Salt Lake Hosts El Paso to Open Nine-Game Homestand
The Salt Lake Bees return home to Smith’s Ballpark to host the El Paso Chihuahuas for a six-game series and the Tacoma Rainiers for three games, starting on May 30 and running through June 9. The Bees are coming off of a series win over the Sacramento River Cats, winning
The Salt Lake Bees return home to Smith’s Ballpark to host the El Paso Chihuahuas for a six-game series and the Tacoma Rainiers for three games, starting on May 30 and running through June 9.
The Bees are coming off of a series win over the Sacramento River Cats, winning four of their six games last week. It marked the second time this season that Salt Lake has won back-to-back series and they have now won eight of their last 12 games. The Bees sit in first place in the PCL West with a 0.5 game lead over the Las Vegas Aviators, who have won four games in a row.
Salt Lake locked in a winning record in May, giving them back-to-back winning months for the first time since April and May of 2018. Their 27-21 record is also their best through May 29 since 2018.
David MacKinnon continued his stellar May by hitting .350 (7-for-20) with a home run and three RBI in the series against the River Cats. He is now hitting .348 (32-for-92) in the month with seven home runs, two triples, and 24 RBI. He also has a slugging percentage of .674, an on-base percentage of .442, and an OPS of 1.116 this month. His 24 RBIs are the second-most, his batting average is the third-highest, and his OPS is the fourth-highest in the PCL in May.
Michael Stefanic hit .348 (8-for-23) with a home run and three RBI against Sacramento. He is now ranked seventh in Triple-A in batting average. Davis Daniel, Jake Kalish, Kenny Rosenberg, and César Valdez all put together quality starts on the mound in the series to push the Bees’ total to 16 quality starts on the season. Their 16 quality starts are the most in Triple-A and would have them tied for 13th in Major League Baseball.
El Paso is coming off of a series win over Sugar Land at home. They also took four out of six games and scored 11 or more runs in three of their four victories. Overall the Chihuahuas outscored the Space Cowboys 64-52 in the series, but were also shut out for the first time in 2022.
El Paso’s Nomar Mazara leads the PCL in batting average (.367), on-base percentage (.454), and OPS (1.095). The 27-year-old hit .500 (11-for-22) with two home runs, four doubles, and seven RBI against the Space Cowboys. He comes into Salt Lake City with an active 11-game hitting streak, tied for the third-longest active streak in Triple-A.
The Chihuahuas’ roster has six of the San Diego Padres’ top-30 prospects including No. 1 Padres prospect and No. 6 overall prospect infielder C.J. Abrams. The roster also features catcher Luis Campusano (No. 4 SD, No. 39 MLB), infielder Eguy Rosario (No. 7 SD), pitcher Reiss Knehr (No. 8 SD), pitcher Ray Kerr (No. 26 SD), and infielder Matthew Batten (No. 27 SD).
The Bees and the Chihuahuas will open their six-game set on Memorial Day at 6:35 p.m. A fireworks show will follow the conclusion of the game on Monday and on Saturday June 4.