'Riders' Mendez ties season high with nine K's

Yohander Méndez is learning to use all of his pitches. And that's bad news for Texas League hitters.
Texas' No. 2 prospect matched a season high with nine strikeouts over seven innings as Double-A Frisco won a pitchers' duel over San Antonio, 1-0, on Friday night. The left-hander scattered four hits and walked two.

Gameday box score
"That was well-deserved for Yohander," pitching coach Brian Shouse said. "He just attacked the hitters ... each pitch was with intent and purpose. He established [the] fastball early, which made the secondary stuff more effective as the game went on."
The game got off to an interesting start for Mendez. Padres No. 4 prospectLuis Urías hit a pop fly to the right side that was heading into foul territory before coming back into fair territory. Urias reached first, but second baseman Andy Ibáñez threw behind him to catcher Jose Trevino, who was covering the bag, to retire San Antonio's second baseman.
"It was a heads-up play for Trevino to do that; Yohander was over there, too," Shouse said. "It's one of those things where it got up there, was clearly going foul and came back into fair territory and it was a good heads-up play by Ibanez to throw back behind him and get him out. When that happens on the first play, it's a good day for you."
Mendez allowed at least one baserunner in each of the first three innings before ending the third with a strikeout of Nick Torres. MLB.com's No. 45 overall prospect struck out the side in the fourth and whiffed the first two batters of the fifth to give him six straight punchouts.

"It's more the intent of establishing the fastball earlier and getting more command and confidence with the fastball," Shouse said. "Hitters have to respect that as well as his secondary pitches. We stressed so much early in the year about using the fastball, and it's allowed him to make the slider and curveball better. He's always going to have that good changeup; now he has just made the slider and curveball that much better and he's a true four-pitch pitcher now.
"I think he's really matured that way and taken more ownership of his career, and he's been working hard all year and staying with the process. Things have worked out for him so far."
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After walking Auston Bousfield with two outs in the fifth, Mendez (7-6) set down the final seven batters. A leadoff homer by Eric Aguilera in the bottom of the seventh provided the game's only run.
"He just got stronger as the game went on, and that's what you want from a starting pitcher," Shouse said of Mendez. "He got in a nice little groove, probably could've went back out there for one more, really. He did a great job, was in sync the whole game and did what he knows he can do."
Mendez has been especially good over his past six starts, striking out 41 while walking 10 in 38 innings. Since the start of June, he's 6-3 with a 2.81 ERA with 66 whiffs and 17 walks over 64 frames. 

Padres No. 2 prospect Cal Quantrill (0-1) allowed a run on six hit and one walk with five strikeouts over 6 2/3 innings in his second start since joining San Antonio on July 11. 
Urias collected two singles to extend his hitting streak to 11 games for the Missions.