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PCL Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Baseball Club Game Notes - July 30, 2024

July 30, 2024 - Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release


Oklahoma City Baseball Club (11-16/51-51) at El Paso Chihuahuas (9-18/40-62)

Game #103 of 150/Second Half #28 of 75/Road #52 of 75

Pitching Probables: OKC-RHP Landon Knack (3-2, 3.54) vs. ELP-RHP Gabe Mosser (5-4, 5.71)

Tuesday, July 29, 2024 | Southwest University Park | El Paso, Texas | 7:35 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 seeks a third straight win when the team opens a six-game road series against the El Paso Chihuahuas at 7:35 p.m. CT at Southwest University Park...OKC closed out its home series at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark with back-to-back walk-off wins Saturday and Sunday against Tacoma and has wins in three of the last five games...With a win tonight, OKC can move its overall record to above .500 as the team is currently 51-51 and OKC will also look to even its July record, which is currently 10-11...OKC last won three straight games July 2-4 with the first two wins coming in Las Vegas and the third win coming against Las Vegas in OKC.

Last Game: With two outs and down to its final strike, the Oklahoma City Baseball Club rallied to score three runs in the ninth inning for a 5-4 walk-off win against the Tacoma Rainiers Sunday night at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. Entering the bottom of the ninth inning, Oklahoma City trailed, 4-2. With the tying runs at second and third base with two outs and two strikes, Brendon Davis lined a two-run double into left field to tie the score, 4-4. Chris Okey followed and grounded the first pitch he saw into right field for a game-winning RBI single. Tacoma had been held without a hit until the fifth inning and went on to score the first run of the game for either team in the sixth inning when Ryan Bliss connected on a RBI double. Oklahoma City answered in its next at-bat when Ryan Ward hit a two-run home run out to right-center field for a 2-1 lead. Tacoma went back ahead in the eighth inning, scoring three runs after loading the bases with one out.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Landon Knack (3-2) makes his first appearance with OKC since mid-June after being optioned by the Los Angeles Dodgers July 24...Knack recorded his second win with the Dodgers July 23, allowing one run and two hits, including a home run, over 5.0 innings with two walks and six strikeouts against San Francisco, as LAD won, 5-2...In nine appearances (eight starts) with the Dodgers, Knack is 2-2 with a 3.07 ERA over 44.0 IP this season with 42 K's against 12 walks, holding opponents to a .201 batting average while posting a 1.02 WHIP...He last pitched for OKC June 16 in Sugar Land, tossing 2.2 innings and allowing one run and three hits with three walks. He struck out seven of the 14 batters he faced...Overall with OKC this season, Knack has made 10 appearances (nine starts), going 3-2 with a 3.54 ERA over 48.1 IP. He has compiled 52 strikeouts and issued 20 walks...Knack made his ML debut with the Dodgers April 17 against Washington and earned his first career win in his next start April 24 at Washington...Knack was OKC's Opening Night starter in Tacoma March 29, pitching 5.0 scoreless innings, and made three starts with OKC before his initial call-up...Knack split time between OKC and Double-A Tulsa last season, going a combined 5-1 in 22 starts with a 2.51 ERA over 100.1 IP with 99 K's and 30 walks, setting career highs in starts, innings and K's....He entered the 2024 season as Dodgers' No. 11 prospect by Baseball America and the No. 14 prospect by MLB Pipeline...The Johnson City, Tenn., native was selected in the second round of the 2020 MLB Draft out of East Tennessee State...In his only previous career matchup with El Paso July 19, 2023 in OKC, he started and pitched 4.0 scoreless innings, allowing three hits and one walk with three strikeouts.

Against the Chihuahuas: 2024: 3-3 2023: 9-9 All-time: 53-45 At ELP: 28-26 Oklahoma City and El Paso are playing their second of three series this season, including their first at Southwest University Park in 2024. All 18 scheduled meetings between the teams are taking place during the second half of the season within a span of 39 games...OKC split a six-game series against the Chihuahuas July 9-14 with OKC winning three of the final four games of the series including a 5-4 walk-off win in 11 innings in the series finale...Ryan Ward led OKC with eight hits while Kody Hoese hit two homers and led with six RBI...OKC and El Paso split their 2023 season series, 9-9, and OKC has won just one season series between the teams since 2015, going 1-2-2 in season series over the last five seasons. OKC's lone series win against the Chihuahuas during the span came during the 2021 season when OKC went 14-9...Each team scored 115 runs in the 2023 season series and the Chihuahuas had a slight, 27-26, edge in homers last season with the teams going 3-3 in OKC and 6-6 in El Paso...The Chihuahuas won the 2022 season series, 14-13, clinching just their second season series win against OKC since Tucson's franchise relocated to El Paso for the 2014 season and their first against OKC since 2018...OKC went 6-6 at Southwest University Park last season and last finished with a winning record in El Paso during the 2021 season going 8-4.

Photo Finishes: Oklahoma City rallied for a second straight walk-off win at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark Sunday for the team's sixth walk-off win of the season and third walk-off win in a span of seven home games. In each of those three wins, OKC trailed entering the bottom of the ninth inning after the team had not won all season at home or on the road when trailing entering the ninth inning. On Sunday, OKC entered the bottom of the ninth inning down, 4-2, and scored three runs with two outs to snatch the victory. The night before, the team was trailing, 6-5, in the ninth inning before scoring twice to win. It's the first time OKC notched walk-off wins in consecutive games since April 1-2, 2023 also against Tacoma...Chris Okey's game-winning single Sunday also marked the first time this season that an OKC walk-off win was secured with a hit as the team's previous five walk-off victories came via a fielder's choice, two wild pitches, a sacrifice fly and on a fielder's choice coupled with a fielding error. Going back to 2023, the game-winning run in each of OKC's last six walk-off wins did not score on a hit...Of OKC's last 10 games overall, four have resulted in a team winning after trailing entering its final at-bat, including a 5-4 win over El Paso in 11 innings July 14 and Round Rock defeating OKC, 2-1, in 10 innings July 20.

Close Calls: OKC played its eighth game of the month decided by two runs or less on Sunday, as well as the team's fourth one-run contest in a span of 10 games (3-1). Sunday also marked OKC's 51st game of the season decided by two runs or less, as exactly 50 percent of OKC's games so far this season have been decided by those close margins...In July, OKC is 5-3 in those close games and is now 23-28 this season in games decided by two runs or less, including 12-15 in one-run games. Only Sugar Land has played in as many close games this season (51) in the PCL, but is 30-21 in those games decided by two runs or fewer. OKC's 28 losses by one or two runs are most in the PCL. Since June 1, OKC is 7-14 in games decided by two runs or less, but now 4-2 over the last six...Sunday was the sixth time in nine games between OKC and Tacoma a game was decided by two runs or less, with the teams going 3-3...OKC has played 50 home games, with 28 decided by one or two runs (56 percent). OKC is now 26-24 at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, with a 15-13 mark in one- and two-run games. But when the team is on the road, the record is 8-15 is one- and two-run games.

The Warden: Ryan Ward hit his PCL-leading 26th home run of the season and his sixth homer of the month Sunday night as he went 2-for-4, knocking a two-run home run out to right-center field for OKC's first runs of the game in the sixth inning. Including a home run during a rehab assignment in the Arizona Complex League in May, Ward is up to 27 home runs this season - tied for second-most in the Minors this season...He has eclipsed his 2023 total of 21 homers in 139 games with OKC and is now one home run shy of his season-high mark for home runs in a season, which was 28 homers hit 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 (.620), is second with 50 extra-base hits, fourth in OPS (.957) and RBI (77) and fifth in total bases (191) although he has played in just 77 games, having missed more than three weeks of the season while on the Injured List in May....Ward has hit at least 21 homers in each of first four full seasons of his pro career and is now up to 107 HR since his career began in 2019.

Climbing Up the Charts: Drew Avans had Sunday off, but reached base four times Saturday, picking up a single and game-high three walks. He also had two RBI and scored two runs as he extended his on-base streak to 17 games for the second-longest active on-base streak by an OKC player. He has 13 hits and 16 walks during the stretch...He recorded his 101st hit of the season Saturday and throughout the season has established new Bricktown-era career records for walks (240) and triples (25). He ranks second all-time in the Bricktown era with 429 career games and 110 stolen bases, while ranking second in hits (416) and tied for fourth in doubles (77). Kelly Dransfeldt (1999-2002) is the Bricktown era leader in both games (502) and hits (448)...Avans ranks second in the league with 77 runs scored, second with 59 walks, tied for second with seven triples, fourth with 28 stolen bases and tied for seventh with 101 hits.

Lip-Synching: Andre Lipcius went 2-for-4 and scored a run Sunday as he has hit safely in six of his last seven games, going 10-for-30 (.333). Over the six games against Tacoma, Lipcius went 9-for-26 (.346) and since July 12, Lipcius is batting .311 (14x45) during the 11-game stretch with five multi-hit games...His 22 hits in 20 July games are second-most among OKC players and overall this season, Lipcius leads OKC with 112 hits over 95 games. His 66 RBI, 19 homers and 40 extra-base hits are both second-most on the team overall this season, however he has been limited to seven RBI, one homer and two extra-base hits so far in July.

Trey Bien: Trey Sweeney singled Sunday and leads OKC with 25 hits through 20 games of July, including eight extra-base hits, along with 11 RBI and 15 runs scored. He had been held without a hit in his previous two games before Sunday, but since July 11 is batting .340 (17x50) with four doubles, two homers, seven RBI and nine runs scored, hitting safely in 10 of 12 games...Sweeney leads the PCL with 96 games played and ranks among league leaders in doubles (7th, 22), runs (T-7th, 65), hits (9th, 99), RBI (10th, 62) and total bases (10th, 166).

Mound Matters: OKC starting pitcher Ben Casparius pitched 5.0 scoreless innings Sunday, allowing one hit and two walks with six strikeouts. In his three games off the Injured List, he has allowed three runs and five hits over 11.2 innings with 18 strikeouts against four walks...Not counting Alec Gamboa's piggyback outing/tandem start Sunday, the OKC bullpen has allowed six runs (five earned) and 17 hits over 34.2 innings (1.30 ERA) over the last eight games, holding opponents to a .138 batting average (17x123) with 35 strikeouts against 10 walks. The OKC bullpen held Tacoma scoreless and to five hits over the last 14.2 consecutive innings starting with the seventh inning Thursday night.

Around the Horn: Brendon Davis made his first start Sunday since joining OKC and kept the game alive with a two-run double with two outs and two strikes in the ninth inning. He ended up scoring the game-winning run in both Saturday and Sunday's games...Tacoma was held 2-for-4 in their stolen base attempts Sunday after going 20-for-21 over the first five games of the series. The Rainiers finished with 18 steals over the final four games of the series and went 22-for-25 overall (88 percent)...OKC is now 4-5 following the All-Stark Break. In the four wins, the team has scored a total of 32 runs with 46 combined hits. But in the five losses, OKC has been held to four runs or less in each game, totaling nine runs with a combined 40 hits.

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