Tuesday was a good day down on the farm for Donn Roach and Jake Goebbert, both of whom have contributed to the big-league Padres this season. Roach allowed two runs, only one of which was earned, in the AAA El Paso Chihuahuas' 4-2 victory over the Reno Aces. His biggest supporter was Goebbert, who had the team's only multi-hit game along with driving in a pair of runs.
The Aces, led by manager Phil Nevin, were looking for the road sweep going into the final game of their four-game set in El Paso. Reno outscored the Chihuahuas 24-15 in the first three games, but could only scratch together two runs on Tuesday despite outhitting El Paso nine to six. Their first run came in the third inning when A.J. Pollock singled, moved to third on an error by Tyler Greene, then scored on a ground out by Mike Jacobs that should have been the third out. They finally touched Roach up for an earned run in the seventh inning when Jake Lamb doubled home Cliff Pennington with two outs. Roach got out of the inning and left the game with four strikeouts to go along with seven hits and a pair of walks. They would threaten again in the eighth with two hits off Bobby LaFromboise, and yet again in the ninth when Jerry Sullivan walked the bases loaded but escaped with no damage done.
El Paso scored all the runs they would need in the first inning. Goebbert sent Greene and Rymer Liriano home with his seventeenth double this season, his tenth with the Chihuahuas since coming over from Sacramento in the Kyle Blanks trade. He came around to score the third run at some point between when Taylor Lindsey singled to right and when Lindsey got gunned down at second trying to stretch it. He picked up his second hit of the night, a single, with two outs in the sixth inning right after the Chihuahuas tacked on an unnecessary insurance run thanks to a leadoff triple by Rico Noel and a productive groundout from Liriano.
Along with Goebbert's two hits and Noel's triple, the Chihuahuas got singles from Lindsey, Greene, and Alex Castellano. They have a day off to savor their win, as Wednesday will be spent traveling to Salt Lake City, where they'll begin a five-game series against the Bees by facing former Padres starter Wade LeBlanc on Thursday. Frenchy is 8-2 with a 4.04 ERA in 18 starts this season for Salt Lake, the Angels' top affiliate.