PCL Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Baseball Club Game Notes - June 4, 2024

June 4, 2024 - Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release


Round Rock Express (29-27) at Oklahoma City Baseball Club (33-24)

Game #58 of 150/First Half #58 of 75/Home #26 of 75

Pitching Probables: RR-RHP Jack Leiter (1-2, 3.94) vs. OKC-RHP Chris Vallimont (1-0, 0.00)

Tuesday, June 4, 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 is back at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark to open a six-game home series against the Round Rock Express at 7:05 p.m. OKC has won five of the last six games and is 10-4 over the last 14 games...OKC has tied the team's season-high mark at nine games above.500 with a 33-24 record overall...Tonight is a $2 at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark and guests can enjoy $2 select beer, soda and bottled water from a line of Miller, Coors and Pepsi products as well as select COOP Ale Works and Modelo drafts for $3.

Last Game: Oklahoma City hit four home runs, including two by Trey Sweeney, and scored 13 straight runs in a 13-2 win against the Albuquerque Isotopes Sunday night at Isotopes Park. Albuquerque took the first lead of the night in the series finale, scoring a run on a wild pitch in the third inning. After the first 11 OKC batters were retired, the team broke out with three runs in the fourth inning to take the lead for good. Kody Hoese hit a RBI double before Sweeney followed with a two-run home run for a 3-1 advantage. Drew Avans added a two-run homer in the fifth inning. Oklahoma City then tacked on four more runs in the sixth inning on a two-run double from Ryan Ward, RBI single by Austin Gauthier and RBI triple by Chris Okey. Andre Lipcius homered in the seventh inning for OKC before Sweeney hit his second homer of the night in the ninth inning, knocking a three-run shot out to right-center field, for a 13-1 lead. The Isotopes scored their second run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Chris Vallimont (1-0) makes his first appearance at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark and second start with OKC after recently signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a free agent...Vallimont made his team debut May 29 with six scoreless innings in Albuquerque. He allowed four hits, with one walk and five strikeouts and completed four of six frames on 12 or fewer pitches as he faced four or fewer batters in five of six innings. Vallimont threw 75 pitches (50 strikes) and held the Isotopes 1-for-11 with runners on base and 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position...His performance marked the longest scoreless start by an OKC pitcher this season and his longest scoreless outing since July 2021 with Double-A Wichita...The right-handed pitcher began the season with the York Revolution of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, posting a 3-1 record and 3.29 ERA with 33 strikeouts. During his time with York, Vallimont owned a 0.88 WHIP and.172 BAA with a 4.7 strikeout-to-walk ratio...He pitched at least 5.0 innings in all five starts for York and allowed two or fewer runs in three of five outings. He did not allow more than five hits in any game...Last season, Vallimont pitched in 30 Triple-A games (nine starts) with Norfolk and Columbus and also made his Major League debut with the Baltimore Orioles...He began the season with Norfolk, making 14 appearances (eight starts) and posting a 2-5 record and 5.02 ERA with 64 strikeouts against 30 walks...He made his ML debut with Baltimore July 3 at the New York Yankees, pitching two-thirds of an inning, allowing one hit - a double -and one strikeout...He was designated for assignment and traded to Cleveland for cash July 6, then closed out the season making 16 appearances (one start) for Columbus, going 2-1 with a 6.52 ERA over 29.0 IP with 22 strikeouts and 16 walks...Vallimont was originally selected by Miami in the fifth round of the 2018 MLB Draft out of Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pa.

Against the Express: 2024: 4-2 2023: 14-4 All-time: 180-141 At OKC: 83-71 OKC and Round Rock are playing their second series of 2024 and first of the season at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark...OKC won the first series of the season, 4-2, at Dell Diamond April 9-14. After the first game of the series was postponed due to inclement weather, Round Rock won both games of a doubleheader the following day. OKC then closed the series with four straight wins, including 12-3 and 14-5 victories in the final two games...Andy Pages led OKC with 13 hits, including four home runs, and 12 RBI in the first series...Prior to the April series, the teams last met in the 2023 PCL Championship Series when OKC swept Round Rock, winning, 8-3, in Game 1, and, 5-2, in Game 2 for OKC's first league title since 1996...OKC won the 2023 regular-season series between the teams, 14-4, including wins in nine of the first 10 games and in four of the last five regular-season meetings...OKC swept the Express May 9-14 in the lone series in Round Rock. It was OKC's first-ever six-game series sweep since PCL teams started playing primarily six-game series in 2021. The last 12 regular-season meetings between the teams were played in OKC, with OKC winning both series, 4-2. During a 17-7 win Aug. 6, OKC set a new team record for hits in a home game with 22...During the regular season, Ryan Ward led OKC with 16 hits in 17 games against the Express, including seven doubles and three homers. In the postseason, Drew Avans racked up six hits and tied Michael Busch with three RBI.

Trey Bien: Minor League Baseball named Trey Sweeney PCL Player of the Week following his breakout series in Albuquerque. He went 11-for-28 (.393) with 14 RBI and scored 10 runs, while leading the Minors with six homers, eight extra-base hits and 32 total bases during the week of May 27-June 2. He joins Ryan Ward (April 23-28) as the second OKC player to win a weekly award this season...On Sunday at Isotopes Park, Sweeney hit two home runs, racked up a game-high five RBI and scored three runs for his second multi-homer game of the series and OKC's seventh overall multi-homer game of the season. Sweeney also hit three home runs Wednesday in Albuquerque and his two multi-homer outings in the series were the first of his career. His three-homer was the first by an OKC player since Keibert Ruiz in July 2021...Sunday marked his team-best third game of the season with five RBI and second five-RBI outing of the series...Sweeney has now hit safely in a season-best 11 games, going 17-for-48 (.354) with seven homers, two doubles, a triple, 17 RBI and 15 runs scored. He owns the longest active hitting streak by an OKC player and third-longest active hitting streak in the league. It is the second-longest of the season by an OKC player behind Jonathan Araúz's 17-game streak in April...Sweeney last hit safely in 11 straight games with Double-A Somerset last season July 16-28. He also had a hitting streak of 12 games June 2-15 last season with Somerset, which was the longest hitting streak on the team in 2023 and is Sweeney's career long.

On the Offensive: Over the team's six-game road series in Albuquerque, Oklahoma City scored 59 runs and totaled 88 hits, including 14 homers. OKC batted.358 (88x246) in the series with 38 extra-base hits...In Sunday's series finale, OKC scored 13 runs on 12 hits, including eight extra-base hits, and has now scored at least nine runs in four straight games (47 R) and at least 11 runs three times in the last four games. OKC also recorded at least 10 hits in each game of the series in hitter-friendly Albuquerque, with at least a dozen hits in five of the six games and at least 17 hits three times...OKC also scored at least six runs in six straight games for the first time since Sept. 15-21, 2023 (51 R)...Over the final 30 innings in Albuquerque, OKC went 57-for-147 (.388) with 44 runs scored over that span. Of those 57 hits, 26 went for extra bases and OKC had a total of 167 batters come to the plate (5.6 per inning)...The team got off to a slow start Sunday, beginning 0-for-11, but then went 12-for-29 (.414) for the rest of night.

Dinger Details: OKC matched its season-high total with four home runs Sunday. It was the fourth time this season OKC hit four homers in a game, and it was the first time since April 28 in Albuquerque. In fact, three of the four times OKC hit four homers in a game this season occurred in Albuquerque...OKC has now homered in six consecutive games, racking up 14 HR over the stretch - tied for most in the PCL with Sugar Land during the span. This is the team's longest string of games with a home run since April 23-May 1 (8 G; 19 HR)...The outburst follows a stretch in which OKC was held to seven home runs over the previous 11 games...OKC has now registered six multi-homer games in the last eight games (17 HR) after having just three multi-homer games over the previous 16 games...However, OKC has allowed home runs in back-to-back games for the first time since a five-game stretch of allowing a home run May 11-16 (6 HR). OKC allowed a total of five homers over the final two games in Albuquerque, including tying a season-high mark with four homers allowed Saturday. Entering Saturday, OKC had allowed just three home runs in the previous 11 games and had not allowed a homer in four of the previous five games (1 HR total). Saturday also marked the second time in the last 30 games OKC allowed more than one home run in a game...OKC's 12 homers allowed in May were fewest in Triple-A and OKC's 43 homers allowed overall this season are fewest in Triple-A (57 G). OKC has allowed just nine home runs at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark (24 G) for the fewest by a home team this season. And subtracting their 12 games in Albuquerque, OKC has allowed 26 home runs in the other 45 games this season.

Pitching Prowess: Sunday marked the fourth time in the Albuquerque series that Oklahoma City held the Isotopes to two runs or less and the fourth time in the series the Isotopes were held to eight hits or less. Despite the hitter-friendly environment, OKC ended up posting a 3.04 ERA (18 ER/53.1 IP) and held Albuquerque to a.236 batting average...In a bullpen game Sunday, six OKC pitchers combined for 14 strikeouts and allowed just two walks. It was the sixth time this season OKC racked up 14 or more strikeouts...Since April 30, Oklahoma City owns a 3.60 ERA and has allowed 119 runs over the 30-game stretch - the lowest totals in the PCL and tied for lowest in Triple-A with Omaha...OKC limited opponents to four runs or less in 21 of 27 games in May and to three runs or less 14 times...Albuquerque went 6-for-52 (.115) with runners in scoring position over the six-game series.

The Warden: Ryan Ward went 2-for-5 with a double, scored a run and had two RBI Sunday. He has recorded multi-hit outings in each of his last four games (11x20) and in his six games since returning from the Injured List, Ward is 13-for-29 (.448) with three homers, three doubles, a triple, 10 RBI and seven runs scored...Ward has now hit safely in eight consecutive games, going back to May 4 before his time on the IL. During his longest hitting streak of the season, Ward is 16-for-37 (.432) with four doubles, a triple, four homers, 13 RBI and eight runs scored...He has 15 home runs with OKC this season pace all of Triple-A and his 16 homers overall this season, including a home run he hit while on a rehab assignment with the ACL Dodgers, are the most in the Minors...Ward is up to a team-leading 43 RBI in just 33 games this season and 27 of his 41 hits this season have gone for extra bases (.725 SLG).

Playing All the Hits: Andre Lipcius hit his 14th home run of the season Sunday to set a new career high for homers in a season. Lipcius hit his previous career-high of 13 homers over 117 games last season at three different levels. His 14 homers this season are second-most in the PCL behind teammate Ryan Ward's 15. Lipcius leads the PCL with 157 total bases while ranking second in SLG (.593) and third in hits (63)...James Outman drew all four of OKC's walks Sunday and scored three runs. He has now reached base in all 12 games he has played for OKC, tallying 14 walks and posting a.542 OBP. His on-base streak is the longest current streak by an OKC player...Hunter Feduccia is 6-for-9 over his last two games and went 8-for-17 over the four games he played in Albuquerque...Chris Owings has five consecutive multi-hit games, going 11-for-22...Kody Hoese hit two doubles Sunday and since May 28 is batting.435 (10-for-23) over his last five games.

Two Good: On Sunday, OKC went 6-for-15 and scored six runs with two outs. Over the last four games, OKC has batted.417 (25x60) while scoring 26 runs with two down.

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