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Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Baseball Club Game Notes - June 23, 2024

June 23, 2024 - Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release


Albuquerque Isotopes (26-48) at Oklahoma City Baseball Club (39-35)

Game #75 of 150/First Half #75 of 75/Home #36 of 75

Pitching Probables: ABQ-RHP Peyton Battenfield (2-3, 9.21) vs. OKC-RHP Christian Romero (0-1, 7.71)

Sunday, June 23, 2024 | Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark | Oklahoma City, Okla. | 2:05 p.m. CT

Radio: KGHM-AM 1340 The Game, 1340thegame.com, iHeartRadio; Video: MiLB.tv, Bally Live, KOCB-TV

Today's Game: The Oklahoma City Baseball Club closes out the first half of the PCL season against the Albuquerque Isotopes at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark on a City Celebration Sunday...Today is also the 24th and final meeting of the season between OKC and Albuquerque, and the Isotopes lead the current six-game series, 4-1...OKC has lost three straight games and is 2-8 in the last 10 games.

Last Game: Ryan Ward hit his league-leading 19th home run of the season for the Oklahoma City Baseball Club, but it ended up as OKC's lone run of the night in a 3-1 loss to the Albuquerque Isotopes Saturday at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. Albuquerque built a 3-0 lead with home runs by Greg Jones in the third inning and Drew Romo in the fourth inning before a RBI single by Aaron Schunk in the fifth inning. Ward homered out to right field in the seventh inning to get OKC on the board. Starting pitcher Justin Wrobleski struck out 11 batters over five innings during his Triple-A debut.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Christian Romero (0-1) is set to make a spot start and appear for the second time with OKC this season...Romero joins OKC having most recently pitched with High-A Great Lakes June 19 against Quad Cities. He started and pitched 2.0 scoreless innings, allowing one hit with one strikeout...In four June outings (three starts) with the Loons, Romero is 1-0 with a 1.95 ERA over 14.1 innings with 15 strikeouts against two walks and has a 0.98 WHIP...He last pitched for OKC May 17 in Sacramento, allowing four runs on three hits with two hit batters, two walks and two strikeouts over 4.2 innings. He was charged with the loss in OKC's 5-1 road defeat...Following his previous outing with OKC, he pitched in two games for Double-A Tulsa before rejoining Great Lakes in June...Overall at three levels this season, Romero is 3-3 with a 3.28 ERA over 49.1 innings. He has made 13 appearances (eight starts) with 39 K's and 21 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 made 10 appearances with the Arizona Complex League Dodgers in 2022 and 10 appearances with the Dominican Summer League Dodgers in 2021...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 at 21 years old is the youngest player on OKC's roster.

Against the Isotopes: 2024: 15-8 2023: 10-14 All-time: 153-127 At OKC: 83-56 OKC and the Isotopes meet for their fourth and final series of 2024. After starting 13-3 against the Isotopes, OKC is now 2-5 over the last seven matchups...OKC won each of the first three series of the season between the teams - April 2-7 in OKC (5-1), April 23-28 in Albuquerque (4-2) and May 28-June 2 in Albuquerque (5-1) - and will win the season series...Eight of the first 12 games between the teams this season were settled by one or two runs, and now 12 of 23 games have been decided by one or two runs...Through the first 18 meetings this season, OKC outscored Albuquerque, 164-99, hit 35 home runs (compared to 19 for Albuquerque) and recorded seven games with at least 11 runs...On April 25, OKC scored at least 21 runs for the fifth time during the team's Bricktown era, spanning 3,593 games since 1998 (OKC has since recorded another 21-plus-run game)...Entering the current series, Trey Sweeney batted .426 (29x68) with 15 extra-base hits, including seven home runs, 25 RBI and 23 runs scored through his first 17 games against the Isotopes. Ryan Ward racked up nine homers, 15 extra-base hits and 25 RBI through his first 15 games...Last season, the Isotopes were one of three teams OKC posted a losing head-to-head record against, as Albuquerque won a season series against OKC for the first time since 2017. In 2023, the Isotopes went 9-3 at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark for their most wins in OKC. They also won four straight games against OKC within the same series for the first time since Aug. 8-11, 2008 and today will look to do the same...Going back to last season, OKC is 8-14 (.364) over the last 22 home games against the Isotopes. Before that, OKC was 75-42 (.647) against Albuquerque all-time in Bricktown.

Close Calls: For the third time in the last four games, OKC and Albuquerque played a game decided by two runs or less last night. With Saturday night's 3-1 final score, 12 of the 23 games played between OKC and Albuquerque this season have been decided by two runs or less and OKC is now 7-5 in those close games...Through 74 games of 2024 overall, 39 have been decided by two runs or less for OKC (52.7 percent), which has played the most games decided by one or two runs in the PCL this season. OKC is now 18-21 in games decided by two runs or less this season and the team's 21 losses in games decided by two runs or less are the most in the league...In 2023, OKC played in 68 games decided by two runs or less, going 40-28 in those games....Of OKC's 35 home games, 22 have been decided by one or two runs. OKC is now 18-17 at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, with an 11-11 mark in one- and two-run games.

The Warden: Ryan Ward went 2-for-4 last night and hit his league-leading 19th home run and his 20th home run of the season overall including one homer while on a rehab appearance with the ACL Dodgers...Ward has now hit safely in 10 of his last 11 games, going 12-for-44 (.273) with seven extra-base hits, including three homers, six RBI and eight runs scored...Overall this season, 35 of his 56 hits have gone for extra bases and he leads the PCL with a .649 SLG and ranks second with a .975 OPS. His 35 extra-base hits this season are fourth-most in the league while his 53 RBI are seventh even though he missed three weeks while on the Injured List in May...His 20 total homers are second-most in all of the Minors.

Mound Matters: On Saturday, OKC pitchers recorded 16 strikeouts for the most by the team since posting a season-high 17 K's May 5 against Salt Lake. Justin Wrobleski (0-1) made his Triple-A debut and set a career-high with 11 strikeouts over 5.0 innings. He allowed two solo home runs and six hits overall with three runs and one walk and he was charged with the loss. His previous career-high mark for strikeouts was 10 set June 14, 2023 with Great Lakes against Wisconsin, and it was the most strikeouts in a game by an OKC pitcher since Ryan Pepiot also notched 11 punchouts Aug. 13, 2023 at Tacoma. The previous high in strikeouts by an OKC pitcher this season was eight...Last night marked the first time this series OKC held the Isotopes to fewer than four runs and it was just the second time that happened in the last 10 games for OKC...Through 19 games this month, OKC is running a 5.70 ERA and .269 BAA, each ranking seventh out of 10 PCL teams, while OKC's 1.62 WHIP ranks eighth. OKC only allowed one walk Saturday, but has also allowed the second-most walks in the league this month (96). In May (27 games), OKC led all Triple-A teams with a 3.55 ERA and 1.24 WHIP and led the PCL with a .219 BAA.

Dinger Details: Three of the four total runs scored in Saturday night's game came via home runs...Ryan Ward's solo homer for OKC in the seventh inning marked the team's second home run over the last five games after OKC hit 10 homers over the previous four games in Sugar Land...OKC has hit 27 homers over 19 games of June, and overall this season, OKC's 99 home runs are tied for second-most in the PCL with Albuquerque and trail only Sugar Land's 114 homers...OKC's Ward (19 HR) and Andre Lipcius (17 HR) rank first and second in the league in homers...On the other hand, OKC allowed two more home runs last night and has now allowed nine homers over the first five games of the series...The Isotopes hit four homers Tuesday to match the season-high for an OKC opponent, which has happened three times this season and all three times have occurred against the Isotopes. The four homers Tuesday were the most allowed by OKC at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark since April 2, 2023 against Tacoma when the Rainiers also hit four dingers...OKC has allowed 64 home runs overall this season - fewest in Triple-A. However, the team has already allowed 26 home runs through 19 games in June after giving up 12 home runs throughout the entire month of May (27 games)...OKC has now allowed at least one homer in seven of the last eight games, for a total of 13 home runs...Additionally, OKC has allowed at least one homer in seven straight home games (13 HR) and eight of the last nine home games (15 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. On the other hand, OKC has hit just two home runs over the last six games in Bricktown.

Drew Up: Drew Avans drew a walk last night to extend his season-best on-base streak to 18 games - tied for the second-longest on-base streak of the season for an OKC player and tied for the longest active on-base streak in the league...During the stretch, Avans is batting .324 (24x74) with nine extra-base hits, 12 RBI, 12 walks and 16 runs...The 18-game streak ties his longest of the 2023 season and he last reached base in more than 18 games as part of a 50-game on-base streak from June 11-Aug. 14, 2022, which was the longest on-base streak by an OKC player during the MLBAM era (since 2005)...Avans had a career-high three outfield assists in right field Thursday night, throwing out two Isotopes runners at home plate and another at third base. He has nine total outfield assists this season, including six this month, and is tied with Round Rock's Sandro Fabian for the league lead in outfield assists...Avans leads the Minors with 61 runs scored this season and is tied for first in the PCL with seven triples. His 40 walks are tied for second in the league, while his 23 stolen bases are third and his 81 hits are tied for fourth...Throughout this season, Avans has established new Bricktown era career records for walks (221) and triples (25). He ranks second all-time during the Bricktown era with 404 career games and 105 stolen bases, while ranking tied for third in hits (396) and fifth in doubles (75)...Through his first 17 games of June, Avans is bating .338 (23x68) with nine extra-base hits, 11 RBI and 14 runs scored.

Andre the Giant: Andre Lipcius singled last night to extend his hitting streak to seven games and he is 8-for-32 during the stretch, which is his longest hitting streak since a season-best eight-game stretch May 16-24. He is 5-for-18 over the last four games after going 3-for-29 over his previous seven games...Lipcius leads OKC with 84 hits in 69 games this season, including a team-leading 17 doubles, along with a team-best 54 RBI. His 17 homers are second-most on the team as well as second in the league trailing only teammate Ryan Ward...Additionally, Lipcius ranks among PCL top-five leaders in total bases (2nd, 156), hits (3rd), extra-base hits (3rd, 36) and SLG (4th, .557).

Well Fed: Hunter Feduccia had Saturday off, but went 1-for-4 Friday and has hit safely in nine of his last 10 games, going 11-for-34 (.324) with two doubles, three homers and 12 RBI...In his last 13 games, Feduccia is 17-for-47 (.362) with four doubles, a triple, three homers, 14 RBI, 10 walks and 11 runs...Since May 7, Feduccia is batting .347 (34x98) with 14 extra-base hits, 26 RBI and 18 runs over 26 games.

Around the Horn: James Outman hit a double last night and has hit safely in four straight games (7x18) as well as in 10 of his last 11 games (13x49)...After scoring at least five runs in six straight games, OKC has been held to a total of four runs over the last two games. Last night was the 12th time this season OKC scored one run or less, something that happened nine times all of last season. Before Friday, OKC had scored at least five runs in six straight games and in 17 of the last 21 games...OKC has committed seven errors over the last four games. Prior to Wednesday, OKC went eight straight games without an error and had committed two errors in the previous 14 games combined. The team's previous six errors occurred over a span of 20 games.

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