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Oklahoma City Baseball Club

OKC Baseball Club Game Notes - April 21, 2024

April 21, 2024 - Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Baseball Club News Release


Sacramento River Cats (14-6) at Oklahoma City Baseball Club (11-9)

Game #21 of 150/First Half #21 of 75/Home #12 of 75

Pitching Probables: SAC-RHP Carson Seymour (1-0, 2.16) vs. OKC-RHP Eduardo Salazar (1-0, 2.87)

Sunday, April 21, 2024 | Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark | Oklahoma City, Okla. | 2:05 p.m. CT

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

Today's Game: The Oklahoma City Baseball Club wraps up its home series against the Sacramento River Cats at 2:05 p.m. at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark...OKC is trying to snap a three-game losing skid...Today is a City Celebration Sunday and OKC players and coaches will wear commemorative city-themed jerseys and 405 area code caps. All Sunday home games this season will air live on KOCB-TV in Oklahoma City - Channel 34 through digital antennas and DirecTV and on Channel 11 through Cox cable.

Last Game: The Oklahoma City Baseball Club was held to one run in a 3-1 loss to the Sacramento River Cats Saturday night at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. Sacramento scored the first run of the game in the fifth inning on a RBI double by Brett Wisely. The River Cats then added two more runs in the sixth inning on RBI doubles by Marco Luciano and Casey Schmitt for a 3-0 advantage. Oklahoma City ended the shutout bid in the seventh inning. With two outs, four straight Oklahoma City batters reached base, including a RBI single by Trey Sweeney to cut Sacramento's lead to 3-1.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Eduardo Salazar (1-0) makes his fourth start of the season with OKC, and the team is 3-0 in his starts so far this season...The Los Angeles Dodgers selected his contract April 16, but he did not appear in a game and was optioned back to OKC April 17...Salazar last pitched for OKC April 11 in Round Rock, allowing two runs, six hits and one walk with two strikeouts over 5.2 innings in OKC's 4-2 road win. He gave up a run in the first inning but then kept Round Rock scoreless until his final batter faced with two outs in the sixth inning...Over his last two games, Salazar has allowed three runs over 11.2 innings while inducing a total of five ground ball double plays...He allowed one run, four hits and four walks with three strikeouts over 6.0 innings 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, as he became the first OKC pitcher of the season to complete six innings...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...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 and 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, 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 originally signed with Cincinnati March 4, 2017 as a free agent.

Against the River Cats: 2024: 1-4 2023: 12-3 All-time: 61-59 At OKC: 30-32 Oklahoma City and Sacramento are meeting for their first of two series this season and lone series at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark...OKC won last season's series, 12-3, and won the final four meetings between the teams, including a three-game series sweep in Sacramento July 14-16...During a May 23-28 series, which OKC won, 4-2, five of the six games in the set were decided in the eighth inning or later, including three wins by a team trailing in the eighth inning...The teams met for a six-game series at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark in Sacramento April 25-30 that included two doubleheaders due to weather-related postponements. OKC won the series, 5-1, winning the first five games before losing the finale, which was Game 2 of a doubleheader...OKC outscored the River Cats, 81-49, last season overall. Devin Mann collected 14 hits, including six doubles, 12 RBI and 10 runs scored against Sacramento in 14 games last season...OKC has now won back-to-back season series against the River Cats for the first time since 2017-18...Since OKC became affiliated with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the River Cats with the San Francisco Giants in 2015, OKC has a 29-23 advantage in the Triple-A version of the Dodgers-Giants rivalry, including a 16-7 mark over the last 23 games. However, after OKC went 15-3 over the previous 18 meetings, including 8-1 at home, they are 1-4 to begin this series.

Home Repair: Oklahoma City has lost three straight games for the first time this season and first time since closing the 2023 regular season with three consecutive losses in Albuquerque. Oklahoma City last lost three straight games at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark during a stretch of five consecutive home losses in Bricktown Aug. 22-26, 2023 against Albuquerque as OKC lost the first five games of a six-game series. Those five losses were part of a stretch of six consecutive losses overall - OKC's last losing skid to last more than three games...Sacramento has already clinched a winning series. Last season, OKC did not lose its first home series until June 13-18 against Salt Lake...Since switching to a primarily six-game series format in 2021, OKC has only lost five games in a home series twice previously: Aug. 26-31, 2021 vs. Las Vegas and Aug. 22-27, 2023 vs. Albuquerque.

Close Calls: Four of the first five games of the series have been decided by two runs or less as well as 14 of OKC's first 20 games overall this season, with OKC going 7-7. At home, nine of the 11 games have been decided by one or two runs, and OKC is now 5-4 in those games...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.

Rule of Three: OKC pitchers held Sacramento to three runs Saturday night for the third time in the series. It was also the sixth time in the last nine games OKC held an opponent to three or fewer runs, and OKC has now done so 10 times this season. However, OKC already has the same number of losses when allowing three or fewer runs this season (7-3) as the team did all of last season (49-3)...Overall this season, OKC's pitching staff has allowed 87 runs and 151 hits - both of which are second-fewest in the PCL.

Ho Ho Hoese: Kody Hoese went 2-for-4 last night to extend his hitting streak to seven games. He is 10-for-24 (.417) with two home runs during the stretch and has also hit safely in 12 of his first 13 Triple-A games, going 17-for-45 (.378) overall this season with five multi-hit games...Hoese hit his first two home runs of the season Wednesday and Thursday. It was the second time in his career he's gone deep in consecutive games, previous accomplished last season with Double-A Tulsa July 16 at Midland and July 18 at Northwest Arkansas.

Trey Bien: Trey Sweeney went 2-for-5 with a RBI double Saturday and has now reached base safely in each of his first 19 Triple-A games for the longest on-base streak in the PCL to start the season...Sweeney's 18 walks in 19 games pace the PCL and six of his first 17 hits this season have gone for extra bases...Sweeney is 3-for-9 with two doubles over the last two games after enduring a 4-for-33 stretch over the previous eight games.

Launch Pad: Kevin Padlo recorded a double as he went 1-for-3 with a walk last night. He has hit safely in seven of his last eight games, going 9-for-29 (.310) with three home runs, two doubles, seven runs scored and eight RBI...He hit his third home run of the season Friday night, all within the last eight games...Padlo is the owner of the three highest exit velocities produced by all OKC hitters this season (115.0; 112.6; 111.3), as well as the farthest home run of the season for an OKC player (427 feet April 12 in Round Rock).

Full and Empty: OKC went 0-for-2 with two strikeouts with the bases loaded last night, leaving the bases full in both the sixth and seventh innings. OKC has had 35 plate appearances with the bases loaded this year but has collected just four hits, going 4-for-27 with three sacrifice flies, three walks, one hit batter and 13 strikeouts. The team's last 11 plate appearances with the bases loaded have resulted going 0-for-8 with two walks and a catcher's interference...OKC has had at least one plate appearance with the bases loaded in 15 of 20 games this season. The team's .148 batting average with the bases loaded is the lowest in the PCL and 29th out of 30 Triple-A teams.

Dinger Details: After hitting seven home runs over the previous three games and posting three straight multi-homer games (7 HR), OKC was held without a homer last night. Eleven of the team's 14 runs scored over the last four games have scored via home runs...OKC's 16 homers since April 12 are most in the PCL and tied for most in all of Triple-A during the span. They have hit at least two homers in six of the last eight games...OKC's 27 home runs overall to start 2024 are second-most in the PCL behind Sugar Land's 28 home runs and 10 different players have homered for OKC so far this season...On the other hand, Sacramento was also held without a home run last night, snapping a stretch of six straight games in which OKC allowed a home run (9 HR). Overall this season, OKC's 15 home runs allowed are fewest in the PCL...Yesterday was already the sixth time in 20 games neither OKC nor the opponent hit a home run. That happened in 20 of 148 games last season.

The Warden: Ryan Ward was held without a hit last night, but his 10 extra-base hits since April 7 (11 G) are tied for second-most in the PCL as are his 16 RBI during the stretch...Eleven of his 15 total hits this season have gone for extra bases...On Friday night, Ward moved into a tie for the team lead with his fifth home run of the season and now has 17 total RBI so far in 2024 - also tied for most among OKC players...His five homers are tied for fourth-most in the PCL and his 11 extra-base hits are tied for sixth overall in the league...Ward has hit safely in five of seven games, going 8-for-26 (.308)

The Amazing Jonathan: Jonathan Araúz extended his hitting streak to 10 games and is 11-for-40 during the stretch with four doubles and a home run. The hitting streak is tied for the longest in the PCL this season and is his longest since a career-high 14-game hitting streak with High-A Fayetteville May 17-31, 2019.

Around the Horn: Chris Owings went 2-for-4 Saturday as he extended his hitting streak to five games. He is 7-for-18 (.389) during the stretch with a home run. Prior to the hit streak, Owings started the season 2-for-26...OKC has been held to 16 total runs against Sacramento through five games after scoring a combined 33 runs in the three games prior to the start of this series...Drew Avans drew a walk and scored a run Friday and moved into a tie for second place with Jason Botts on OKC's all-time career leaders list for walks during the Bricktown era (since 1998). He's now six walks shy of first place (194 - Esteban German)...The sixth inning continues to be tricky for OKC's pitchers this season, allowing 29 of 87 total runs in that inning alone (33.3 percent). OKC is being outscored, 29-7, in the sixth inning but is outscoring opponents, 105-58, in all other innings...Last night the OKC pitching staff did not allow a walk for the first time since July 25, 2023 at Reno.

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