OKC Baseball Club Game Notes - April 12, 2024
April 12, 2024 - Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release
Oklahoma City Baseball Club (7-5) at Round Rock Express (7-5)
Game #13 of 150/First Half #13 of 75/Road #7 of 75
Pitching Probables: OKC-RHP Nabil Crismatt (0-0, 0.00) vs. RR-RHP Jack Leiter (1-0, 3.24)
Friday, April 12, 2024 | Dell Diamond | Round Rock, Texas | 7:15 p.m. CT
Radio: KGHM-AM 1340 The Game, 1340thegame.com, iHeartRadio; Video: MiLB.tv, Bally Live
Today's Game: The Oklahoma City Baseball Club looks to even its road series in Texas when the six-game series continues at 7:15 p.m. against the Round Rock Express at Dell Diamond. Round Rock leads the series, 2-1, after OKC picked up its second road win of the season last night and OKC is looking for consecutive road wins for the first time this season.
Last Game: The Oklahoma City Baseball Club bounced back Thursday night with a 4-2 win over the Round Rock Express at Dell Diamond. The Express took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning before OKC scored twice in the third inning on a RBI single by Trey Sweeney and sacrifice fly by Ryan Ward. Andy Pages added a RBI single in the fourth inning to extend the lead to 3-1. Round Rock trimmed the lead back to one run in the sixth inning and left the tying run at third base in the seventh inning. Kody Hoese gave Oklahoma City a bit more breathing room with a RBI single in the eighth inning. Starting pitcher Eduardo Salazar earned his first win after 5.2 solid innings and the bullpen threw 3.1 scoreless innings and allowed just one hit.
Today's Probable Pitcher: Nabil Crismatt (0-0) makes his second appearance of the season with Oklahoma City and first start...Crismatt made his team debut April 6 against Albuquerque at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark and followed rehabbing starter Walker Buehler with 2.1 scoreless innings, allowing two hits and striking out five of nine batters...Crismatt's first appearance of 2024 came with the Los Angeles Dodgers March 31 against St. Louis at Dodger Stadium. He was credited with the win, allowing one hit with three K's over 2.0 innings of relief in the seventh and eighth innings during LA's comeback victory. He was subsequently designated for assignment April 1 and outrighted to OKC April 4...Crismatt signed with the Dodgers as a free agent in December 2023...He made San Diego's Opening Day roster last season and posted a 9.82 ERA across seven games for the Padres and missed nearly two months of action due to a left hip strain before being DFA'd in June...He signed a minor league contract with Arizona in June and pitched in 14 games (nine starts) with Triple-A Reno...Crismatt spent almost the entire 2022 season with San Diego, posting career bests in appearances (50) and ERA (2.94)...He is entering his 13th pro season and originally signed with the Mets as a free agent out of Colombia in 2012...Crismatt made his ML debut Aug. 17, 2020 with the St. Louis Cardinals against the Chicago Cubs...He made five appearances (one start) against Round Rock last season while with Reno and El Paso. His most recent outing was a July 22 road start for Reno. He pitched 5.0 innings, allowing one run and two hits along with one walk and three strikeouts.
Dinelson Lamet (0-0) is expected to piggyback Crismatt and make his first appearance of the season with OKC after making three relief appearances with the Los Angeles Dodgers to open the season...Similar to Crismatt, he was on OKC's Opening Day roster but was called up by LAD before making an appearance...Over three relief outings April 1, 3 and 5 with the Dodgers, Lamet pitched a combined 4.1 innings, allowing two runs (one earned) and two hits with two walks and three strikeouts. He earned his first career ML save April 3 against San Francisco with a 1-2-3 ninth inning to preserve a 5-4 win. He held opponents to a combined .133 average in his two outings against San Francisco and another at the Chicago Cubs...He was designated for assignment April 6 and outrighted to OKC April 8...Last season, Lamet made Colorado's Opening Day roster, posting a 1-4 record with an 11.57 ERA and 31 strikeouts across 16 games (four starts) and 25.2 IP. He also made three rehab appearances with Triple-A Albuquerque after sustaining a lower back injury in early May. He signed a minor league contract with Boston after being released by the Rockies in June, and made five appearances (four starts) for Triple-A Worcester and one with Boston before being DFA'd...He made his ML debut with San Diego May 25, 2017 at New York (NL), earning the win after allowing one earned run on three hits with eight strikeouts over 5.0 IP...He originally signed with San Diego as a free agent in 2014...Lamet made one start against the Express last season while on a rehab assignment with Albuquerque. He pitched 4.2 scoreless innings, allowing two hits and one walk with six strikeouts.
Against the Express: 2024: 1-2 2023: 14-4 All-time: 177-141 At RR: 94-70 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...OKC 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, OKC 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. In the postseason, Drew Avans racked up six hits in two games and tied Michael Busch with three RBI against Round Rock...Entering tonight, OKC is 8-2 in the team's last 10 games at Dell Diamond.
Fine and Dandy: Last night, Andy Pages went 2-for-5 with a RBI. He is now 10-for-22 (.455) over his last five games, including four multi-hit efforts with two home runs and a double. Over his last eight games, Pages is 13-for-35 (.371) with two doubles, two homers and five multi-hit games...His 15 hits overall pace OKC early this season and he is tied with Trey Sweeney with a team-leading 10 runs scored to start 2024. His early hit and run totals are tied for third-most in the PCL to begin the 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 of Wednesday's doubleheader 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.
Trey Bien: Trey Sweeney reached base three times Thursday night, going 1-for-3 with two walks and a RBI. Sweeney has hit safely in eight of his last nine games, going 11-for-28 (.393) with two doubles, a triple and home run and 13 walks. He has also reached base safely in all 11 games he's played in this season and leads the PCL with 15 walks, while his .519 on-base percentage ranks second in the league. His 11-game on-base streak is tied for the second-longest on-base streak in the PCL and his 10 runs scored are tied for third...Sweeney was traded from the New York Yankees to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for Victor González and Jorbit Vivas in December 2023 and enters his fourth professional season ranked as the Dodgers' No. 16 prospect by Baseball America and No. 22 by MLB Pipeline.
Miggy Mash: Miguel Vargas was held without a hit last night, going 0-for-3, but walked twice. He has now reached base in each of the team's first 12 games this season and is the only player in the PCL to do so. This is Vargas' longest on-base streak since Aug. 13-31, 2023 when he reached base safely in 15 straight games with Oklahoma City...Vargas has hit safely in nine of his last 11 games, going 12-for-40 (.300) with three doubles, three homers and 15 RBI...He has not picked up a RBI in each of his last three games, but his 15 RBI overall this season lead OKC and are tied for third-most in the PCL. He already has two four-RBI games this month.
Close Calls: Yesterday was already the 10th time this season that a game for Oklahoma City was decided by two runs or less and OKC improved to 6-4 in those games...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...Both of OKC's losses during Wednesday's doubleheader 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 12 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.
Drew Up: Drew Avans had Thursday off, but on Wednesday hit safely in both games of the doubleheader and in his last four games is 6-for-14 with two doubles, four walks and six runs scored. He is tied with Andy Pages with a team-leading 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).
Pitching Prowess: OKC allowed two runs Thursday following a rough doubleheader Wednesday in which the pitching staff allowed 13 runs in 12 innings. Last night's win marked the fourth time in six games that OKC has allowed three or fewer runs, all resulting in victories...Starting pitcher Eduardo Salazar delivered 5.2 solid innings yesterday, allowing two runs and six hits, earning his first win of the season. Salazar gave up a quick run in the first inning but then kept Round Rock scoreless until his final batter faced with two outs in the sixth inning...After Round Rock went 7-for-14 with runners in scoring position Wednesday, the pitching staff held the Express 1-for-9 Thursday...Through 12 games, OKC's pitching staff's 118 strikeouts rank second-most in the league, while their 84 hits allowed are tied for fewest and their 54 runs allowed are third-fewest in the PCL.
Around the Horn: Kody Hoese went 2-for-4 with a RBI and scored a run yesterday. He has hit safely in six of his first seven Triple-A games, going 9-for-25 (.360) and yesterday marked his third multi-hit outing...OKC went 4-for-9 with runners in scoring position last night after being held 3-for-19 during Wednesday's doubleheader...Jonathan Araúz has hit safely in four straight games (4x15) after starting the season 1-for-18...Last night marked the first time this season OKC's offense did not collect an extra-base hit. That happened in nine of 148 games last season, with the most recent occurrence Sept. 14 vs. Tacoma...Yesterday was also already the fifth time in 12 games neither OKC nor the opponent hit a home run. That happened in 20 of 148 games last season.
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