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Oklahoma City Baseball Club

OKC Baseball Club Game Notes - May 17, 2024

May 17, 2024 - Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Baseball Club News Release


Oklahoma City Baseball Club (23-19) at Sacramento River Cats (25-17)

Game #43 of 150/First Half #43 of 75/Road #25 of 75

Pitching Probables: OKC-RHP Christian Romero (NR, -.--) vs. SAC-LHP Blake Snell (NR, -.--)

Friday, May 17, 2024 | Sutter Health Park | West Sacramento, Calif. | 8:45 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 has lost three straight games to match its longest losing streak of the season and will look to reverse the trend at 8:45 p.m. CT against the Sacramento River Cats at Sutter Health Park...OKC has also lost five of the last six games and has not lost four consecutive games since a stretch of six straight losses Aug. 20-26, 2023...Sacramento is 7-2 against Oklahoma City so far this season with wins in six of the last seven games between the teams...Two-time Cy Young Award winner and reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell is scheduled to pitch for Sacramento on a rehab assignment.

Last Game: The Oklahoma City Baseball Club fell behind early and never recovered as they lost, 8-0, to the Sacramento River Cats Thursday night at Sutter Health Park. Sacramento got out to an early lead with a RBI single from Major League rehabber Jorge Soler before Hunter Bishop swatted a two-run homer to make it 3-0 in the first inning. The River Cats added another run in the second inning, and Trenton Brooks hit a solo shot in the third inning to make it a 5-0 game. The River Cats scored twice more in the sixth inning and one final time in the seventh inning. Oklahoma City got its best scoring chance in the eighth inning with runners on second and third with one out but couldn't capitalize.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Christian Romero is set to make his Triple-A debut tonight and first career appearance above High-A...Romero has made six appearances, including two starts, for High-A Great Lakes this season, posting a 2-2 record, one save and a 2.38 ERA over 22.2 innings pitched with 14 walks against 15 strikeouts. He started his first two outings of the season with the Loons and has made four relief appearances since, but has worked 15.0 innings across those four relief outings...He most recently pitched May 8 against Lansing and was charged with his second loss of the season and a blown save, allowing two runs and two hits over 3.0 innings of relief with three walks and one strikeout...He has pitched a season-high 5.0 innings twice in 2024, including in his first win of the season April 14 in Lansing. He also recorded the first save of his professional career April 27 at Fort Wayne with 5.0 scoreless innings of relief...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 River Cats: 2024: 2-7 2023: 12-3 All-time: 62-62 At SAC: 31-30 Oklahoma City and Sacramento are meeting for their second and final series of the 2024 season and lone series at Sutter Health Park...Sacramento won the first series of the season between the teams, 4-2, April 16-21 at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. The teams split the first two games of the series before Sacramento won three straight games and OKC won the series finale. Jonathan Araúz and Kody Hoese each led OKC with seven hits in the series, including two home runs by Hoese who also tied Ryan Ward with a team-best four RBI in the series...Five of the six games in the first series were decided by two runs or less. The River Cats batted .297 in the series and outscored OKC, 28-21, through the first six meetings of 2024...OKC won last season's series, 12-3, and won the final four meetings between the teams, including a three-game series sweep in Sacramento July 14-16...During a May 23-28 series, which OKC won, 4-2, five of the six games in the set were decided in the eighth inning or later, including three wins by a team trailing in the eighth inning...Between 2022-23, OKC won back-to-back season series against the River Cats for the first time since 2017-18...Since OKC became affiliated with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the River Cats with the San Francisco Giants in 2015, OKC has a 30-26 advantage in the Triple-A version of the Dodgers-Giants rivalry. The River Cats are 7-2 against OKC this season after OKC went 15-3 in the previous 18 meetings going back to 2022...In four of their last five games against Sacramento, OKC is 1-4 and has scored one run or less in each of the losses. OKC has also dropped six of the last seven games against the River Cats...OKC has been limited to 23 runs in the team's nine games against Sacramento this season.

Where's the Beef?: Oklahoma City was shut out for the third time this season last night and Thursday was the third straight game OKC scored one run or less. Oklahoma City's offense has now been limited to one run or less in four of the last five games...OKC has not scored for 17 consecutive innings and has scored just one run in the last 26 innings. Since Miguel Vargas' grand slam in the sixth inning Sunday at Sugar Land, OKC has scored two runs in the proceeding 30 innings, batting .170 (17x100) with four extra-base hits. The team is also 2-for-23 with runners in scoring position during that stretch, but neither of the two hits resulted in a run scoring. The team has been retired in order in 11 of the 30 innings...This is the first time since April 2022 that Oklahoma City has scored one run or less in three consecutive games. The last time it happened was April 22-24, 2022, also in Sacramento. During that stretch, Oklahoma City won the first game, 1-0, before sustaining losses of 12-1 and 2-1. Oklahoma City then went 318 games before losing the first three games of the current series, 3-1, on Tuesday, 4-1, on Wednesday and 8-0 last night...OKC has now been held to two runs or less six times in the last 12 games, including two shutouts, but in the other six games during the same 12-game span, OKC has scored 50 runs for an average of 8.3 per game...After scoring a combined 30 runs May 8-9, OKC has been held to 14 total runs over the last six games - seven runs of which came Sunday in Sugar Land during the team's only win over the last six games...During the current road trip, OKC has scored 37 runs and recorded 39 hits in the three wins combined, but has scored a total of nine runs with 39 hits in the six losses.

Road Woes: Oklahoma City is in the midst of its longest road trip of the season and yesterday dropped to 3-6, with losses in five of the last six games. The first five losses of the trip came by a total of nine runs before last night's eight-run defeat - the team's largest margin of defeat of the 2024 season and largest since a 10-1 loss to Albuquerque at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark July 7, 2023...In five games during the current road trip, the final score has been decided by two runs or less. Each of OKC's first four losses during the road trip between Sugar Land and Sacramento came by one or two runs, decided by a total of six runs...Three of the six total losses during the trip have come in walk-off fashion, including Tuesday's 3-1 defeat in Sacramento...Tuesday was OKC's seventh last at-bat loss of the season as well as the team's fourth walk-off loss of the season, three of which have come during the current road trip. The four walk-off losses match OKC's entire 2023 total...OKC is 12-12 on the road overall this season. However, after starting the season 9-4 in away games, OKC has posted a 3-8 record on the road since...OKC posted winning records on the road in each of the last three seasons, going a combined 124-91 (.577) in away games. Last season, OKC was a Minor League-best 48-22 on the road and did not sustain its 12th road loss until the 37th road game of the season, June 28 at Sugar Land.

Gettin' Miggy With It: Miguel Vargas reached base four times Thursday, collecting a single and three walks. He has now reached base safely in seven straight games for his third on-base streak of the season of at least seven games. During the stretch, Vargas is 9-for-22 (.409) with four doubles, a grand slam, eight RBI, nine walks and six runs scored while reaching base in 20 of 33 plate appearances (.606 OBP)...On Sunday in Sugar Land, Vargas finished with a game-high three hits, going 3-for-4 with a double and grand slam along with a season-high five RBI. The grand slam was both Oklahoma City's and Vargas' second of the season after he hit the first grand slam of his career April 2 against Albuquerque in OKC. The five RBI were his most in a single game since racking up eight RBI July 25, 2021 while with Double-A Tulsa against Northwest Arkansas and marked the third time in his career he has finished with five or more RBI in a game. He became the fifth OKC player this season to record five or more RBI in a game...Vargas ranks among PCL leaders in walks (1st, 34), extra-base hits (T-1st, 23), RBI (2nd, 38), doubles (3rd, 14) and OBP (4th, .436).

Andre the Giant: Andre Lipcius went 2-for-3 with a walk and a double last night. He has hit safely in six of his last seven games, going 10-for-26 (.385) during that time with four doubles, a home run, seven RBI and eight runs scored...Last night was his sixth multi-hit game through 13 games in May and so far this month, Lipcius is batting .354 (17-for-57) with five extra-base hits, nine RBI and 10 runs scored. His 17 hits and nine RBI this month both rank second among OKC players in May...Lipcius already has 10 homers in 38 games this season after hitting a career-high 13 home runs combined last season at three levels over 117 games. In 2023, Lipcius didn't hit his 10th home run until his 96th game of the season on Aug. 22.

Drew Up: Drew Avans was held without a hit for just the second time in the last nine games last night. He leads OKC with 19 hits through 14 games in May, batting .333 (19x57) with two doubles, two triples, one home run, eight walks, six stolen bases and 11 runs scored...Avans has a team-best 18 multi-hit games this season and leads OKC in runs (39), hits (51), triples (5) and stolen bases (13). He ranks among the league's top-five leaders in runs (1st, 39), hits (3rd, 51), triples (2nd, 5) and stolen bases (4th, 13)...Throughout this season, Avans has established new OKC Bricktown era (since 1998) career records with 202 walks and 23 triples. He ranks second all-time with 376 games played and 95 stolen bases, while he ranks fourth with 366 career hits and tied for sixth with 69 doubles.

Sales Pitch: Oklahoma City allowed eight runs last night for the most runs allowed by the team so far in May and most runs allowed by the team since a 9-7 loss in Albuquerque April 28...Entering Thursday, OKC had held opponents to four runs or less in four straight games, in five of the previous six games and in 12 of the previous 14 games with a maximum of six runs during that time. Over that 14-game stretch, Oklahoma City had allowed a combined 48 runs (43 ER) and 96 hits - the fewest runs and hits in all of Triple-A April 30-May 15 (3.07 ERA)...During the road trip overall, OKC has allowed 39 runs over nine games (4.3 RPG)...Sacramento scored in five of eight innings last night after opponents had been held scoreless in 98 of 127 innings over the previous 14 games, including 97 of 124 non-extra innings...Last night ended a streak of 15 consecutive games allowing one or no home runs (7 HR total).

Around the Horn: Outside of Miguel Vargas and Andre Lipcius going a combined 3-for-4 last night, the OKC offense went 3-for-28 with one walk and 14 strikeouts Thursday...As a team, OKC struck out a season-high 15 times last night while the pitching staff recorded a season-low four strikeouts...OKC is 0-3 to start the series in Sacramento and OKC has not lost the first four games of a series since dropping the first five games against Albuquerque at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark Aug. 22-6, 2023. OKC last lost the first three games of a road series Aug. 15-17, 2023 in Salt Lake and has not lost the first four games of a road series since opening the 2021 season 0-4 in Round Rock...Reliever Michael Petersen has not allowed a run in 14 of 16 appearances this season, giving up a total of four runs (3 ER) and nine hits over 15.1 innings with 24 strikeouts...At 4.0 games behind Sugar Land entering today, this is the furthest OKC has been out of first place this season.

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