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PCL Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Baseball Club Game Notes - April 5, 2024

April 5, 2024 - Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release


Albuquerque Isotopes (2-4) at Oklahoma City Baseball Club (3-3)

Game #7 of 150/First Half #7 of 75/Home #4 of 75

Pitching Probables: ABQ-LHP Ty Blach (0-0, 2.45) vs. OKC-RHP Eduardo Salazar (0-0, 4.50)

Friday, April 5, 2024 | Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark | Oklahoma City, Okla. | 7:05 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 continues its first home series of the season at 7:05 p.m. against the Albuquerque Isotopes as the teams meet for the third time in their six-game series at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. Tonight marks the first Friday Night Fireworks of the season presented by INTEGRIS Health. OKC leads the series, 2-1.

Last Game: The Oklahoma City Baseball Club suffered its first home loss of the season Thursday night, falling to the Albuquerque Isotopes, 5-4, at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. Oklahoma City scored four runs through four innings, tying the score, 4-4, in the fourth inning on a two-run double by Chris Okey. Oklahoma City was then held without a run for the final five innings and the Isotopes went on to score the go-ahead run in the seventh inning when Hunter Goodman hit into a fielder's choice with the bases loaded.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Eduardo Salazar (0-0) makes his home debut as he takes the mound for the second time this season...Salazar started and pitched 4.0 innings Saturday 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 Albuquerque.

Against the Isotopes: 2024: 2-1 2023: 10-14 All-time: 140-120 At OKC: 79-52 OKC and the Isotopes meet for their first of four series in 2024, totaling 24 games, all to be played within the first half of the season...Last season, the Isotopes were one of three teams OKC posted a losing head-to-head record against, along with Salt Lake and Tacoma, as Albuquerque won a season series against OKC for the first time since 2017. OKC won the 2018, 2019 and 2022 series, going a combined 18-6, and split the 2021 series, 9-9, before losing last season's series, 14-10...Last season, the Isotopes went 9-3 at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark for their most wins in OKC. Previously, the Isotopes' most wins in Bricktown in one season was five in 2009. Albuquerque won five of six games in OKC Aug. 22-27 before OKC finished that August series with a 14-0 win, tying for the team's largest shutout win ever at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark and tied for the second-largest shutout win in the Bricktown era overall (also April 25, 1998 vs. Nashville)...The teams also played a six-game series in OKC July 4-9, 2023, which the Isotopes won, 4-2. It was Albuquerque's first series win in Bricktown since 2016 and the Isotopes won four straight games against OKC within the same series since Aug. 8-11, 2008 in Albuquerque...In 2023, the road team went 16-8 in the season series...Ryan Ward led OKC with 29 hits and 20 RBI against Albuquerque last season and Michael Busch hit seven homers...In three appearances (two starts), Gavin Stone posted a 0.66 ERA with 18 strikeouts over 13.2 IP.

Close Calls: All six of Oklahoma City's games to start the 2024 season have been decided by a total of eight runs and all six games have been decided by margins of two runs or less. Thursday was already the fourth game of the season decided by a one-run margin for Oklahoma City and the team is now 1-3 in those games. Last season OKC went 23-18 in one-run games during the regular season, and including the Triple-A National Championship Game, each of OKC's last five losses have been by one-run margins...The last time OKC had a stretch of at least six straight games decided by two runs or less in the same season was during an eight-game stretch 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...Going back to last season's Triple-A National Championship game, which OKC lost, 7-6, all of OKC's last seven games have been decided by two runs or less. To close out the 2023 regular season, OKC's final two games were also decided by two runs or less, also against Albuquerque...OKC's win Wednesday night against Albuquerque was the team's first last at-bat win of the season after capturing 24 last at-bat wins in 2023. Two of the team's first six games have been decided in a final at-bat after 36 of 148 games were decided in a final at-bat in 2023 (24.3 percent).

Miggy Mash: Miguel Vargas picked up a single and walk last night and has now hit safely in a team-leading five consecutive games, going 8-for-20 with 12 RBI...He homered in back-to-back games Tuesday and Wednesday and recorded four RBI both nights. On Wednesday, Vargas went 2-for-3 with a double, home run, sacrifice fly and four RBI for his third multi-hit game of the season and second straight game with multiple extra-base hits. Five of his first eight hits of 2024 have gone for extra bases...His grand slam Tuesday was his first career grand slam (573rd career game). It was OKC's first of the season and the third hit in the PCL so far in 2024...His 12 RBI this season are most in the PCL and Tuesday marked his first game with four-plus RBI since driving in eight for Double-A Tulsa July 25, 2021 against Northwest Arkansas. Prior to Tuesday, he had not recorded a game of at least four RBI at Triple-A or in the Majors in his career (275 games).

Trey Bien: Trey Sweeney connected on a RBI triple in the third inning last night and has now hit safely in four straight games, going 5-for-13 with four RBI. The infielder has reached base safely in all six of OKC's games to start the season, drawing a league-leading eight walks with at least one walk in each game. He also has recorded a RBI in four consecutive games and his seven runs scored pace the team early in 2024...Sweeney was traded to the Dodgers Dec. 11 , 2023 from the New York Yankees in exchange for Victor González and Jorbit Vivas. He spent the entire 2023 season with Double-A Somerset and enters 2024 ranked as the No. 16 Los Angeles Dodgers prospect by Baseball America and No. 22 by MLB Pipeline.

Dinger Details: OKC was held without a home run for just the second time this season, snapping the team's stretch of four straight games with a homer (8 HR). OKC also did not record a home run in the season opener March 29 in Tacoma...Five different players have hit OKC's first eight home runs of 2024 - Miguel Vargas (3), Andre Lipcius (2), Hunter Feduccia, Trey Sweeney and Ryan Ward...On the other hand, OKC allowed a home run last night and opponents have homered in just two games so far this season. OKC's three homers allowed are tied with Salt Lake for fewest allowed in the PCL.

Playing the Hits: Oklahoma City outhit the Isotopes, 7-6, in last night's loss and OKC is now 2-3 in games when outhitting its opponent so far this season. In games in which OKC outhit its opponent last season, Oklahoma City went 67-14...OKC has been outhit in just one game this season - an 8-7 win against Albuquerque Wednesday night at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. Last season, OKC finished 15-41 in games in which the opponent totaled more hits...After allowing a total of six extra-base hits through the first four games of the season, OKC has permitted a total of 11 extra-base hits over the last two games.

Feeling at Home: Oklahoma City lost its first home game of the season last night after starting 2-0 at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark for the first time since 2018 when OKC started the season with 15 straight home wins. The start to the 2018 season included the second-longest home winning streak during the Bricktown era (since 1998). Prior to that, OKC had not won its first two home games since 2007...A loss tonight would even OKC's home record at 2-2, marking the latest into a season OKC has been .500 or below at home since ending the 2021 season with a 30-34 record at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. OKC went 42-31 at home last season and 45-30 in OKC in 2022...With Tuesday's win in the home opener, Oklahoma City improved to 10-16 in home openers since Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark opened in 1998. The team won a home opener for the second time in the last three seasons, but for just the fourth time in the last 15 seasons. It was also the first time since 2011 that OKC did not play the bottom of the ninth inning during a home opener. OKC's other two wins in between came via walk-offs.

Victory Parade: Oklahoma City won the 2023 PCL Championship following a 90-58 regular season, posting the most wins for an Oklahoma City team in a single season during the Bricktown era (since 1998) and the second-most wins in Oklahoma City's Triple-A history behind only the 1965 89ers (91-54). OKC's 90 wins tied for the most wins in the Minors last season and OKC became just the second PCL team since 2006 to notch at least 90 wins...In the PCL Championship Series at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, OKC defeated Round Rock, 8-3, in Game 1 and, 5-2, in Game 2 against the Express to sweep the three-game series for OKC's first league title since 1996. Oklahoma City went on to make its first appearance in a Triple-A National Championship Game and first in postseason interleague competition during the franchise's Bricktown era (since 1998) and PCL history (1963-68; 1998-2023), but ended up falling to the Norfolk Tides, 7-6.

You Can Find Us in the Club: The Oklahoma City Baseball Club is taking the field in 2024 while the franchise undergoes a brand identity transition and develops a fresh and local team name to be unveiled following the conclusion of the season. The organization proudly remains the Los Angeles Dodgers' Triple-A affiliate under the current Professional Development League license and will spend the 2024 season celebrating OKC's franchise history, which has been continuous since 1962. During every Thursday home game, the team will wear refreshed Oklahoma City 89ers jerseys and hats. During every Sunday home game, the team will wear its City Celebration jerseys and hats, which were introduced in 2023 in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.

Around the Horn: Oklahoma City was charged with an error last night and the team's eight errors to start 2024 are most in the PCL and second-most in Triple-A behind the Norfolk Tides (9). OKC has committed at least one error in five straight games...OKC and Albuquerque combined to go 1-for-21 with runners in scoring position last night. The Isotopes have been held 4-for-38 with RISP through three games in the series. Yesterday was already the second time this season the opponent did not record a hit with a runner in scoring position, yet won the game (also March 29 at Tacoma; 0-for-7). OKC opponents overall are just 11-for-72 with RISP (.153) but are averaging 12 at-bats per game, including 13 at-bats per game over the last five games (65 AB).

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