Fort Wayne is improving its performance with the pitchers stepping up and more of the hitters helping to carry the load. This is their second winning week in a row and they moved up in the standings from 7^th to 6^th overall in an eight-team division. They also won two out of three of their last two series versus West Michigan and Lansing.

OF Rymer Liriano improved his average from .202 to .236 and scored 5 runs in a double, 2 3B, 5 BB and 2 SO while driving in 2 runs.

OF Luis Domoromo continues his impressive early season by maintaining his average between .320 and .340 while scoring 4 runs, knocking in five with 3 BB and 2 SO and sharing LF with Jose Dore. He has quietly impressed for a recently turned 19 yr old. His consistency at the plate is only lacking with his .263 average with RISP, that is his lowest performance mark with his average versus lefties at .348 and righties .310.

Starting right-hander Matt Branham continues to perform well with a 4-3 record and 3.83 ERA. Over the past week he has started two games and gone 11 innings with 11 hits, 6 ER, 11 SO, 2 BB, HR. His ERA is for 9 games started and 42.1 innings pitched.

Roster moves for the week included placing starter Matt Jackson on the DL, calling up 2B Pat McKenna from extended spring training and calling up Chris Wilkes (RHP) from extended spring training to take Jackson’s spot in the roster.

Chris Wilkes, a 22^nd round draft pick in the 2008 draft, came straight from high school into the Padres organization as a two sport athlete. He was a highly touted quarterback, committed to Ole Miss, when the Padres drafted him. His  ’08 work in Arizona was impressive and when Lake Elsinore needed help in the early ’09 season, Wilkes was sent from extended spring to fill in. Unfortunately, he wasn’t ready for that big of a jump and struggled in his three starts. Going back to Eugene at the start of their season, he worked his way back and finished strong but only had 25 innings. He had elbow issues after that and missed most of the ’10 season, pitching only one game in the AZL that season.

So this will be another fresh start for Chris as he tries to achieve the high hopes he entered his professional career with and, at 21, is still young enough to develop his talent. He has a terrific fastball with strikeout stuff but has missed development on his secondary pitches.

2B Pat McKenna seems to have been added to the Padres for organizational depth. So far in this young season he has played with San Antonio, Tucson and now Fort Wayne. He is 23 yr old and was originally drafted by the Tigers in ’09 and played his first two years in that organization before being acquired by the Padres.