PCL Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Baseball Club Game Notes - April 13, 2024

April 13, 2024 - Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release


Oklahoma City Baseball Club (8-5) at Round Rock Express (7-6)

Game #14 of 150/First Half #14 of 75/Road #8 of 75

Pitching Probables: OKC-RHP Elieser Hernández (0-0, 6.00) vs. RR-RHP Adrian Sampson (1-0, 5.00)

Saturday, April 13, 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 tries for a third straight win to match their longest winning streak of the season when the team continues its series against the Round Rock Express at 7:15 p.m. at Dell Diamond. The six-game series between the teams is tied, 2-2, and OKC has won back-to-back road games for the first time this season.

Last Game: The Oklahoma City Baseball Club hit three early home runs and led from start to finish during a 7-1 win over the Round Rock Express Friday night at Dell Diamond. Three of the OKC's first six batters went deep. Andy Pages hit the team's first homer in the first inning before Ryan Ward and Kevin Padlo hit back-to-back home runs to open the second inning. Leading, 3-1, in the eighth inning, OKC tacked on three more runs. Miguel Vargas notched a sacrifice fly before Ward followed with a two-run double. Pages added a RBI single in the ninth inning. The OKC pitching staff allowed only one unearned run, did not allow an extra-base hit and racked up 13 strikeouts.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Tonight is the second start of the season for Elieser Hernández (0-0)...He made his team and Dodgers organization debut April 7 against Albuquerque in OKC, allowing two runs and two hits, along with three walks and five strikeouts over three-plus innings (ND)...He signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Dodgers Jan. 12, 2024 and made four appearances during Spring Training after making eight appearances in the Mets organization last season...He spent much of the 2023 season on the Injured List, making his season debut May 28 on a rehab assignment and did not pitch after July 9. He appeared with Single-A St. Lucie, High-A Brooklyn and Triple-A Syracuse, making two appearances with Syracuse totaling 2.0 IP...He spent the majority of the 2022 season with the Miami Marlins, compiling a 3-6 record in 20 games (10 starts) with a 6.35 ERA and 60 strikeouts. He didn't allow a run in seven of his 10 relief outings and tied a career-high with 6.0 IP April 17 against Philadelphia...Hernández also appeared in 12 games (11 starts) with Triple-A Jacksonville, posting a 4-4 record with a 4.11 ERA and 68 strikeouts in 57.0 IP. He was traded to New York (NL) Nov. 18, 2022 alongside Jeff Brigham in exchange for Franklin Sanchez and Jake Mangum...He was originally signed by Houston as an international free agent May 31, 2012 and was later selected by the Marlins in the Major League phase of the 2017 Rule 5 Draft...He made his ML debut with Miami May 10, 2018 against Atlanta and is entering his 13th professional season. The 28-year-old Venezuelan has made 90 career ML appearances, all with Miami between 2018-22...Today is his second career appearance against the Express and first since April 26, 2019 when he was with New Orleans. In that 2019 game, he pitched 4.0 scoreless innings in Round Rock, allowing five hits and one walk and recording five K's.

Against the Express: 2024: 2-2 2023: 14-4 All-time: 178-141 At RR: 95-70 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 9-2 in the team's last 11 games at Dell Diamond.

Fine and Dandy: Andy Pages went 2-for-4 last night with a walk and hit his third home run in the last five games. Pages tallied his fifth multi-hit game in his last six games overall, and during the six-game stretch he is 12-for-26 (.462) with three home runs and seven RBI. Over his last nine games, Pages is 15-for-39 (.385) with two doubles, three homers and six multi-hit games...His 17 hits overall pace OKC early this season, along with his team-leading 12 runs scored. His 17 hits are tied for the league lead, while his 12 runs scored are tied for second-most in the PCL to begin the season...His three homers since April 7 are second-most in the league over the last week. Last 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 before hitting a solo homer last night.

Dinger Details: Oklahoma City tied its season high with three home runs Friday, previously done March 30 at Tacoma. However, last night was the first time this season three different players went deep in the same game. Andy Pages and Ryan Ward each hit their third home runs of the season and Kevin Padlo blasted his first of 2024...Ward and Padlo recorded the team's first back-to-back home runs of the season, coming within the first three pitches of the second inning. Ward's home run traveled an estimated 424 feet to center field and Padlo's dinger went an estimated 427 feet to left field. Prior to last night, the last time OKC players hit back-to-back home runs was in the bottom of the ninth inning of the 2023 Triple-A National Championship Game against Norfolk in Las Vegas last September when Michael Busch and Miguel Vargas went back-to-back with two outs in the ninth inning. The team went back-to-back six times during the 2023 regular season...The OKC pitching staff has not allowed a home run in a season-best three straight games. The team has yielded just six home runs - fewest in the PCL - and kept their opponent inside the park in nine of the first 13 games.

Pitching Prowess: Last night, the OKC pitching staff allowed just one run for the third time this season and did not allow an extra-base hit for the second time this year. Five pitchers combined for 13 strikeouts and held Round Rock 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position, as the Express are now 1-for-15 with RISP over the last two games after going 7-for-14 with RISP during Wednesday's doubleheader...It's the fifth time in seven games OKC has allowed three or fewer runs, all resulting in victories...The scheduled pitching tandem of Nabil Crismatt and Dinelson Lamet combined to allow one unearned run and two hits over 6.2 innings, with two walks and 10 strikeouts. Crismatt started the game and retired 11 of 13 batters faced over four innings...Through 13 games, OKC's pitching staff's 131 strikeouts rank second-most in the league, while their 90 hits allowed are second-fewest and their 55 runs allowed are third-fewest in the PCL...On the other hand, Round Rock starting pitcher Jack Leiter recorded 10 strikeouts in six innings Friday night. It was the most strikeouts by an Oklahoma City opponent since Reno's Corbin Martin did it at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark on May 27, 2022.

The Warden: Ryan Ward hit his second home run in five games Friday night and finished the game 2-for-3 with two extra-base hits and three RBI. Ward has tallied five extra-base hits and 10 RBI over his last five games, going 6-for-19. Overall this season, six of his nine hits have gone for extra bases. His three homers are tied for the team lead and his 11 RBI in 11 games are second-most on the team...Last season, Ward ranked fourth in the PCL with 95 RBI, making him the ninth player in OKC's Bricktown era (since 1998) with at least 95 RBI in a single season. He also led the PCL with 139 games played- the most by an OKC player in a single season since at least 2005.

Miggy Mash: Miguel Vargas went 1-for-3 with a double and a sacrifice fly Friday and has now reached base in each of OKC's first 13 games of the season - 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 10 of his last 12 games, going 13-for-43 (.302) with four doubles, three homers and 16 RBI...He has 16 RBI overall this season to lead OKC and his total is fourth-most in the PCL. He already has two four-RBI games this month.

Trey Bien: Trey Sweeney drew a walk last night to extend his on-base streak to 12 games although he was held 0-for-4. Sweeney leads the PCL with 16 walks to start the season and his 12-game on-base streak is tied for second in the league behind Miguel Vargas' 13-game streak. His .491 on-base percentage ranks third in the league...After hitting safely in seven straight games (10-for-22), Sweeney is 1-for-10 in his last three games...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.

Drew Up: Drew Avans went 2-for-5 with his second triple of the season and scored a run Friday. He has now hit safely in five straight games, going 8-for-19 (.421) with three extra-base hits, four walks and seven runs scored. His six multi-hit games this season are tied with Andy Pages for the team lead...During the team's Bricktown era (since 1998), Avans ranks third with 186 career walks and 84 stolen bases and is eighth with 329 career hits. He is two walks shy of tying Jason Botts for second all-time. He is now tied with Esteban German for the fourth-most career games played by an OKC player during the Bricktown era (348 games). With his next game, Avans will tie Joaquin Arias for the third-most games played (349 games)...Yesterday he collected his 20th career triple and is two behind Arias for the Bricktown era career record.

Breathing Room: OKC's six-run margin of victory last night was the largest for the team on the road this season and was the team's second-largest overall this season, trailing only an 11-3 win against Albuquerque April 7. OKC last won on the road by six or more runs July 25, 2023 in Reno during a 13-6 victory...After each of the team's first eight games were decided by one or two runs, three of the last five games have been decided by five or more runs, including two of the last three.

Around the Horn: Kody Hoese did not play yesterday, but has hit safely in six of his first seven Triple-A games, going 9-for-25 (.360) with three multi-hit outings...Jonathan Araúz has hit safely in five straight games (5x19) after starting the season 1-for-18...OKC turned two double plays Friday night and the team's 15 double plays are the second-most in the league to start the season behind Sugar Land's 17 double plays...OKC has been outscored, 19-3, in the sixth inning but is outscoring opponents, 67-36, in all other innings.

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