A's Top Prospect From San Diego Padres Deal Homers in Postseason Opener

As you can see in the highlight above, he knew it, and he was fired up.

The RockHounds entered the top of the sixth inning leading 3-0, but a walk, a single and a couple of errors put another run on the board, then Cole Conn tripled home another, giving Midland a 5-0 cushion. Joshua Kuroda-Grauer drew a walk, at which point the pitcher threw a wild pitch, scoring the runner from third and putting Midland up 6-0.

With two outs and De Vries in the box, Amarillo decided to walk him intentionally. It ended up being the right call as Brennan Milone popped out to end the inning, but this is the level of respect that De Vries is already getting. Including Tuesday night, he's played in all of 22 games in Double-A and he's already getting intentionally walked.

While De Vries was grabbing the headlines, A's No. 19 prospect Nate Nankil was doing some heavy lifting of his own. The 22-year-old went 4-for-5 in this one, including a two-run homer in the second inning that was absolutely crushed.

Last season, former A's left-hander Kyle Muller made a rehab appearance with the Stockton Ports, where Nankil was playing at the time. When Muller made it back to Oakland, we asked him if there was a prospect that stood out to him, and he mentioned that there was one guy that hit an absolute nuke for the Ports. That player was Nankil, and the home run probably looked something like this.

While this game ended up being fairly close, with Midland winning 8-7, starter Gage Jump was terrific, going 5 2/3 scoreless innings, giving up just four hits and a walk while striking out eight.

With the win, the Midland RockHounds hold a 1-0 lead in the three-game series. After an off-day on Wednesday, they will resume play in Midland for Game 2 on Thursday, and if necessary, Game 3 on Friday.