PCL Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Baseball Club Game Notes - May 12, 2024

Published on May 12, 2024 under Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release


Oklahoma City Baseball Club (22-16) at Sugar Land Space Cowboys (25-13)

Game #39 of 150/First Half #39 of 75/Road #21 of 75

Pitching Probables: OKC-RHP Landon Knack (1-1, 3.48) vs. SUG-RHP José Urquidy (NR, -.--)

Saturday, May 11, 2024 | Constellation Field | Sugar Land, Texas | 2:05 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 will try for a series split when the team closes out its road series against the Sugar Land Space Cowboys at 2:05 p.m. at Constellation Field. Sugar Land has a 3-2 lead in the series as OKC has lost back-to-back games to Sugar Land during the same series for the first time since August 2021...Sugar Land leads the PCL first-half standings and OKC trails the Space Cowboys by three games...OKC is trying to avoid a third straight loss today, which would match its longest losing streak of the season (April 18-20; April 27-30).

Last Game: The Oklahoma City Baseball Club surrendered just three hits but were unable to get the bats going as they fell, 3-1, to the Sugar Land Space Cowboys Saturday night at Constellation Field. Sugar Land got out to an early 2-0 lead after a two-run double by César Salazar in the first inning. Oklahoma City got on the board with a RBI single from Jonathan Araúz in the fourth inning, making it 2-1. Cooper Hummel then put Sugar Land up 3-1 with a solo home run in the fifth inning. OKC had the tying runs in scoring position with two outs in the ninth inning, but Wander Suero was able to get Araúz to fly out to end the game.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Landon Knack (1-1) is scheduled to make his fifth start of the season with Oklahoma City and second after making his Major League debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers...Knack started for OKC May 5 against Salt Lake at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark and earned the win during OKC's 4-1 victory. He allowed one run and four hits with one hit batter and two walks over 5.0 innings with eight strikeouts - tied for the most by an OKC pitcher so far this season...Prior to the outing against Salt Lake, each of Knack's previous three starts were with the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he posted a 2.81 ERA and 1-1 record over 16.0 innings with five walks against 11 strikeouts. He held ML hitters to a .193 batting average to go along with a 1.00 WHIP...He made ML debut April 17 against Washington at Dodger Stadium, throwing 5.0 innings and allowing two runs and four hits with one walk and four strikeouts, but was charged with the loss as LAD was blanked, 2-0. He then earned his first career win in his next start April 24 at Washington after allowing two runs over 6.0 innings...Knack was OKC's Opening Night starter in Tacoma March 29, pitching 5.0 scoreless innings, and ended up making three starts with OKC before his call-up...Knack split time between OKC and Double-A Tulsa last season, going a combined 5-1 in 22 starts with a 2.51 ERA over 100.1 innings with 99 strikeouts and 30 walks, setting career highs in starts, innings and strikeouts...He was promoted to OKC in mid-June and made 10 starts in Triple-A, allowing one or no runs in six of his final eight starts. He went 3-1 with a 2.93 ERA and 38 strikeouts before being placed on the IL Aug. 25 and not playing for the rest of the season...He entered the 2024 season as Dodgers' No. 11 prospect by Baseball America and the No. 14 prospect by MLB Pipeline...The Johnson City, Tenn., native was selected in the second round of the 2020 MLB Draft out of East Tennessee State...Tonight is his second career appearance against Sugar Land. He last faced the Space Cowboys July 1, 2023, pitching 6.0 scoreless innings and allowing three hits with two walks and seven strikeouts during an 8-2 victory.

Against the Space Cowboys: 2024: 2-3 2023: 18-6 All-time: 48-29 At SUG: 22-16 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 25-13 record while OKC is three games back...Sugar Land's offense ranks second in the PCL with 264 runs scored and has a league-high 54 home runs...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 lost back-to-back games to Sugar Land during the same series for the first time since Aug. 23-24, 2021. The teams had met 51 times between then and Friday, with OKC going 36-15 over that stretch.

Close Calls: Last night was the fourth time in five games of the current series the final score was decided by two runs or less, and going back to last season, 15 of the last 28 meetings between Oklahoma City and Sugar Land have been decided by one or two runs. All three of Sugar Land's wins during the current series have been by two runs or less, including two walk-off victories for the Space Cowboys...So far in 2024, OKC is 12-12 in games decided by two runs or less, accounting for 24 of the team's 38 total games. Eight of the team's 16 losses have been by one run...OKC's 14 one-run games this season are most in the PCL, while OKC's 10 two-run games are second-most in the league behind Sugar Land's 11.

Austin City Limits: Austin Gauthier went 3-for-4 Saturday with the only extra-base hit and multi-hit game of the night for Oklahoma City. He also recorded his first stolen base with OKC...Gauthier is batting .474 (9-for-19) with a home run, three doubles and four walks across five games with OKC. After being held without a hit in his first game with OKC, Gauthier has gone 9-for-17 over his last four games, including three multi-hit games and two three-hit outings...He was promoted to OKC May 7 after beginning the season with Double-A Tulsa where he slashed .280/.445/.488 with four home runs, a triple, three doubles and 17 RBI across 24 games...Last season Gauthier slashed .316/.435/.475 over 124 games between the High-A and Double-A levels. He led all Dodgers minor leaguers in runs (111), hits (148), walks (100) and on-base percentage.

Drew Up: Drew Avans has hit safely during all five games of the current series and is 10-for-21 (.476) with a double, triple, four walks and five runs scored in Sugar Land. This is his third hitting streak of at least five games this season and the streak is the longest active streak by an OKC player...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, 48)...Overall this season, Avans is batting .331 and leads OKC in runs, hits, triples and stolen bases (10)...Since April 22, Avans has hit safely in 16 of his last 18 games with an at-bat, going 27-for-74 (.365) 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 at 199, He ranks second all-time with 372 games played and 92 stolen bases, while he ranks fourth with 363 career hits and tied for sixth with 69 doubles.

Light Switch Offense: Although OKC ranks third overall in the Minors in runs scored, Saturday was the fifth time this season the offense was held to one run or less. Last night was also the third time in the last eight games OKC scored two runs or less...OKC went 6-for-32 at the plate last night after batting .367 (44x120) over the previous three games with at least 12 hits in each game...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)...After scoring a combined 30 runs Wednesday and Thursday, OKC has been held to five total runs over the last two nights. 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...Oklahoma City's 135 runs scored since April 21 are the second-most in Triple-A behind Reno's 142 runs and are third-most in all of the Minors during the span behind Reno and the Single-A Modesto Nuts' 138 runs. Additionally, OKC's 186 hits since April 21 are third-most in the Minors behind fellow PCL teams Reno (216) and Albuquerque (198)...Overall this season, OKC's .488 SLG and .856 OPS are tied for highest in the PCL with Albuquerque, while OKC's 53 homers and 89 doubles are second-most in the league. OKC's .280 AVG, 247 runs and 372 hits rank third in the league, while the team's 14 triples are tied for third.

Sales Pitch: Oklahoma City held Sugar Land to three hits and three runs Saturday night. It was the third time this season OKC allowed three or fewer hits in a game, including the second time in the last seven games...Last night was the seventh time in the last 11 games OKC allowed three runs or less and the ninth time in the last 11 games OKC allowed four runs or less...Over the last 11 games since April 30, OKC has allowed a combined 37 runs (32 ER) - the fewest in all of Triple-A, while the team's 73 hits allowed during the span are second-fewest among Triple-A teams. OKC pitchers have a 2.87 ERA since April 30, also lowest in Triple-A...OKC has allowed 20 runs through the first five 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 (14 R)...Sugar Land was held scoreless in six of eight innings last night and opponents have now been held scoreless in 78 of 101 innings over the last 11 games, including 77 of 98 non-extra innings.

Three is the Unmagic Number: Last night marked the sixth time this season OKC allowed three or fewer runs in a loss (11-6). In 2023, OKC went 49-3 when allowing three runs or less. The team is just 5-5 over the last 10 games when allowing no more than three runs...Yesterday was also the second time this season OKC lost a game in which it allowed just three hits, along with a 1-0 defeat in 11 innings during the season opener at Tacoma. Prior to that, OKC had not a lost a game when the team allowed three or fewer hits over at least 8.0 innings pitched since July 28, 2014 at Nashville (3-1).

Dinger Details: OKC was held without a home run last night for the third time in the last five games and has hit seven home runs over the last nine games combined. Oklahoma City has hit nine total homers over 10 games so far in May after hitting a league-leading 39 home runs over 25 games in April, including hitting 33 homers over the final 16 games of the month...OKC has hit 53 total home runs through 38 games of 2024 to rank second in the league and third overall in the Minors behind Sugar Land's 54 homers this season...OKC allowed a home run last night, but has held opponents without a homer in eight of the last 11 games. The 29 homers allowed by OKC overall this season are fewest among all Triple-A teams.

Around the Horn: Andre Lipcius did not play Saturday, but singled and scored a run Friday. Over his last three games, Lipcius 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, batting .362 (25x69) with eight extra-base hits, including four home runs, and 18 RBI...Hunter Feduccia had Saturday night off, but 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.

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Pacific Coast League Stories from May 12, 2024


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