a home run on September 2nd and 3rd against Midland. Over his last 47 games since July 14th, the D-backs' no. 5-rated prospect is swinging it at a .316 clip (61-for-193) with now 12 home runs, 11 doubles, two triples, and 31 RBI. He ranks among the best in the Texas League during the span in a number of offensive categories including: home runs (T-1st), XBH (1st), total bases (1st, 112), SLG (2nd, .580), hits (3rd), runs (3rd, 39), AVG (8th), OPS (8th, .915), and RBI (10th). Across all of Double-A during the stretch his XBH are tied for the third most, his total bases are T-4th, runs are 5th, hits are T-7th, and his SLG is the 8th best. With four games remaining in the season, De Los Santos is three shy of tying his single-season career-high for home runs which he set last year across three levels of the D-backs minor league system.

CENTHANI: Juan Centeno made his professional pitching debut on Wednesday night, tossing the top of the ninth. Centeno has appeared in 1,006 games during his professional career and had never pitched in a game as a position player before Wednesday. He is the fourth position player who has been used on the mound by the Sod Poodles this year with Nick Dalesandro being the only one to pitch more than once. Dalesandro made four trips to the mound and worked 2.2 IP with just one hit allowed (a solo home run) but had two strikeouts and held hitters to a .111 BAA.

FIVE ON IT: The Sod Poodles were held to five hits for the second straight game to begin the series, just the fourth time being limited to five or fewer hits in back-to-back games and the second time doing so against Frisco. Frisco also held Amarillo to fewer than six hits in four of the six games the two teams played back in the middle of May at Riders Field, the only time Amarillo had been held to five or fewer hits more than twice in the same series. Wednesday was the ninth time this season at home without getting at least six hits off their opposition.

E 5: The five errors committed by Amarillo tied for the most in franchise history for a single game. The last time it happened was on June 19, 2021, against Midland. The Sod Poodles had previously had two four-error games in 2023.