San Diego, CA

San Diego Padres Daily Farm Report: June 9

Published

2 years ago

June 10, 2024

San Diego Padres Daily Farm Report: June 9

Chihuahuas 7, Las Vegas Aviators 4

Key Stats: 1B Nate Mondou 2-for-4, 2 2B; CF Bryce Johnson 1-for-2, 2 BB, 2B, SB (16); LF Tirso Ornelas 2-for-4; RF Cal Mitchell 1-for-4, HR (7); RHP Gabe Mosser 6 IP, 5 H, 4 R (2 ER), 6 K; LHP Tom Cosgrove IP, K

Bryce Johnson is putting things together in his first season with the Chihuahuas. (Photo: Jorge Salgado)

Prospect Watch: Righty Gabe Mosser tossed his second quality start of the series to lead the Chihuahuas to a split with the Athletics’ top affiliate. Mosser, who turned 28 a day before his outing, was hit with a pair of unearned runs and allowed two earned over his six innings of work, striking out six without issuing a walk. Over his last three outings, the 2018 draftee has allowed four earned runs over 17.2 innings with a 14:2 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Mosser, who had Tommy John surgery in 2022, has a career 4.28 ERA across 94 professional appearances. … Tom Cosgrove followed with a clean inning to post his seventh consecutive scoreless outing. The lefty continues to show much less horizontal movement on both his sweeper and sinker than he had while mowing down big league hitters last season, but is seeing a slight uptick in his strikeout rate over the last month while holding opponents to just two hits in his last nine innings of work. … Bryce Johnson was the perfect table-setter for the offense out of the leadoff spot, collecting a double and two walks in four trips to the plate and swiping his team-leading 16th base of the year. Signed as a free agent in the offseason after a seven year run in the Giants organization, Johnson is posting career-best strikeout and walk rates through his first 52 games. A switch-hitter, Johnson is a plus defender in the outfield who has gotten brief big league exposure in each of the last two seasons. … Outfielder Calvin Mitchell connected on his seventh homer of the season and sixth in his last 14 games. The San Diego native, who also signed a minor league deal during the winter, has pushed his slugging percentage on the year up to .500.

Midland RockHounds 3, Missions 1

Key Stats: 1B Brandon Valenzuela 2-for-4; DH Marcos Castañon 1-for-4, 2B; LHP Robby Snelling 6 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 6 K, 3 BB

Robby Snelling gave the Missions a chance to win on Sunday. (Photo: San Antonio Missions)

Prospect Watch: After a pair of rocky outings, Robby Snelling bounced back with a quality start Sunday. He blew through his first three innings, striking out five without allowing a ball out of the infield. The rest of the afternoon wasn’t nearly as dominant. Snelling opened the fourth with a four-pitch walk before giving up a booming rule book double to left. He avoided any damage that inning by inducing a pair of grounders and soft liner, but issued a leadoff walk in the fourth as well. After former Padres farmhand Jeisson Rosario settled for a sacrifice on a bunt attempt, the RockHounds strung together a pair of softly hit singles before Snelling got another groundout and had a chance to escape again. Instead, he gave up a two-out double that gave Midland a three-run inning. The home squad loaded the bases against Snelling in the sixth, but the lefty struck out the final batter he faced in the game to escape any more scoring. Snelling, 20, is working with a loopier breaking ball than he showed last year and his fastball continues to sit around 90 mph in his second season in the system. … The Missions offense was once again held in check, managing just five hits and one unearned run in the game. Marcos Castañon had the club’s only extra-base hit, a double. The 25-year-old infielder is now slugging .357 on the year. … Brandon Valenzuela, who made his fourth start of the year at first base, had a pair of singles on the day. He’s hit in six of his last seven contests and has a strong .866 OPS in 32 plate appearances this month.

Editor’s Note: We skipped past the absolutely wild end to Saturday night’s game in yesterday’s wrap-up. With the bases loaded and two outs, as Jayvien Sandridge tried to hold a two-run lead, the RockHounds got what appeared to be a walk-off grand slam. As Midland celebrated, the Missions successfully appealed that the runner from first base missed third as he rounded the bases, causing him to be out before he crossed the plate and giving the Missions a 5-4 victory.

TinCaps 9, Peoria Chiefs 2

Key Stats: CF Homer Bush Jr. 1-for-2, 3 BB, SB (28); C Anthony Vilar 2-for-3, 2 BB, SB (4); LF Tyler Robertson 3-for-5; Nerwilian Cedeño 2-for-4, 2B; RHP Braden Nett IP, K; RHP Will Geerdes 2 IP, 1 H, 2 ER, K, BB; RHP David Morgan 2 IP, 4 K

Prospect Watch: John Conniff had one more day of coverage from the Summit City as the TinCaps closed out the series with a victory.

Inland Empire 66ers 9, Storm 3

Rosman Verdugo had a pair of hits for the Storm. (Robert Escalante)

Key Stats: 3B Rosman Verdugo 2-for-4; DH Ethan Long 1-for-2, 2B, 2 BB; C Oswaldo Linares 1-for-3, 2B, BB; RHP Miguel Mendez 2.2 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 3 K, 2 BB; RHP Xavier Ruiz 2.1 IP, H, 2 K, BB; RHP Thomas Balboni Jr. IP, 2 K

Prospect Watch: Miguel Mendez worked around a walk and hit batter in his first two innings with three strikeouts and no balls hit to the outfield, but the wheels came off in the third. The 21-year-old righty was tagged for five hits including a pair of triples. He also allowed a walk, uncorked a wild pitch, and balked in a run. While the 2021 signee has shown impressive velocity this year, he sports a 6.35 ERA overall with more walks than strikeouts. When he finds his way into the zone consistently, he can be a tough matchup, but he simply doesn’t hit his spots enough. … Thomas Balboni Jr. turned in another scoreless outing with a pair of strikeouts. The Northeastern University product, who has dropped down to a low three-quarters arm slot quite effectively this year, has punched out 14 over his last 6.2 innings. … Third baseman Rosman Verdugo was the lone Storm batter to collect a pair of hits in the game. The 19-year-old has only had two multi-hit games over his last three weeks. … Hitting as the DH for the second time since coming off the IL, Ethan Long had a double and walked twice in four trips to the plate.

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San Diego, CA

San Diego Zoo Safari Park’s Elephant Valley: Get closer to elephants

Published

6 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

San Diego Zoo Safari Park’s Elephant Valley: Get closer to elephants

Todd Martens
| Los Angeles Times

San Diego — Before we see elephants at Elephant Valley in the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, we come face to face with destruction, only the wreckage is beautiful. A long, winding path takes guests around and under felled trees. Aged gray tree hunks form arches, for instance, over bridges that tower over clay-colored paths with hoof prints.

The design is meant to reorient us, to take us on a trail walked not by humans but traversed and carved by elephants, a creature still misunderstood, vilified and hunted for its cataclysmic-like ability to reshape land, and sometimes communities.

“It starts,” says Kristi Burtis, vice president of wildlife care for the Safari Park, “by telling the story that elephants are ecosystem engineers.”

Elephant Valley will open March 5 as the newest experience at the Escondido park, its aim to bring guests closer than ever to the zoo’s eight elephants, which range in age from 7 to 36, while more heavily focusing on conservation. The centerpiece of the 13-acre-plus parkland is a curved bridge overlooking a savanna, allowing elephants to walk under guests. But there are also nooks such as a cave that, while not previewed at a recent media event, will allow visitors to view elephants on their level.

In a shift from, say, the Safari Park’s popular tram tour, there are no fences and visible enclosures. Captive elephants remain a sometimes controversial topic, and the zoo’s herd is a mix of rescues and births, but the goal was to create a space where humans are at once removed and don’t impede on the relative free-roaming ability of the animals by keeping guests largely elevated. As an example of just how close people can get to the herd, there was a moment of levity at the event when one of the elephants began flinging what was believed to be a mixture of dirt and feces up onto the bridge.

“Our guests are going to be able to see the hairs on an elephant,” Burtis says. “They can see their eyes. They can see the eyelashes. They can see how muscular their trunks are. It’s really going to be a different experience.”

Elephant Valley, complete with a multistory lodge with open-air restaurants and bars, boasts a natural design that isn’t influenced by the elephant’s African home so much as it is in conversation with it. The goal isn’t to displace us, but to import communal artistry — Kenyan wood and beadwork can be found in the pathways, resting spaces and more — as a show of admiration rather than imitation.

“We’re not going to pretend that we’re taking people to Africa,” says Fri Forjindam, now a creative executive with Universal’s theme parks but previously a lead designer on Elephant Valley via her role as a chief development officer at Mycotoo, a Pasadena-based experiential design firm.

“That is a slippery slope of theming that can go wrong really fast,” she adds. “How do we recognize where we are right now, which is near San Diego? How do we populate this plane with plants that are indigenous to the region? The story of coexistence is important. We’re not extracting from Africa, we’re learning. We’re not extracting from elephants, we’re sharing information.”

But designing a space that is elephant-first yet also built for humans presented multiple challenges, especially when the collaborating teams were aiming to construct multiple narratives around the animals. Since meetings about Elephant Valley began around 2019, the staff worked to touch on themes related to migration and conservation. And there was also a desire to personalize the elephants.

“Where can we also highlight each of the elephants by name, so they aren’t just this huge herd of random gray creatures?” Forjindam says. “You see that in the lodge.”

That lodge, the Mkutano House — a phrase that means “gathering” in Swahili — should provide opportunities for guests to linger, although zoo representatives say reservations are recommended for those who wish to dine in the space (there will also be a walk-up, to-go window). Menus have yet to be released, but the ground floor of the structure, boasting hut-like roofing designed to blend into the environment, features close views of the elephant grazing pool as well as an indoor space with a centerpiece tree beneath constellation-like lighting to mimic sunrises and sunsets.

Throughout there are animal wood carvings and beadwork, the latter often hung from sculptures made of tree branches. The ceiling, outfitted with colorful, cloth tapestries designed to move with the wind, aims to create less friction between indoor and outdoor environments.

There are, of course, research and educational goals of the space as well. The Safari Park works, for instance, with the Northern Rangelands Trust and Loisaba Conservancy in Kenya, with an emphasis on studying human-elephant conflict and finding no-kill resolutions. Nonprofits and conservation groups estimate that there are today around 415,000 elephants in Africa, and the African savanna elephant is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Studies of the zoo’s young elephants is shared with the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in the hopes of delivering care to elephant youth to prevent orphanage. Additionally, the Safari Park has done extensive examination into the endotheliotropic herpes virus. “The data that we collect from elephants here, you can’t simply get from elephants in the wild,” Burtis says.

One of the two entrances to Elephant Valley is outfitted with bee boxes; bees are known to be a natural elephant deterrent and can help in preventing the animals from disrupting crops or communities. To encourage more natural behavior, the plane is outfitted with timed feeders in an attempt to encourage movement throughout the acreage and establish a level of real-life unpredictability in hunting for resources. Water areas have been redesigned with ramps and steps to make it easier for the elephants to navigate.

With Elephant Valley, Forjindam says the goal was to allow visitors to “observe safely in luxury — whatever that is — but not from a position of power, more as a cohabitor of the Earth, with as much natural elements as possible. It’s not to impose dominance. Ultimately, it needed to feel natural. It couldn’t feel like a man-made structure, which is an antiquated approach to any sort of safari experience where animals are the product, a prize. In this experience, this is the elephant’s home.”

And the resulting feel of Elephant Valley is that we, the paying customers, are simply their house guests.

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San Diego, CA

Man fatally struck by hit-and-run vehicle in San Diego

Published

18 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Man fatally struck by hit-and-run vehicle in San Diego

A man in the Mission Bay Park community of San Diego was fatally struck Sunday morning by a hit-and run vehicle, authorities said.

The victim was also struck by a second vehicle and that motorist stayed at the scene to cooperate with officers, the San Diego Police Department reported.

The initial crash occurred at about 2:20 a.m. Sunday in the area of West Mission Bay and Sea World drives.

The pedestrian was in the southbound lanes of the 2000 block of West Mission Bay Drive when he was struck by a silver vehicle also in the southbound lanes. That vehicle fled the scene, continuing southbound, police said.

A 28-year-old man driving his vehicle southbound ran over the downed pedestrian.

“That driver remained at the scene and is not DUI,” according to a police statement. “The pedestrian was pronounced deceased at the scene.”

Anyone with information regarding the initial crash was urged to call Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477.

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San Diego, CA

Here are the 9 San Diego County communities that set or tied heat records

Published

1 day ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Here are the 9 San Diego County communities that set or tied heat records

San Diego County is known for having wet, cold weather in February. But it had numerous hot spells this year. And when the month ended on Saturday a high pressure system produced heat that broke or tied temperature records in nine communities from the desert to the sea, the National Weather Service said.

The most notable temperature occurred in Borrego Springs, which reached 99, five degrees higher than the previous record for Feb. 28, set in 1986. The 99 reading is also the highest temperature ever recorded in Borrego in February.

Escondido reached 95, tying a record set in 1901.

El Cajon reached 92, three degrees higher than the record set in 2009.

Ramona topped out at 88, five degrees higher than the record set in 2009.

Alpine hit 88, four degrees higher the record set in 1986.

Campo reached 87, four degrees higher than the record set in 1999.

Vista hit 86, four degrees higher than the record set in 2020.

Chula Vista reached 84, one degree higher than the record set in 2020.

Lake Cuyamaca rose to 76, four degrees higher than the record set in 1986.

Forecasters say the weather is not likely to broadly produce new highs on Sunday. Cooler air is moving to the coast, and on Monday, San Diego’s high will only reach 67, a degree above normal.

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