210GAMEDAY.COM | SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
During the course of the 2019 San Antonio Missions season, I occasionally got closer a look at some of the players.
That seemed like a good way to wrap up my summer from Wolff Stadium.
Sweet has put in 30 seasons as a minor league manager, guiding young baseball players on the way to the majors.
Tuesday night, Sweet’s San Antonio Missions players doused him with ice-water after the team’s 10-2 victory over the Round Rock Express at Wolff Stadium. It was Sweet’s 2,000th win.
The Missions currently have the best record in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League at 49-29.
This is the first season for Sweet as well as for Triple-A baseball in San Antonio.
Saturday saw Sweet handling the duties of third base coach as well as managing on a Flying Chanclas uniform night. The Missions played the Oklahoma City Dodgers.
Sweet’s nine-year major league playing career included stints with the San Diego Padres, New York Mets and Seattle Mariners.
Saladino hit three home runs over the previous two games. He is now batting .294 for the season.
Saladino singled in the second inning Sunday and scored the first run of the game when Tuffy Gosewisch drew a bases-loaded walk.
Saladino tripled in the fifth inning to drive in Corey Ray and Tyrone Taylor and give the Missions a 3-0 lead.
The Sounds scored two runs in the top of the sixth on solo home runs by Willie Calhoun homers and Matt Davidson. That trimmed the Missions’ lead to 3-2.
Mauricio Dubon and Keston Hiura both had run-scoring hits in the bottom of the sixth to stretch the Missions’ lead back to 5-2.
The Sounds made it close on a two-run homer by Andy Ibanez in the top of the eighth.
Missions starting pitcher Adrian Houser earned his first win of the season. He held the Sounds scoreless for five innings before giving up the two home runs in the sixth inning. Jay Jackson pitched the ninth inning and got his first save of the season.
The four-game series between the Missions and Sounds concludes early Monday with an 11:05 a.m. first pitch at Wolff Stadium.
This is the Missions’ first season in Triple-A. The team is now a farm club of the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Missions’ first home game is April 9 at Wolff Stadium.
The Missions are coming off a stretch as the Double-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres.
“It should be better baseball – fewer mistakes, both mental and physical mistakes,” new Missions manager Rick Sweet said. “You’ll see older guys come through here.
“It’s a different ballgame here at times mostly because of the older players, veteran players.”
The Brewers’ Triple-A team moved to San Antonio from Colorado Springs. That leads to warmer weather at the beginning of the season and, of course, hotter weather late in the year.
“We’re very happy to be here,” Sweet said. “I’ve been in the game 45 years and I’ve never got to spend an extended time in Texas. I hear everything is bigger and better here so I’m looking forward to it.”
One of the biggest differences between Double-A and Triple-A is that as you go the next step up, you are only one step away from playing in the major leagues. Players can potentially be at Wolff Stadium one day and wearing a Milwaukee Brewers uniform the next.
“You’ll see guys with major league experience that have major league expectations,” Sweet said. “Once you get to Triple-A you’re this far away, you’re a hair away from that phone call.
“When you’re this close in Triple-A, it happens all the time.”
