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PCL Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Baseball Club Game Notes - July 21, 2024

July 21, 2024 - Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release


Oklahoma City Baseball Club (8-12/48-47) at Round Rock Express (9-10/46-47)

Game #96 of 150/Second Half #21 of 75/Road #51 of 75

Pitching Probables: OKC-RHP Ben Casparius (2-1, 3.32) vs. RR-RHP Jack Leiter (4-4, 3.88)

Sunday, July 21, 2024 | Dell Diamond | Round Rock, Texas | 6:35 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 closes out its road series against the Round Rock Express at 6:35 p.m. at Dell Diamond in the rubber match of the three-game set...Despite a loss last night, OKC is 4-2 in its last six games and 11-3 at Dell Diamond since the start of the 2023 season.

Last Game: Matt Whatley hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the 10th inning, sending the Round Rock Express to a 2-1 win over the Oklahoma City Baseball Club Saturday night at Dell Diamond. The game was scoreless through nine innings before Chris Owings broke the deadlock in the top of the 10th inning with a RBI single. With one out the bottom of the 10th inning and a runner at third base, Whatley hit a line drive that just eclipsed the left field wall for a walk-off home run. Through nine innings, neither team was able to score, and each team had just one runner advance to third base. Oklahoma City had the go-ahead runner in scoring position with one or no outs in the sixth, seventh and ninth innings but could not break through. Round Rock was limited to four hits through nine innings, and prior to Whatley's homer, the OKC pitching staff had retired 11 of the last 12 batters.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Ben Casparius (2-1) makes his 10th start with OKC and second following a stint on the Injured List...Casparius last pitched July 14 against El Paso at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, tossing 3.0 scoreless and hitless innings with four strikeouts and one walk. After issuing a walk to the first batter of the game, he retired the next nine El Paso batters in a row...Before returning to action a week ago, Casparius was on the IL June 20-July 13 due to an oblique injury...Casparius joined OKC May 7, and over his first two starts allowed one run and six hits across 11.0 innings, with no extra-base hits...Through nine starts at Triple-A, Casparius owns a 3.32 ERA over 40.2 innings with 38 strikeouts and opponents are batting just .190...Before his promotion to OKC, he made five starts with Double-A Tulsa, posting a 2-1 record and 3.32 ERA over 21.2 innings pitched with 11 walks and 34 strikeouts. At the time of his promotion, he ranked tied for third in the Texas League in strikeouts, seventh in ERA and eighth in BAA (.217)...Last season, Casparius split the season between High-A Great Lakes and Tulsa and played with the Glendale Desert Dogs in the Arizona Fall League following the season...He was selected by the Dodgers in the fifth round of the 2021 draft out of UConn after starting his collegiate career at the University of North Carolina and played in College World Series with the Tar Heels in 2018...He last started against the Express in Game 1 of a doubleheader June 6 at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. He allowed one run and one hit over 4.0 innings with three walks and three strikeouts.

Against the Express: 2024: 8-6 2023: 14-4 All-time: 184-145 At RR: 98-71 Tonight OKC and Round Rock wrap up their third of five series this season, as they are meeting for a three-game set following the league All-Star Break...The teams last played a six-game series in OKC June 4-9, which the teams split, 3-3. The series included a doubleheader after the first game of the series was suspended after the top of the first inning due to rain. Three-time Cy Young Award winner and two-time World Series champion Max Scherzer started for Round Rock in the series finale as part of a ML Rehab Assignment, completing 4.0 scoreless innings...OKC won the first series of the season, 4-2, at Dell Diamond April 9-14. After the first game was postponed due to inclement weather, Round Rock won both games of a doubleheader the following day. OKC then closed the series with four straight wins, including 12-3 and 14-5 victories in the final two games...Through the first 12 games against the Express, Andre Lipcius led OKC with 16 hits and 15 RBI, including five home runs...Prior to April, the teams last met 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 2023 regular-season series, 14-4, including wins in nine of the first 10 games and in four of the last five meetings...OKC swept the Express in the lone 2023 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.

In Conclusion: Last night, Oklahoma City went to extra innings for the second time in three games and fell to 3-3 in extra innings this season. The team is 3-0 at home, but now 0-3 on the road. Saturday was OKC's first extra-innings game on the road since May 7 in Sugar Land and was OKC's second game of the season to be decided in the 10th inning as OKC's four other extra-inning games were decided in the 11th inning...Last night was the sixth time this season OKC lost a game in walk-off fashion, and the first time since June 1 in Albuquerque. Matt Whatley's two-run home run in the bottom of the 10th inning last night marked the second time this season an opponent hit a walk-off home run, joining Sacramento's Ismael Munguia May 14...The last opponent to register a walk-off hit while trailing was Tacoma's Ryan Bliss on Aug. 13, 2023. With Tacoma behind, 2-1, in the 10th inning, he hit a two-run single with the bases loaded and two outs. The last opponent to hit a walk-off homer while trailing was El Paso's Aderlin Rodriguez on April 14, 2022, who hit a three-run homer with El Paso trailing, 5-4, in the ninth inning.

Front Nine: Last night marked the second time this season OKC played a game that went scoreless through nine innings. On Opening Night March 29 in Tacoma, the Rainiers and OKC played nine scoreless innings at Cheney Stadium before Tacoma scored the game-winning run in the 11th inning for a 1-0 victory. In that game, the teams combined for seven total hits, but no hits in extra innings as Tacoma's game-winning run scored on a fielder's choice...Last night, OKC and Round Rock combined for 12 hits, including two hits in extra innings, as the teams combined for three runs in the 10th inning.

Trey Bien: Trey Sweeney finished with the only multi-hit game by either team last night, going 2-for-4 as he also collected OKC's lone extra-base hit - a double in the second inning. Through his first two games of the series, Sweeney is 6-for-9 with three extra-base hits after he went 4-for-5 with a home run and double Friday night...Sweeney has now hit safely in 14 of his last 16 games, collecting 21 hits and 10 RBI and scoring 12 runs while batting .333 (21x63). He has also hit safely in 17 of his last 20 games, batting .313 (25x80) since June 22 with 11 RBI and 13 runs scored...He's 9-for-23 during his current five-game hit streak, with four extra-base hits, four RBI and six runs scored...Sweeney leads OKC with 89 games played overall this season - tied for second-most in the PCL - and paces OKC with 17 hits through 13 games in July. He also ranks among the top 10 league leaders this season in runs scored (T-8th, 62), RBI (T-9th, 59) and total bases (10th, 156).

On the Hunt: Hunter Feduccia went 1-for-4 Saturday night to extend his career-best on-base streak to 25 games - tied for the second-longest on-base streak of the season for an OKC player and the second-longest active on-base streak in the league. During the streak that started June 6, he has 25 hits, along with 17 RBI and 22 walks, batting .305 with a .457 OBP...Over his three-game hitting streak, Feduccia is 6-for-12 with three RBI, and over his last eight games, Feduccia is 11-for-26 (.423) with seven walks...His 25-game on-base streak is tied with Drew Avans for the second-longest on-base streak of the season for an OKC player and is two games shy of matching Trey Sweeney's team season-best on-base streak of 27 games...He ranks fifth overall in the PCL this season with a .414 OBP.

Drew Up: Drew Avans led off Saturday's game with a single for the for the 413th hit of his Oklahoma City career. He is now tied with Esteban Germán for second place all-time during OKC's Bricktown era (since 1998) in career hits. Throughout this season, Avans has established new Bricktown-era career records for walks (233) and triples (25). He ranks second all-time in the Bricktown era with 423 career games and 110 stolen bases, while ranking tied for second in hits (413) and tied for fourth in doubles (77)...Avans is currently in the midst of an 11-game on-base streak - his second of at least 11 games this season...He ranks second in the league with 74 runs scored, tied for second with seven triples, tied for third with 28 stolen bases, fifth with 52 walks and tied for seventh with 98 hits.

One and Done: Oklahoma City was held to one run last night, marking the 14th time this season OKC scored one run or less through 95 games this season, and the first time since a 3-1 loss in Reno June 28. This is the first time since the 2019 season that OKC has been held to one run or less in at least 14 games in a season. OKC scored one run or less in 11 games in 2023 (148 G), in 13 games in 2022 (150 G) and in 11 games in 2021 (129 G). In 2019, it happened 21 times in 139 games...Last night was the second time this season OKC held an opponent to two runs or less and lost, joining the team's season-opening 1-0 loss in Tacoma, but last night was also the 11th time the team has lost when allowing three runs or less this season - something that occurred three times all of last season.

Summer Blues: Tonight OKC will seek to keep its record above .500 after being at .500 four times already this month. Before last Sunday's win, OKC's record sat at .500 (46-46), which was the latest into a season OKC held a .500 record since Sept. 6, 2021 when OKC was 53-53...Following an 11-2 win in Sugar Land June 11, OKC's record was 37-27 - tied for the team's best record of the season at 10 games above .500. Since then, OKC is 11-20 over the last 31 games and is tied for the worst record in the PCL during that time and is one of five Triple-A teams will 11 wins or less during that stretch...Since June 12, OKC's .247 AVG, 148 runs scored and 265 hits are second-to-last in the league. On the pitching side, OKC's 5.43 ERA is seventh, while the team's 283 hits are sixth and 180 runs are fifth out of 10 teams...OKC has lost at least four straight games three times over that period and the team has avoided to lose at least consecutive games just twice...With seven series losses this season, OKC has already surpassed its 2023 total of six.

The Warden: Ryan Ward hit his league-leading 25th home run of the season Friday night, connecting on a three-run blast in the sixth inning. Including a home run during a rehab assignment in Arizona Complex League, Ward is up to 26 home runs this season - second-most in the Minors. He also has hit five home runs so far in July over 13 games...His season-high mark for home runs in a season is 28 with Double-A Tulsa in 2022 over 116 games...In addition to leading the league in home runs, Ward also leads the PCL in SLG (.633), is third in OPS (.970), third with 46 extra-base hits, and ranks seventh with 70 RBI and 178 total bases although he has played in just 70 games, having missed more than three weeks of the season while on the Injured List in May.

Around the Horn: Last night Bobby Miller made his first start with OKC since getting optioned by the Los Angeles Dodgers July 10. He completed five scoreless innings and allowed four hits, with four walks and four strikeouts. The four walks tied his overall career high and was the first time he walked four in a Minor League game. Miller held the Express 0-for-6 with runners on base...In each of OKC's last five wins, the team has scored at least five runs (33 total runs). However, in each of the team's last five losses, OKC has been held to three runs or less (12 total runs)...Yesterday OKC's offense produced just one extra-base hit for the third time in the last four games (6 XBH total)...The is the seventh time the last eight series OKC and their opponent are tied, 1-1, through two games.

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