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PCL Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Baseball Club Game Notes - July 31, 2024

July 31, 2024 - Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release


Oklahoma City Baseball Club (11-17/51-52) at El Paso Chihuahuas (10-18/41-62)

Game #104 of 150/Second Half #29 of 75/Road #53 of 75

Pitching Probables: OKC-RHP Hyun-il Choi (3-3, 3.89) vs. ELP-RHP Jhony Brito (0-1, 8.10)

Wednesday, July 31, 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 looks to even its road series against the El Paso Chihuahuas at 7:35 p.m. CT at Southwest University Park. El Paso won Tuesday night's series opener and OKC will look to avoid starting a second straight series against the Chihuahuas 0-2 after El Paso won the first two games of the season between the teams at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark July 9-10.

Last Game: The El Paso Chihuahuas fell behind early before ripping off 10 straight runs to defeat the Oklahoma City Baseball Club, 10-2, Tuesday night at Southwest University Park. The game got off to a good start with Oklahoma City taking a 2-0 lead in the first inning on a two-run single by Diego Cartaya. But things quickly went downhill after that. El Paso responded with three runs in the bottom of the first inning to take the lead. The Chihuahuas scored three runs all with two outs in the fourth inning to push the lead to 6-2. El Paso then put the game out of reach with a four-run rally in the bottom of the seventh inning. OKC's offense was held scoreless following the first inning and the team did not have a runner advance into scoring position following the second inning.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Hyun-il Choi (3-3) will try for a second win in as many starts tonight when he takes the mound in El Paso...Choi most recently pitched July 24 against Tacoma at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark and earned the win, allowing one run and four hits over 5.0 innings pitched with one walk and five strikeouts. It was his first one-run outing since May 28 in Albuquerque with OKC...Choi's last three starts have all been with OKC as he has made nine starts at Triple-A as well as seven starts with Double-A Tulsa in 2024. Prior to a July 6 start at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark against Las Vegas, his previous four starts had been with Tulsa, as Choi went 0-2 with a 7.36 ERA over 18.2 innings with 18 strikeouts against three walks...On May 22 against Reno in Oklahoma City, Choi threw a career-high 7.0 innings for the longest outing by an OKC pitcher since Landon Knack on Aug. 18, 2023 at Salt Lake (7.0 IP). Choi retired 20 of 24 batters faced, allowing one run and four hits. He did not issue a walk and had three strikeouts to earn the win in OKC's 5-1 victory...The 24-year-old from Seoul, South Korea, spent the entire 2023 season with High-A Great Lakes, making 16 appearances (13 starts) and posting a 4-5 record and 3.75 ERA over 60.0 IP with 46 strikeouts against 12 walks...He was limited to two appearances (one start) during the 2022 season due to injury...Choi was named the 2021 Los Angeles Dodgers Branch Rickey Minor League Pitcher of the Year after splitting the 2021 season between Single-A Rancho Cucamonga and High-A Great Lakes and posting a combined 8-6 record and 3.55 ERA in 24 appearances (11 starts). He recorded 106 strikeouts against 18 walks and owned a 0.97 WHIP...Choi signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a free agent in August 2018...Tonight is his start against El Paso this season and first at Southwest University Park. On July 12 in OKC, he tossed 4.1 innings and allowed three runs on three hits, including a home run, with three walks and two strikeouts and did not factor into the decision of OKC's 6-4 win. He also set a career high with 96 pitches

Against the Chihuahuas: 2024: 3-4 2023: 9-9 All-time: 53-46 At ELP: 28-27 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.

Climbing Up the Charts: Drew Avans reached base three times Tuesday night, going 2-for-3 with a walk and a double. He collected OKC's only extra-base hit and scored one of OKC's two runs...In his last two games, Avans has reached base seven times in nine plate appearances, collecting three hits and four walks...He is currently on an 18-game on base streak, which is the longest on-base streak among active OKC players and he has 15 hits and 17 walks during the stretch that started July 4...Avans has 103 hits with OKC in 2024 and throughout the season has established new Bricktown-era career records for walks (241) and triples (25). He ranks second all-time in the Bricktown era with 430 career games and 110 stolen bases, while ranking second in hits (418) and tied for third in doubles (78). Kelly Dransfeldt (1999-2002) is the Bricktown era leader in both games (502) and hits (448)...Avans ranks second in the league with 78 runs scored, second with 60 walks, third with seven triples, fourth with 28 stolen bases and seventh with 103 hits through 92 games...This is the third straight season Avans has surpassed 100 hits with Oklahoma City.

Rehab Clinic: Three Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers continued their Major League Rehab Assignments with OKC Tuesday night in El Paso. Ryan Brasier made the second appearance of his rehab assignment and threw a scoreless sixth inning. After a bloop single started the inning, he retired the next three batters on two groundouts and a strikeout. Brasier threw 11 pitches, with nine strikes...Brusdar Graterol made his fifth appearance with OKC and had a rough outing, allowing four runs, five hits and one walk in 0.2 innings. He retired two of eight batters faced and threw 27 pitches, with 17 strikes. He also committed two balks...Michael Grove pitched for the fourth time with OKC and retired all four batters he faced across the seventh and eighth innings, including one strikeout. He threw 19 pitches, with 14 strikes.

Bye to July: Tonight OKC plays its final game of July and will finish a second straight month with a losing record. OKC is currently 10-12 in July after going 9-17 in June, marking the first time since July (12-15) and August (12-14) 2021 that OKC has posted losing records in back-to-back months...OKC will look to even its overall record at .500 with a win tonight. OKC's record has stood at .500 seven times so far this month, and is at 51-52 currently, marking the latest into a season OKC has held a record below .500 since Sept. 5, 2021 (52-53)...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 14-25 and with the second-worst record in the PCL during that time and is one of four Triple-A teams with 14 wins or fewer during that stretch...Since June 12, OKC's .247 AVG and 180 runs scored are last in the league, while OKC's 331 hits are second-fewest in the league during the span. On the pitching side, OKC's 5.19 ERA and 224 runs allowed both rank fifth while the team's 349 hits allowed are third-fewest out of 10 teams...OKC's .251 AVG in July, 104 runs scored, 188 hits and 21 homers over 22 games are the lowest monthly totals for the team in a full month this season.

Peaks and Valleys: OKC is now 4-6 following the All-Star 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 11 runs with a combined 46 hits...Last night OKC scored two runs, marking the fourth time since the All-Star Break that OKC scored two runs or less in a game. It was also the 26th time this season OKC scored two or fewer runs in a game (0-26)...OKC had six hits last night and has been held to seven hits or less in four of the last five games, batting .214 over the five-game stretch (34x159). The team has tallied just nine extra-base hits in those five games and has scored 18 total runs...OKC is 6-for-36 (.167) with runners in scoring position over the last five games and in the 10 games since the All-Star Break, is 18-for-94 (.191)...OKC left five runners on base last night and OKC's 829 LOB this season are most in the Minors.

The Warden: Ryan Ward leads the PCL with 26 home runs this season and 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 (.612), is second with 50 extra-base hits, fourth in OPS (.945) and RBI (77) and fifth in total bases (191) although he has played in just 78 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.

Au Revoir: Between the end of Sunday's game and the start of Tuesday's game, OKC lost a total of five players from the active roster. On Monday, reliever Michael Flynn was traded to Tampa Bay in exchange for Amed Rosario and utility player Chris Owings was released. Yesterday three more players were taken off the roster. Shortstop Trey Sweeney was one of two players traded to Detroit in exchange for Jack Flaherty, and relievers Nick Ramirez and Gus Varland were both designated for assignment. At the time of the trade, Sweeney led the PCL with 96 games played and ranked among league leaders in doubles (7th, 22), runs (T-7th, 65), hits (9th, 99), RBI (10th, 62) and total bases (10th, 166)...As a result of the moves leading up to Tuesday's game, OKC played with just nine position players. Catcher Chris Okey made his first career start in left field.

Attack of the Crooked Number: OKC allowed three separate innings of three or more runs last night and has now allowed four such innings in the last 10 innings pitched going back to Sunday's game. Opponents have had 19 different innings of three-plus runs over the last 23 games and 14 in the last 18 games. There's been at least one inning with three-plus runs in nine of the last 18 games (1-8) and at least one big inning in 12 of the last 23 games (2-10)...OKC is now 9-11 over the last 20 games. In the nine wins, they've allowed a total of 28 runs. But in the 11 losses, they've surrendered 78 runs, with at least seven runs in the six of the 11 defeats and at least nine runs in four of the 11 losses.

Around the Horn: Last night marked OKC's fourth loss of the season by at least eight runs and the second at the hands of El Paso in seven total meetings. It was also the seventh loss by at least five runs over the last 39 games after enduring a total of four losses by five or more runs over the first 64 games...Andre Lipcius drew a walk and scored a run for OKC Tuesday. His 22 hits in 21 July games are second-most among OKC players and overall this season, Lipcius leads OKC with 112 hits over 96 games.

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