PCL Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Baseball Club Game Notes - May 11, 2024

May 11, 2024 - Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release


Oklahoma City Baseball Club (22-15) at Sugar Land Space Cowboys (24-13)

Game #38 of 150/First Half #38 of 75/Road #20 of 75

Pitching Probables: OKC-RHP Jesse Hahn (1-0, 5.54) vs. SUG-LHP Colton Gordon (0-0, 8.53)

Saturday, May 11, 2024 | Constellation Field | Sugar Land, Texas | 6:05 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 and the Sugar Land Space Cowboys meet for the fifth time in their six-game series at 6:05 p.m. at Constellation Field. The series is tied, 2-2, and despite a loss last night, OKC has won six of its last nine games overall...OKC is in second place in the overall PCL first-half standings, trailing first-place Sugar Land by two games...OKC has not lost back-to-back games to Sugar Land during the same series since Aug. 23-24, 2021.

Last Game: The Sugar Land Space Cowboys scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to come back and defeat the Oklahoma City Baseball Club, 5-4, Friday night at Constellation Field. Oklahoma City held a 4-3 lead going into the bottom of the ninth before Sugar Land ripped off four hits within five at-bats to tie and win the game. Luke Berryhill tied the game with a RBI single with one out, and two batters later, Will Wagner provided the game-winning hit. Oklahoma City took an early lead in the second inning, with a RBI double from Kevin Padlo and a RBI single from Hunter Feduccia. Sugar Land knotted the score at two in the fourth inning before taking the lead on a bases-loaded walk in the fifth inning. Jonathan Araúz tied the game with a solo homer in the seventh inning. Padlo then gave OKC a 4-3 lead with a RBI single in the eighth inning.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Jesse Hahn (1-0) is scheduled to open a bullpen game for OKC tonight and make his second start of the season...Hahn most recently pitched May 4 against Salt Lake at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. He retired all three Bees batters he faced in the 11th inning and prevented the placed runner from scoring. He recorded his first win of the season after OKC won the game in the bottom of the inning...Hahn also opened OKC's previous bullpen game in Round Rock April 14 with 2.0 scoreless innings for his first start since the 2021 season, allowing one hit and two walks with three strikeouts...He has not allowed a run in three straight outings (4.0 IP) and overall this season is 1-0 with a 5.54 ERA over 13.0 innings in 11 appearances (one start) with 10 walks and 14 strikeouts. He has not allowed a run in eight of his last nine appearances entering today...Hahn signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a minor league free agent in January after not playing the 2023 and 2022 seasons while recovering from injury...Hahn has appeared in 82 career ML games (50 starts), posting a 4.22 ERA across stints with San Diego, Oakland and Kansas City...He originally signed with Tampa Bay and later made his ML debut June 3, 2014, with San Diego against Pittsburgh. He went on to tie for third among National League rookies in 2014 in wins (seven).

Against the Space Cowboys: 2024: 2-2 2023: 18-6 All-time: 48-28 At SUG: 22-15 The top two teams in the PCL East Division meet for their first of three series this season and first of two at Constellation Field during the first half of the season...Sugar Land currently leads the PCL with a 24-13 record while OKC is two games back...Sugar Land's offense leads the PCL with 261 runs scored and is tied with OKC with a league-best 53 home runs this season...OKC won the 2023 series, 18-6, and went 9-2 over the final 11 games against the Space Cowboys. OKC won five of six games in two of the four series and at least four games in each series. The team went 9-3 both at home and on the road...OKC outscored Sugar Land, 121-81, last season as OKC held the Space Cowboys to a .200 batting average...Seventy of OKC's 188 total hits against Sugar Land in 2023 went for extra bases, including 44 doubles, and both teams hit 21 home runs over their 24 meetings...Drew Avans collected a team-leading 19 hits in the season series in 2023, while Ryan Ward had 13 RBI and hit four home runs...OKC won the 2022 series, 16-8, and went 11-4 at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark...OKC has not lost back-to-back games to Sugar Land during the same series since Aug. 23-24, 2021.

Close Calls: Both of Sugar Land's wins this series have been walk-off victories, with the Space Cowboys scoring two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning last night along with a 3-2 win in 10 innings Tuesday. Six of OKC's 15 losses this season have come during an opponent's last at bat and eight of 37 total games have been decided in a final at-bat...Three of the first four games of the current series in Sugar Land have been decided by two runs or less, and going back to last season, 14 of the last 27 meetings between the teams have been decided by one or two runs...So far in 2024, OKC is 12-11 in games decided by two runs or less, accounting for 23 of the team's 37 total games. Eight of the team's 15 losses have been by one run...OKC's 14 one-run games this season are most in the PCL, while OKC's nine two-run games are second-most in the league behind Sugar Land's 10....Last night marked OKC's first loss this season when leading after eight innings, as the team had been 22-0. Their last loss when leading after eight innings was June 8, 2023 at El Paso, when OKC had a 3-2 lead in the ninth inning and ended up losing, 4-3, in 10 innings. The last opponent to win a game when trailing entering the bottom of the ninth inning or later was Tacoma on Aug. 13, 2023 when the Rainiers scored two runs in the bottom of the 10th inning to win, 3-2...Seven of Sugar Land's 17 total runs in the series have scored in the ninth inning or later and overall this season, opponents are outscoring OKC, 21-10, in the ninth inning and later.

Light Switch Offense: OKC recorded at least 12 hits for a third consecutive game Friday night, with each batter in the lineup recording at least one hit and OKC finishing with four extra-base hits. Over the three-game stretch, OKC has 44 hits, including 18 for extra bases, and OKC has batted a combined .367 (44x120). On Thursday, OKC tied its season high with 19 hits, including eight for extra bases. The three-game outburst following a five-game stretch in which OKC batted just .195 (26x133)...However, after scoring a combined 30 runs over the previous two games, OKC was held to four runs last night. On Thursday, Oklahoma City scored 22 or more runs in a game for just the fourth time in the franchise's Bricktown era (since 1998), spanning 3,605 games since 1998. It was also the second time this season OKC scored at least 21 runs in a game, joining a 21-9 victory at Albuquerque on April 25...OKC now has 10 total games during the Bricktown era in which the team has scored 20 or more runs, with six of them occurring in the last four seasons and at least once each season starting in 2021. Prior to 2021, the last time OKC scored 20 or more runs in a game was Aug. 3, 2013 against Colorado Springs (24-5 win)...This is the second time during the Bricktown era that an OKC team has scored 20 or more runs twice in the same season. OKC also scored 20 runs twice in 2022 - a 20-3 home win Aug. 14, 2022 against Round Rock and a 20-5 home win Sept. 11, 2022 against Tacoma...Oklahoma City's 134 runs scored since April 21 are the most in Triple-A and second-most in all of the Minors during the 17-game span, only trailing the Single-A Modesto Nuts' 135 runs. Additionally, OKC's 180 hits since April 21 are third-most in the Minors behind fellow PCL teams Reno (201) and Albuquerque (190)...Overall this season, OKC's .495 SLG and .865 OPS are highest in the PCL, while the team's 53 homers are tied for most in the league. OKC's 88 doubles are second-most in the league, while the team's .370 OBP and 14 triples are tied for second and OKC's .283 AVG, 246 runs and 366 hits rank third.

Drew Up: Drew Avans reached base twice Friday with a single and hit by pitch and recorded a stolen base. He has started the current series 9-for-17 with two extra-base hits and four walks, reaching base in 14 of 22 plate appearances in Sugar Land...He has a team-leading 17 multi-hit games so far this season and ranks among the PCL's top-five leaders in runs (1st, 35), triples (2nd, 5) and hits (3rd, 47)...Overall this season, Avans is batting .333 and leads OKC in runs, hits, triples and stolen bases (10)...Since April 22, Avans has hit safely in 15 of his last 17 games with an at-bat, going 26-for-70 (.371) with seven extra-base hits and 20 runs scored...On Tuesday, he hit his 23rd triple during his Oklahoma City career and he now owns sole possession of the OKC career triples record during the Bricktown era (since 1998). Avans also sits in first place on OKC's all-time career walks list as he has 199 walks with OKC after adding another walk Thursday. He also ranks second all-time with 371 games played and 92 stolen bases, while he ranks fourth with 362 career hits and tied for sixth with 69 doubles.

Sales Pitch: The five runs scored by Sugar Land last night marked just the second time in the last 10 games that OKC allowed five or more runs. OKC has held opponents to four runs or less eight times during the same stretch and to three runs or less six times...Over the last 10 games since April 30, OKC has allowed a combined 34 runs (29 ER) - the fewest in all of Triple-A, while the team's 70 hits allowed during the span are fourth-fewest out of the 30 Triple-A teams...OKC pitchers have a 2.83 ERA since April 30, also lowest in Triple-A...OKC has allowed 17 runs through the first four games of the road series in Sugar Land after allowing a total of 17 runs over OKC's previous six-game series against Salt Lake for the lowest run total allowed by OKC in a six-game series since June 29-July 3, 2023 at Sugar Land when OKC allowed 14 total runs...Sugar Land was held scoreless in six of nine innings last night and opponents have now been held scoreless in 72 of 93 innings over the last 10 games, including 71 of 90 non-extra innings...Sugar Land finished with 12 hits last night for the highest hit total by an opponent since April 27 in Albuquerque (14 hits) and last night was the first time an opponent reached double-digit hits in a 10-game span. It was also the first time in the 10-game stretch an opponent collected at least four hits with runners in scoring position (4x10).

Dinger Details: Jonathan Araúz hit his second home run of the season last night and OKC now has four home runs over the last two games after being held without a homer in each of the first two games of the series...OKC is now tied with Sugar Land for the most home runs hit in the PCL so far this season with 53 through 37 games, which is also tied for second overall in the Minors...OKC has hit 26 home runs over the last 16 games and 42 home runs over the last 25 games - most in the Minors since April 12...OKC has not allowed a home run in back-to-back games - the first time since April 19-20 Sugar Land has not homered in consecutive games - and has allowed two homers through the first four games of the series. Oklahoma City has allowed just two home runs over the last 10 games and the team's 28 homers allowed in 2024 are fewest among all Triple-A teams. They have kept opponents inside the park in nine of the last 13 games.

Andre the Giant: Andre Lipcius singled and scored a run Friday, and over his last three games he is 6-for-14 with six RBI, two walks and seven runs scored. He has 10 multi-hit games in his last 16 games overall and has 15 multi-hit games this season - second-most on the team along with his 44 total hits...Since April 23, Lipcius leads OKC with 25 hits and 18 RBI, while batting .362 (25x69) with eight extra-base hits.

Around the Horn: Hunter Feduccia has hit safely in each of his first three games of the road series, batting 7-for-13 (.538) with a double, triple, home run, two walks, two runs scored and team-leading seven RBI in the series...Austin Gauthier picked up a hit last night and in his first four Triple-A games is 6-for-15 (.400) with two doubles, a home run and four walks. He's started all four games at a different position (2B, 3B, LF, RF)...Chris Owings has hit safely in four straight games, going 6-for-16. Since April 17 he's posted a .365/.515/.615 slashline across 17 games...Over the last three games, OKC is 19-for-58 (.328) with runners in scoring position after batting .173 (14x81) with RISP over the previous 10 games.

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Pacific Coast League Stories from May 11, 2024


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