PCL Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Baseball Club Game Notes - July 5, 2024

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


Las Vegas Aviators (4-6/41-44) at Oklahoma City Baseball Club (4-6/44-41)

Game #86 of 150/Second Half #11 of 75/Home #38 of 75

Pitching Probables: LV-RHP Robert Dugger (3-0, 3.86) vs. OKC-RHP Christian Romero (1-2, 8.59)

Friday, July 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 has won three straight games and continues its home series and Independence Day weekend celebration against the Las Vegas Aviators at 7:05 p.m. at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark...OKC has won three straight games for the first time since winning four games in a row May 28-31...Friday Night Fireworks presented by Oklahoma Highway Safety Office are scheduled to follow the game.

Last Game: The Oklahoma City Baseball Club scored seven runs between the sixth and eighth innings to build a 7-0 lead while holding the Las Vegas Aviators scoreless through eight innings in a 7-2 win Thursday night on Independence Day at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. OKC broke a scoreless tie in the sixth inning. Kody Hoese brought in OKC's first run of the night on a RBI double and Trey Sweeney followed with a two-run single for a 3-0 lead. OKC added three more runs in the seventh inning. Drew Avans connected on a RBI single into center field and a throwing error on the play allowed another run to score. Andre Lipcius followed with a RBI single for a 6-0 advantage. A RBI single by Alan Trejo in the eighth inning boosted OKC's lead to 7-0. After being held scoreless and to two hits through eight innings, the Aviators broke through with two runs and three hits in the ninth inning.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Christian Romero (1-2) makes his fourth start of the season with OKC...Romero most recently pitched June 30 in Reno, allowing season and career highs with nine runs and eight hits, including two home runs, over 5.0 innings. All eight of the runs were driven in by one player (Deyvison De Los Santos) and seven of the eight runs scored on the two homers. He finished with one walk and three strikeouts and was charged with the loss in OKC's 8-2 road defeat...During his first and only start in OKC June 23 against Albuquerque, he allowed three runs (two earned) and four hits over 5.0 innings to earn his first career Triple-A win during an 8-4 victory. He had one strikeout and one walk...The 21-year-old has spent most of this season at High-A Great Lakes. In four June outings (three starts) with the Loons, Romero went 1-0 with a 1.95 ERA over 14.1 innings with 15 strikeouts against two walks and had a 0.98 WHIP...Romero made his first spot start with OKC May 17 in Sacramento. He has also had two outings with Double-A Tulsa. Overall at three levels this season, Romero is 4-4 with a 4.25 ERA over 59.1 innings. He has made 15 appearances (10 starts) with 43 K's and 23 walks...He played the entire 2023 season with Single-A Rancho Cucamonga, posting an 8-2 record and 3.17 ERA in 20 appearances (10 starts) with 74 K's over 76.2 IP. He led Rancho Cucamonga with eight wins and ranked second in strikeouts...Romero is in his fourth professional season after signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers Jan. 15, 2021 as a free agent out of Hermosillo, Mexico, and is the youngest player on OKC's current roster.

Against the Aviators: 2024: 3-1 2023: 8-3 All-time: 65-70 At OKC: 30-35 OKC and Las Vegas are playing six consecutive games against one another, split between a pair of home-and-home three-game series as they meet for the first time this season. The teams played Monday-Wednesday in Las Vegas and now play through Saturday in OKC...The teams last met in Oklahoma City June 20-25, 2023 with OKC winning the series, 3-2, as one game of the series was canceled due to inclement weather...OKC won five of six games in the first series of 2023 between the teams at Las Vegas Ballpark during OKC's first road series of last season...OKC had a 65-56 edge in runs scored last season, while the Aviators hit 16 homers in 11 games against OKC, which had 14 home runs in the series hit by 10 different players...Drew Avans led OKC with 13 hits in 10 games against the Aviators last season, while Ryan Ward had a team-best 10 RBI in 10 games against Las Vegas...OKC won the overall season series, 8-3, in 2023, winning a season series against Las Vegas for the first time since 2015 (3-1). OKC went 0-4-2 in series against Las Vegas from 2017-22 before last season's win...This marks the only time the Aviators will play in Bricktown this year, but the teams will meet again later this season for a six-game series at Las Vegas Ballpark Aug. 13-18.

Up to Kode: Kody Hoese recorded OKC's lone extra-base hit of the night Thursday with a double and finished with a walk, RBI and scored a run as he extended his hitting streak to six games. During the streak, Hoese is 9-for-23 (.391) and has scored eight runs. He has also hit safely in nine of the last 10 games, going 13-for-39 (.333). Additionally, he has scored a run in a season-best five consecutive games...Hoese led OKC with a .338 AVG and eight doubles in June. He ranked second with a .411 OBP, .550 SLG and .961 OPS and tied for second with 11 extra-base hits...Since May 28, Hoese has hit safely in 23 of 28 games, batting .355 (39x110) with 10 doubles, three homers, 19 RBI, 25 runs scored, 12 walks and 13 multi-hit games. He ranks second in the PCL in batting average during that span.

Mound Matters: Oklahoma City held the Aviators scoreless and to two hits through eight innings last night before letting up two runs and three hits while leading 7-0. Alec Gamboa (2-4) led the way, starting and pitching 6.0 scoreless innings, allowing two hits with four strikeouts. He retired 18 of his 22 batters faced, with two singles and two errors committed by OKC during his start. It tied for the longest scoreless outing of the season by an OKC pitcher, first accomplished by Chris Vallimont May 29 in Albuquerque. It was also the team's only start of 6.0 innings since May 29 and just the sixth by the team all season. The outing was Gamboa's longest since Aug. 10, 2022 when he pitched a career-high 7.0 innings with Double-A Tulsa...OKC has now held the Aviators to three runs over the last two games and held them scoreless in 16 of 18 innings over the past two nights after OKC held Las Vegas to one run July 3 at Las Vegas Ballpark. Going back to Tuesday's win, OKC has allowed three runs over the last 23 innings...This is the lowest two-game run total since May 29-30 in Albuquerque (2 R), and OKC's 4.57 ERA this season is lowest in the PCL.

Dinger Details: Neither OKC or Las Vegas hit a home run Thursday night after OKC had hit six homers over the previous three games and OKC had allowed a home run in 15 consecutive games (27 HR) for the first time during the Dodgers affiliation (since 2015) as well as the first time during the MLBAM era (since 2005)...Last night was the 14th time this season OKC and its opponent did not homer in the same game, but first time since May 26 against Reno in OKC, ending a streak of 33 consecutive games with at least one total home run...Overall this season, OKC's 111 home runs are fourth-most in the league...On the other hand, OKC has allowed 82 total home runs this season - second fewest in Triple-A. However, the team has allowed 44 home runs since June 1 - fifth-most in Triple-A - after giving up 12 home runs throughout the entire month of May (27 games). In fact, 53.7 percent of home runs allowed this season have occurred within the last 30 games and 33 percent of the home runs by opponents have occurred within the last 16 games (27 HR)...Last night snapped OKC's streak of allowing at least one homer in eight straight home games (14 HR), and entering Thursday, OKC had allowed a homer in nine of the last 10 home games (16 HR). The team had allowed just 11 home runs over the first 28 home games and nine home runs over the first 26 home games. OKC has hit just four home runs over the last eight games in Bricktown.

Trey Bien: Trey Sweeney went 2-for-4 last night with a game-best two RBI. He has hit safely in six of his last seven games, going 9-for-25 (.360). He has three multi-hit games and three multi-RBI games during the stretch...Since May 24, he has 35 RBI over 35 games, which ranks third in the PCL during that time...Sweeney leads OKC with 80 games played this season - tied for second-most in the PCL - and his 55 RBI are ninth-most in the PCL.

The Warden: After homering in both Tuesday and Wednesday's games in Las Vegas, Ryan Ward was limited to only a single and a run scored last night. He leads the PCL with 22 home runs, as 22 of Ward's 67 total hits this season have been homers and 39 of his hits have gone for extra bases. He is also up to 61 RBI in 60 games - second-most on the team - although he missed more than three weeks of the season due to injury...Ward leads the PCL with a .638 SLG and ranks second with a .971 OPS. His 39 extra-base hits are third while his 23 total home runs this season, including one while on a rehab assignment in the Arizona Complex League, are tied for second-most in the Minors.

On the Hunt: Hunter Feduccia reached base four times last night with two hits and two walks and scored a run as he extended his on-base streak to 19 games - the third-longest on-base streak of the season by an OKC player and tied for the longest current on-base streak in the league. During the streak that started June 6, he has 17 hits, including three doubles and three homers, 14 RBI and 17 walks, while posting a .430 OBP...This is his second on-base streak of the season of at least 14 games and the longest of his professional career.

Taking Offense: Oklahoma City scored seven runs last night, marking the third time in the last four games OKC has scored at least six runs. OKC has now scored 27 runs over the last four games against Las Vegas after scoring a total of 23 runs over a six-game series in Reno June 25-30 and 27 runs over a six-game series against Albuquerque June 18-23...OKC went 5-for-8 with runners in scoring position last night after going 8-for-73 (.110) with RISP over the previous seven games...OKC had 10 hits last night and has reached double-digit hits in two of the last three games after being held to single-digit hits in each of the previous five games. However, OKC was held to one extra-base hit for the third time in the last seven games.

Fun on the Fourth: Last night Oklahoma City played a home game on Independence Day for the 10th consecutive season. Since the start of the Bricktown era in 1998, OKC is now 12-12 in Fourth of July games overall, but is 12-4 on the holiday since 2006. At Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, OKC is 10-7 overall on July Fourth, including 8-3 at home since 2011.

Around the Horn: In his first game with OKC at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark last night, Alan Trejo went 2-for-4 with a RBI and scored a run. In his first three games since signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a free agent, Trejo is 4-for-10 with two doubles, two RBI, two RBI, three walks and two runs scored...OKC has won consecutive games at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark for the first time since June 7-8. OKC last won three consecutive home games as part of a four-game winning stretch with two wins against Salt Lake May 7-8 followed by two wins against Reno May 21-22...Drew Avans went 1-for-4 with a RBI single and run scored last night. Avans ranks third all-time during OKC's Bricktown era (since 1998) with 404 hits and is 10 hits away from surpassing Esteban Germán for second place. He ranks second among all players in the Minors this season with 69 runs scored.

Check out the Oklahoma City Comets Statistics



Pacific Coast League Stories from July 5, 2024


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central