PCL Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Baseball Club Game Notes - June 27, 2024

June 27, 2024 - Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release


Oklahoma City Baseball Club (1-1/41-36) at Reno Aces (1-1/36-41)

Game #78 of 150/Second Half #3 of 75/Road #42 of 75

Pitching Probables: OKC-RHP River Ryan (0-0, 4.91) vs. RNO-RHP Humberto Castellanos (5-1, 4.94)

Thursday, June 27, 2024 | Greater Nevada Field | Reno, Nev. | 8:35 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 take the lead in its current road series against the Reno Aces that continues at 8:35 p.m. CT at Greater Nevada Field...OKC had won back-to-back games before last night's loss that kept OKC from its first three-game winning streak of the month. OKC is 4-9 over the last 13 games and 9-13 in the month of June.

Last Game: The Reno Aces hit four home runs and needed an incredible game-saving catch by center fielder Albert Almora Jr. to edge the Oklahoma City Baseball Club, 9-8, Wednesday night at Greater Nevada Field. Drew Avans gave Oklahoma City the lead on the first pitch of the game when he hit a home run. The Aces went ahead in the second inning at 2-1, but Jonathan Araúz tied the game in third inning with a RBI double. Deyvison De Los Santos homered in the fourth inning to give Reno a 3-2 lead before Ryan Ward responded with a two-run single in the fifth inning to put OKC back in front at 4-3. The Aces then scored the game's next six runs, including a grand slam with two outs in the seventh inning by De Los Santos, as Reno led, 9-4. OKC responded with four runs in the eighth inning to close the gap to one run, including a RBI double by James Outman and RBI triple by Ward that was nearly a game-tying home run but hit off the top of the right-center field fence and stayed in play. With two runners on and two outs in the ninth inning, Avans smashed a ball to deep center field, but Almora leapt at the wall to haul in the catch and end the game.

Today's Probable Pitcher: River Ryan (0-0) makes his third appearance of the season with OKC tonight...In his last outing June 21 against Albuquerque, he pitched 3.0 scoreless innings, allowing one hit with four strikeouts, facing 10 batters and throwing 34 pitches (24 strikes). After an infield single by the first batter faced, he retired his final nine hitters...He made his 2024 team debut June 15 in Sugar Land and was unable to complete the first inning, allowing two runs and three hits with one walk. He faced six batters and threw 33 pitches (16 strikes)...Ryan had been on the 60-day Injured List since late March due to shoulder soreness. Ryan appeared in two games on rehab assignment at the lower levels of the Minors before joining OKC, pitching one game in the Arizona Complex League June 3 and another with Single-A Rancho Cucamonga June 9. In the two outings combined, he pitched four hitless and scoreless innings, allowing one walk with eight strikeouts...Ryan entered the season as the No. 4 prospect in the Dodgers organization according to MLB Pipeline and the No. 7 prospect in the organization by Baseball America...He made two starts with OKC in September last season, pitching a combined 7.0 innings and racking up 12 K's against two walks, but he also allowed 10 runs (8 ER) and 12 hits...With Double-A Tulsa last season, Ryan posted a 3.33 ERA over 97.1 IP, going 1-6, with 98 K's against 44 walks. His innings total paced the Drillers last season...Ryan was originally selected by San Diego in the 11th round of the 2021 MLB Draft out of UNC Pembroke and was acquired by the Dodgers in March 2022 in exchange for Matt Beaty. Ryan originally signed with San Diego as a two-way player before converting to pitching full-time in 2022.

Against the Aces: 2024: 4-4 2023: 9-3 All-time: 47-35 At RNO: 18-16 Oklahoma City and Reno play their second and final series this season - and lone series of 2024 at Greater Nevada Field - as the teams open the second half of the PCL season...The teams split their first series of the season May 21-26 at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. OKC won the first two games before Reno won three of the final four meetings, including a 6-0 shutout in the series finale. Both teams scored 30 runs during the first series and OKC hit six homers while holding Reno to two home runs. Andre Lipcius led OKC with eight hits while Hunter Feduccia and Austin Gauthier each had four RBI...Oklahoma City won the 2023 season series, 9-3, and took six of the last seven games. OKC outscored the Aces, 108-83, last season and batted .340 as a team with 20 home runs in 12 games...Over a six-game series in Reno July 25-30, 2023, OKC scored 61 runs, including four games with at least 13 runs. However, OKC also allowed at least 11 runs in three games during the series...Last season's series victory against the Aces was OKC's first since the 2015 season, as OKC went 0-2-4 in season series with Reno from 2016-22...Going back to 2022, OKC is 10-3 over the last 13 games in Reno.

Close Calls: With last night's loss, OKC fell to 1-5 in its last six games decided by two runs or less and each of the team's last three losses have been by one or two runs (four runs total). So far in June, OKC is 9-13, including a 2-8 mark in games decided by two runs or less...Through 77 games overall this season, 40 have been decided by two runs or less (52 percent) and OKC has played the most games decided by one or two runs in the PCL this season...With last night's defeat, OKC is now 9-13 in one-run games this season and 18-22 in games decided by two runs or less. The team's 22 losses in those close games are most in the league. The 13 one-run losses are tied for most in the PCL along with Albuquerque, although the Isotopes have 13 more losses overall...In 2023, OKC played in 68 games decided by two runs or less, going 40-28 in those games.

Drew Up: Drew Avans went 2-for-5 with a home run, walk and three runs scored. He homered on the first pitch of the game, collecting his sixth overall homer and second leadoff homer of the season. Avans also eclipsed 400 hits during his Oklahoma City career and ranks third all-time among OKC players in the Bricktown era (since 1998) with 401 hits. He is 13 hits away from surpassing Esteban Germán for second place...Last night he extended his on-base streak to 21 games for the longest active on-base streak in the league and OKC's second-longest of the season. During the stretch that started May 31, Avans is batting .330 (29x88) with 10 extra-base hits, 14 RBI, 13 walks and 22 runs scored. Avans last reached base in more than 21 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 leads the Minors with 67 runs scored this season, and last night scored three or more runs in a game for the sixth time this season. He is also tied for first in the PCL with seven triples. His 86 hits are third in the league, while his 41 walks are tied for third and his 24 stolen bases are fourth...Throughout this season, Avans has established new Bricktown era career records for walks (222) and triples (25). He ranks second all-time during the Bricktown era with 407 career games and 106 stolen bases, while ranking third in hits (401) and fifth in doubles (75)...Through his first 20 games of June, Avans is bating .341 (28x82) with 10 extra-base hits, 13 RBI and 20 runs scored. His 28 hits this month and 20 runs scored in June lead OKC.

Behind the Eight Ball: Last night marked the ninth time in 22 games this month that OKC scored at least eight runs in a game, but OKC fell to 5-4 in those games with last night's defeat. OKC entered this month with a 14-0 record in games in which the team had scored at least eight runs, but last night marked the fourth time in June that OKC lost despite scoring at least eight runs...Overall in 2023, OKC lost seven times (148 G) when scoring eight or more runs. The team lost four times when scoring eight or more runs in 2022 (150 G) and OKC lost seven times in 2021 (129 G) when scoring eight or more runs...Last night ended a stretch in which OKC held opponents to four runs or less in four consecutive games (14 R) as well as five times in the previous six games (26 R) following a stretch in which they allowed at least five runs in five of the previous six games (45 R) and at least eight runs three times. Overall this season, OKC has allowed 377 total runs - second-fewest in the league - while OKC's 4.52 ERA is second-lowest in the PCL. However, in June the team's 5.44 ERA is fourth-highest in the league and OKC has allowed the fourth-most runs (125; 5.7 per game). Last night was the eighth time in 22 games this month, third time in the last eight games and fifth time in the last 11 games to allow at least eight runs.

Dinger Details: Oklahoma City has homered in four straight games, hitting five homers, after hitting just one home run over the previous four games. OKC has also now homered in six consecutive road games, hitting 12 homers over the stretch that included four games in Sugar Land and the first two games of the current series in Reno...OKC has hit 31 home runs over 22 games in June and overall this season, OKC's 103 home runs are tied for third-most in the PCL. Now 66 of OKC's 103 total homers this season have come on the road (41 G) - the second-most homers in the league for an away team...Ryan Ward leads the PCL with 20 home runs, while Andre Lipcius ranks second in the league with 18 homers...On the other hand, Reno hit four home runs last night - tying for the most homers by an opponent against OKC this season. It was the fourth time this season an opponent hit four home runs against OKC, but the third time it's happened this month and second time in the last eight games. OKC has now allowed at least one home run in a season-high eight straight games (15 HR). OKC last allowed a home run in eight consecutive games as part of a 10-game stretch April 30-May 10, 2023 (16 HR)...OKC has allowed 70 total home runs this season - tied for fewest in Triple-A. However, the team has already allowed 32 home runs through 22 games in June - third-most in the PCL - after giving up 12 home runs throughout the entire month of May (27 games) and 45.7 percent of home runs allowed this season have occurred within the last 22 games. OKC has now allowed at least one homer in 10 of the last 11 games, for a total of 19 home runs...Reno's Deyvison De Los Santos became the fourth player this month to record a multi-homer game after it did not happen prior to June 1. He also hit the second grand slam by an opponent this season, both of which have occurred within the last 10 games.

The Warden: Ryan Ward went 3-for-5 with a triple and three RBI Wednesday, collecting his team-leading 16th multi-RBI game and 11th game with three-plus RBI...Ward has collected extra-base hit in five of his last six games and has seven RBI during that time. Overall this season, 37 of Ward's 60 hits have gone for extra bases and he leads the PCL with a .657 SLG and .990 OPS as well as with 20 homers. He ranks fourth in the PCL with 37 XBH and seventh with 58 RBI despite spending three weeks on the Injured List in May and playing in only 53 games with OKC this season...His 21 total homers this season, including one while on a rehab assignment in the Arizona Complex League, are tied for second-most in all of the Minors.

Up to Kode: Kody Hoese had Wednesday night off but went 2-for-5 with a key three-run homer with two outs in the sixth inning in Tuesday night's series opener to tie the game on the way to OKC's win. He tied his season high with three RBI and has now homered in each of OKC's last three road games...Over his last 21 games (since May 28), he is batting .357 (30x84) with 10 multi-hit games, seven doubles, three homers, 15 RBI and 16 runs scored...His six doubles are tied for first on the team this month and he has 22 hits through 17 games of June.

Around the Horn: James Outman extended his hitting streak to six games last night after going 2-for-5 with a RBI double. During the streak, which is the longest active streak for OKC and ties his longest with OKC this season, Outman is 10-for-28 (.357)....OKC has committed an error in a season-high seven straight games, totaling 10 errors in that time. The team's lone error Wednesday resulted in four unearned runs...Austin Gauthier and Jonathan Araúz each reached base four times last night as Gauthier went 3-for-4 with a triple, a walk and two runs scored. Araúz went 2-for-3 with a double, two RBI and two walks and is 8-for-23 over his last six games...Andre Lipcius' season-best nine-game hitting streak came to an end last night as he was held 0-for-4 with a RBI.




Pacific Coast League Stories from June 27, 2024


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