Two San Diego Padres' Minor-League Affiliates Win League Championships

With the San Diego Padres on the cusp of securing a playoff berth, two of their minor-league affiliates have recently shown them how winning a championship can be done.

On Wednesday, Single-A affiliate Lake Elsinore Storm defeated San Jose Giants (San Francisco affiliate) 13-2 to wrap up the California League championship, 2-1. The series was a battle of blowouts, with Lake Elsinore posting a 12-1 win in Game 1 on Sept. 13 before San Jose came back to win 9-1 courtesy of a three-pitcher no-hitter in Game 2 on Sept. 15. In the clincher, the Storm struck early and often, leading 5-0 in the fourth and 9-1 after six before cruising home to the title.

The Storm qualified for the playoffs by winning the first-half title in the Cal South division with a 39-27 record. Though they slumped to 27-38 in the second half and finished 66-65 overall, they got hot as the playoffs started. They opened by sweeping Ontario (Los Angeles Dodgers affiliate) 10-9 and 6-1 on Sept. 8 and 10, setting up the title tilt with the Giants, who had swept Stockton (A's affiliate) in the first round. The Giants had finished with the best overall record in the California League at 80-52.

In his report on the title-clinching game, Jesse Borek of MiLB.com noted that the Storm used speed all season to win games. All told, Lake Elsinore stole 357 bases in 131 games during the season, the second-highest total in the minor leagues since 2005, with seven Storm players swiping more than 20 bags.

Borek highlighted a number of players who contributed greatly to the storm's title. Left-handed pitcher Kruz Schoolcraft, San Diego's No. 2-ranked prospect on MLB Pipeline, won the clincher against Ontario, continuing a strong finish to the season in which he allowed two or fewer runs in seven of his final starts.

Lan-Hong Su, a right-handed pitcher from Taiwan who signed with the Padres in October 2025, moved from the Arizona Complex League to Lake Elsinore in June and dominated over his final 10 outings, allowing two or fewer runs in nine of them.

Five members of San Diego's 2026 draft class also made themselves known. First-round pick Coleman Borthwick tossed two scoreless innings in the clincher and sixth-round middle infielder Nu'u Contrades hit a homer in the final game. In fact, the top four hitters in the final game were 2026 draftees: shortstop Elliott Lascelles (2nd round), second baseman Joe Tiroly (7th round) and outfielder Alex Conover (compensation 4th round) were sandwiched around Contrades.

Three weeks before Lake Elsinore triumphed, Padres Gold took home the DSL Cup. The top 16 teams in the Dominican Summer League participated in the tournament. Padres Gold, the overall No. 2 seed, emerged from Pool B after round-robin play with the DSL Phillies, DSL Astros Orange and DSL Angels.

In the semifinals, Padres Gold knocked off DSL Giants Black in the semifinals before topping the DSL Reds 4-2 in the decisive Game of the best-of-three finals on Aug. 29, as reported by MiLB.com's Rob Terranova. Jeanfranco Fernandez and Yorvin Morla had run-producing knocks in the title-clincher, while Rookie-Level All-Star catcher Dayquer Alfonzo had at least one hit and RBI in every game and drove in the winning run in the final.