PCL Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Baseball Club Game Notes - April 11, 2024

Published on April 11, 2024 under Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release


Oklahoma City Baseball Club (6-5) at Round Rock Express (7-4)

Game #12 of 150/First Half #12 of 75/Road #6 of 75

Pitching Probables: OKC-RHP Eduardo Salazar (0-0, 2.70) vs. RR-RHP Owen White (0-1, 8.64)

Thursday, April 11, 2024 | Dell Diamond | Round Rock, Texas | 7:05 p.m. CT

Radio: KGHM-AM 1340 The Game, 1340thegame.com, iHeartRadio; Video: MiLB.tv, Bally Live

Today's Game: After suffering back-to-back losses for the first time this season, the Oklahoma City Baseball Club continues its road series against the Round Rock Express at 7:05 p.m. at Dell Diamond when the teams meet for the third time in their six-game series...OKC is now 1-4 on the road to start the season.

Yesterday's Games: The Round Rock Express nabbed two last at-bat wins, capturing both games of a doubleheader over the Oklahoma City Baseball Club Wednesday at Dell Diamond. In Game 1, the teams traded the lead four times between the fifth and sixth innings. Trailing, 2-1, OKC went in front on a two-run double by Ryan Ward and sacrifice fly by Kevin Padlo. In the bottom half, Round Rock's Sam Huff connected on a three-run homer to give Round Rock a 5-4 lead. Andy Pages answered for OKC in the top of the sixth inning, hitting a two-run homer to center field to regain the lead at 6-5. However, Round Rock responded yet again, with Elier Hernandez going deep, and the two-run shot proved the difference in Round Rock's 7-6 victory. In Game 2, the contest was scoreless through five innings before Oklahoma City broke the stalemate on a RBI double by Jonathan Araúz. The Express proceeded to rally to score six runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, all with two outs. After having a total of two baserunners through five innings, Round Rock had seven batters reach base in the sixth inning, including six straight with two outs.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Eduardo Salazar (0-0) makes his third start this season with Oklahoma City tonight...Salazar allowed one run, four hits, and four walks with three strikeouts over 6.0 innings - the longest outing of the season by an OKC pitcher - in his last appearance April 5 against Albuquerque in OKC and did not factor into OKC's 3-1 win in a game that lasted 2 hours, 1 minute. He retired 11 of his final 14 batters and coaxed a total of three ground ball double plays during his start...Salazar started and pitched 4.0 innings March 30 in Tacoma in his first appearance in the Dodgers organization, allowing two runs and five hits with four strikeouts. He did not issue a walk and did not factor into OKC's 9-7 win...Salazar spent the first six seasons of his professional career in the Cincinnati Reds organization before signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a free agent in November 2023...Salazar made three relief appearances with the Dodgers in 2024 Spring Training, going 1-0 over 3.0 innings with 6.00 ERA...He started the 2023 season with Double-A Chattanooga, posting a 0.68 ERA and holding batters to a .176 average over nine relief appearances...Salazar went on to spend the majority of the 2023 with Triple-A Louisville, going 1-1 with a 9.09 ERA over 27 relief appearances...He made his Major League debut with Cincinnati May 24 against St. Louis, recording his first ML strikeout, and on June 6, he recorded his first ML win against the Dodgers after tossing a perfect inning with two strikeouts...The 2023 season was the first of his career in which he worked strictly out of the bullpen...Salazar last started a game Sept. 15, 2022 with Chattanooga against Tennessee. That season he worked exclusively as a starter, going 6-10 with 5.16 ERA over 27 appearances (125.2 IP) with 111 strikeouts against 64 walks...Salazar originally signed with Cincinnati March 4, 2017 as a free agent...Tonight is his first career appearance against Round Rock.

Against the Express: 2024: 0-2 2023: 14-4 All-time: 176-141 At RR: 93-70 Oklahoma City and the Express meet for the first time since facing one another in the 2023 PCL Championship Series when OKC swept Round Rock, winning, 8-3, in Game 1, and, 5-2, in Game 2 for OKC's first league title since 1996...Oklahoma City won the regular-season series between the teams, 14-4, including wins in nine of the first 10 games and in four of the last five regular-season meetings...OKC swept the Express May 9-14 in the team's lone series in Round Rock. It was OKC's first-ever six-game series sweep since PCL teams started playing primarily six-game series in 2021. OKC trailed in the seventh inning or later in four of the six wins and hit a go-ahead grand slam in the seventh inning twice...The last 12 meetings between the teams in the regular season were played in OKC, with OKC winning both series, 4-2. During a 17-7 win Aug. 6, OKC set a new team record for hits in a home game with 22...In their most recent series Aug. 29-Sept. 3, Oklahoma City held the Express to four runs or less in each of the final five games, including allowing one run in each of the final two meetings of the regular season, winning by a combined score of 16-2...During the regular season, Ryan Ward led OKC with 16 hits in 17 games against the Express, including seven doubles and three homers. David Dahl paced OKC with 12 RBI against the Express in nine games. In the postseason, Drew Avans racked up six hits in two games and tied Michael Busch with three RBI against Round Rock.

Different Year, Different Results: Last year, OKC dominated the season series against the Express, going 16-4 when combining the regular season and postseason. At no point did Round Rock win consecutive games over OKC and the Express never won by more than two runs in any of the four victories. Over the 18 regular season meetings, Round Rock was limited to a .212 batting average and scored 3.4 runs per game. All of those trends were quickly reversed during yesterday's doubleheader, marking the first two games of the season between the foes. The Express won both games, including the second game by five runs, scored a total of 13 runs in 12 innings on offense and batted .327 (16x49) as a team.

Miggy Mash: Miguel Vargas hit safely in both games yesterday and has now reached base in each of Oklahoma City's first 11 games of the season. The 11-game on-base streak is the longest in the PCL to start the season. It is Vargas' longest on-base streak since Aug. 13-31, 2023 when he reached base safely in 15 games with Oklahoma City last season...Vargas went 2-for-6 with a double and two walks Wednesday in Round Rock. He has hit safely nine of his last 10 games, going 12-for-37 (.324)...He did not collect a RBI yesterday, but his 15 RBI overall this season rank third-most in the PCL and he has two four-RBI games already this month.

Trey Bien: Trey Sweeney went 2-for-4 with a double in Game 1, but 0-for-3 with a walk in Game 2 to snap his team season-best seven-game hitting streak. During the streak, Sweeney went 10-for-22 (.455) with two doubles, a triple, a home run, eight runs scored, five RBI and 11 walks. He has reached base in all 10 games in which he has played this season - tied for the second-longest on-base streak in the PCL...His 13 walks pace the league, while his .511 on-base percentage is third and his 10 runs scored are tied for second.

Fine and Dandy: Andy Pages went a combined 3-for-7 in Wednesday's two games, finishing with a double and home run in Game 1. Pages is now 8-for-17 over his last four games with two homers and four RBI and is 11-for-30 (.367) with two doubles and two home runs over his last seven games, including four multi-hit games. His 13 hits overall pace OKC early this season...On Sunday, he hit his first Triple-A home run in the second inning - a two-run shot that sailed over the video board in left field and exited the stadium. He followed that up with a two-run blast in the sixth inning of Game 1 yesterday out to right-center field...Pages entered the season ranked as the No. 3 prospect in the Dodgers organization by Baseball America and the No. 4 prospect by MLB Pipeline. Pages made his Triple-A debut in May 2023 with Oklahoma City but tore the labrum in his left shoulder in his first game with the team and missed the rest of the season.

Close Calls: Both of OKC's losses yesterday came during Round Rock's final at-bat, and of Oklahoma City's five total losses this season, three have occurred in an opponent's final at-bat. Of OKC's first 11 games this season, five have been decided in a final at-bat. Last season, 36 of OKC's 148 games were decided in a final at-bat (24.3 percent), including 24 last at-bat victories...Game 1 yesterday was decided by one run and nine of OKC's first 11 games this season have been decided by margins of two runs or less, including each of OKC's first four losses. Game 2's 6-1 loss marked the most lopsided loss of the season for OKC, with Round Rock scoring six runs in the sixth inning of the seven-inning game...Oklahoma City's first eight games of the 2024 season had been decided by a total of 11 runs and all eight games were decided by margins of two runs or less. The last time OKC had a stretch of eight straight games decided by two runs or less in the same season was June 21-29, 2021 when OKC went 6-2...Last season, 68 of OKC's 148 games (46 percent) were decided by one or two runs and OKC went 40-28 in those close contests.

Crooked Numbers: The six runs allowed by OKC in the sixth inning of Game 2 Wednesday marked the highest scoring inning by an opponent this season and largest since Tacoma scored eight runs in the fifth inning of a game in OKC Sept. 17, 2023 - tied for the most runs allowed in an inning by OKC last season...Of the 52 total runs allowed so far this season, 19 of them have scored during four big innings. That's 36.5 percent of runs allowed in 4.3 percent of the innings pitched...The team has allowed 18 of the 52 total runs in the sixth inning and is being outscored, 18-3, in the sixth inning but is outscoring opponents, 56-34, in all other innings.

Drew Up: Drew Avans hit safely in both games yesterday and in his last four games is 6-for-14 with two doubles, four walks and six runs scored. He leads OKC with five multi-hit games overall this season and his four doubles also lead the team...During the team's Bricktown era (since 1998), Avans ranks third with 186 career walks and 84 stolen bases and is eighth with 327 career hits. He is two walks shy of tying Jason Botts for second all-time...In his next game, Avans will tie Esteban German for the fourth-most career games played during the Bricktown era (348 games).

RISP Adverse: OKC combined to go 3-for-19 with runners in scoring position yesterday after batting .286 (18x63) over the previous series against Albuquerque...On the other hand, Round Rock went a combined 7-for-14 with runners in scoring position during yesterday's doubleheader. OKC had held its previous opponent Albuquerque 9-for-58 (.155) with runners in scoring position throughout the six-game home series. Entering the Round Rock series, OKC opponents overall were just 16-for-92 (.174) with RISP through nine games.

Around the Horn: Each of Jonathan Araúz's last three hits have been doubles...Kevin Padlo has driven in five runs over the last three games and finished his last two games with multi-RBI outings...Yesterday the Express batted .478 (12x23) with two outs but just .154 (4x26) with less than two outs. Over the first nine games of the season, opponents batted .208 (20x96) against OKC with two outs...OKC is off to a 1-4 start on the road after going 48-27 away from Oklahoma City last season...Over a combined 12 innings yesterday, OKC pitchers finished with 13 strikeouts. Sunday against Albuquerque, OKC pitchers had 12 strikeouts over nine innings and had reached double-digit strikeout totals in four of six games entering Wednesday as well as in six games overall this season. Overall this season, OKC pitchers have 111 strikeouts - second-most in the league behind Sugar Land (114 K) - and is averaging 10 strikeouts per game.

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Pacific Coast League Stories from April 11, 2024


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