PCL Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Baseball Club Game Notes - May 2, 2024

May 2, 2024 - Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release


Salt Lake Bees (10-18) at Oklahoma City Baseball Club (17-12)

Game #30 of 150/First Half #30 of 75/Home #15 of 75

Pitching Probables: SL-RHP Zach Plesac (0-4, 7.03) vs. OKC-RHP Elieser Hernández (2-1, 4.00)

Thursday, May 2, 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 tries for back-to-back wins when the team continues its series against the Salt Lake Bees at 7:05 p.m. at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. Tonight is an 89ers Night and players and coaches will wear special OKC 89ers jerseys and hats in recognition of the franchise's pre-Bricktown history...The six-game series between OKC and the Bees is tied, 1-1.

Last Game: The Oklahoma City Baseball Club jumped out to an 8-0 lead on the way to a 9-3 win against the Salt Lake Bees Wednesday afternoon at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. Oklahoma City hit two home runs and held the Bees scoreless in eight of nine innings to even the series, 1-1. Drew Avans led off with a triple for Oklahoma City and scored on a sacrifice fly by Miguel Vargas for a 1-0 lead in the first inning. In the second inning, Chris Owings doubled and later scored on a Bees fielding error for a 2-0 lead, and in the fourth inning, OKC went in front, 4-0, on a two-run home run by Kody Hoese. Oklahoma City scored four runs in the fifth inning, with Avans and Vargas hitting back-to-back doubles. Andre Lipcius added a RBI single before Kevin Padlo connected on a two-run home run for an 8-0 OKC lead. The Bees scored all three of their runs in the eighth inning on two hits and OKC tacked on a final run in the bottom of the inning when Vargas reached base on a fielding error.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Tonight is the fifth start of the season for Elieser Hernández (2-1)...He picked up his second win of the season in his last start April 26 in Albuquerque. Hernández allowed three runs on seven hits, along with three walks, and recorded three strikeouts over 5.0 innings in OKC's 5-4 win...During his last home start April 20 in OKC, he pitched five-plus innings against Sacramento, allowing three runs (two earned) and four hits - all doubles. He did not issue a walk in a second straight game and had six strikeouts, but was charged with the loss in OKC's 3-1 home defeat...Overall, he has 21 strikeouts against six walks over 18.0 IP...He signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Dodgers Jan. 12, 2024 after making eight appearances in the Mets organization last season. He spent much of 2023 on the Injured List, making his season debut May 28 on a rehab assignment and did not pitch after July 9. He appeared with Single-A St. Lucie, High-A Brooklyn and Triple-A Syracuse...He spent the majority of the 2022 season with the Miami Marlins, compiling a 3-6 record in 20 games (10 starts) with a 6.35 ERA and 60 strikeouts...He was traded to New York (NL) Nov. 18, 2022 alongside Jeff Brigham in exchange for Franklin Sanchez and Jake Mangum...Hernández was originally signed by Houston as an international free agent May 31, 2012 and was later selected by the Marlins in the Major League phase of the 2017 Rule 5 Draft...He made his ML debut with Miami May 10, 2018 against Atlanta and has 90 career ML appearances, all with Miami between 2018-22...Tonight is his first career appearance against the Bees.

Against the Bees: 2024: 1-1 2023: 4-7 All-time: 72-67 At OKC: 39-31 OKC and the Bees are playing their first of two series during the 2024 season. This is the lone series the teams will play in Oklahoma City as well as in the first half of the season as the teams will close out the 2024 schedule against one another at Smith's Ballpark Sept. 17-22...Salt Lake won last season's series between the teams, 7-4, and won five of the final seven games including four of the six games in an August series in Salt Lake...Last season marked the first time since 2013 that OKC lost a season series to the Bees. OKC had gone 7-0-1 in season series against Salt Lake until 2023...Drew Avans led OKC with 13 hits in 11 games against Salt Lake last season, while Ryan Ward paced OKC with three homers and Michael Busch had 10 RBI...Scoring in the season series ended up fairly even, with the Bees finishing with a 69-67 advantage in runs...Since OKC became affiliated with the Dodgers in 2025, the team owns a 33-22 advantage against the Bees in the Triple-A version of the Freeway Series....Salt Lake enters today having won six of the last nine meetings overall as well as four of the last six games in OKC.

Dinger Details: Kody Hoese and Kevin Padlo each homered for Oklahoma City Wednesday as OKC has now hit a home run in a season-high eight consecutive games. OKC has hit 19 home runs during the span, which is OKC's longest stretch of consecutive games with a homer since a nine-game streak July 8-21, 2023 (12 HR)...Wednesday was the 12th time in the last 17 games that OKC hit at least two home runs, and since April 12 (17 games), OKC's 35 home runs are the most in the Minors...OKC's 46 home runs this season lead the PCL and are the second-most in Triple-A behind Norfolk's 57 homers...OKC did not allow a home run Wednesday and has kept the opponent inside the park in three of the last five games...OKC has allowed 26 total homers this season - tied for fewest in the league with Sacramento. And in 14 home games, OKC has allowed a league-low seven home runs.

The Warden: Reigning PCL Player of the Week Ryan Ward had Wednesday off, but on Tuesday night hit his third home run in two games and sixth home run in six games. During the six-game run, Ward is 10-for-23 (.435) with seven extra-base hits and 12 RBI...Since April 23, Ward's six homers are the most in Triple-A while his 12 RBI are tied for most...Overall this season, his 11 homers are second-most in the PCL, while his 30 RBI are tied for second, his 18 extra-base hits are tied for first and his .680 SLG is third...Eighteen of his first 25 hits of 2024 have gone for extra bases...Ward has 10 homers in his last 18 games and nine homers in his last 14 games...He became the first OKC player of the season to be named PCL Player of the Week Monday, receiving the honor for April 22-28 after going 9-for-19 with five homers, a double, 11 RBI and eight runs scored in five games. This was his fourth career Player of the Week Award, but first since Aug. 7, 2022 with Double-A Tulsa...Ward led OKC with 95 RBI last season - finishing with the fourth-most RBI in the PCL - but he did not collect his 30th RBI until May 19, 2023. Ward hit 21 homers last year, but his 11th did not occur until July 20.

Muy Miggy: Miguel Vargas went 1-for-4 with a double, two RBI, a stolen base and scored a run yesterday as he extended his hitting streak to a season-best nine games - the longest current hitting streak by an OKC player. He is 15-for-37 (.405) during the streak with nine extra-base hits and 12 runs scored...The nine-game streak surpassed his season-best eight-game hitting streak with OKC last season. During the 2022 season, Vargas had three hitting streaks of at least 10 games in length with Oklahoma City and two 14-game streaks, including most recently Aug. 13-28, 2022...Vargas leads OKC with 10 doubles and ranks third in the PCL with a 1.039 OPS this season and checks in at fifth with a .429 OBP.

Drew Up: Drew Avans went 2-for-4 with a double and a triple, a walk and scored two runs Wednesday as he extended his hitting streak to eight games. This is his second hitting streak of the season of at least eight games and he is 13-for-36 (.361) with five extra-base hits and 15 runs scored during the latest stretch...Avans' triple in the first inning was his team-best fourth of the season and his 22nd career triple with Oklahoma City, moving him into a tie for first place on OKC's all-time career list for triples in the Bricktown era (since 1998) with Joaquin Arias (2006-09)...Avans also moved into sole possession of first place on OKC's all-time career walks list with his 195th walk with OKC Wednesday, breaking a tie with Esteban Germán (2005; 2009-10)...Avans leads OKC with 34 hits, 30 runs scored, four triples and seven stolen bases this season...His 30 runs are second-most in the PCL, while his four triples are tied for second and his 34 hits are third-most in the league.

Source Kode: Kody Hoese hit his third home run of the season yesterday and has hit safely in seven straight games, going 10-for-30 (.333) with five doubles, a home run and seven RBI...The seven-game hitting streak ties his longest of the season after he also hit safely in seven consecutive games April 11-20...He's hit safely in 14 of his last 15 games, and overall this season, Hoese has hit safely in 19 of his 21 games played with OKC, slashing .342/.384/.532.

First Offense: Oklahoma City scored nine runs on 11 hits, including seven extra-base hits, Wednesday. OKC finished with nine runs for the fourth time in the last eight games and eighth time overall this season. Also yesterday, OKC finished with double-digit hits for the seventh time in the last eight games, with at least seven extra-base hits for the fifth time in the last eight games and with seven or more runs for the sixth time in the last eight games...Over the last eight games, OKC has batted .331 (102x308) with 54 XBH (6.75 per game) and scored a total of 84 runs...Overall this season, OKC's .290 batting average is tied for first in the PCL, while the team's 196 runs and 296 hits are all second-most in the league...OKC finished April batting .295 as a team (25 games). It's the team's highest monthly batting average since hitting .298 in July 2019.

New Rule of Three: Salt Lake scored three runs yesterday - all in the eighth inning - as OKC allowed three runs in a second straight game against the Bees. OKC is now 8-4 in games allowing three or fewer runs. However, OKC has lost three of the last five games in that scenario and has already surpassed the number of losses the team had all of last season when allowing three runs or less (49-3)...Going back the 2022 season, OKC had won 53 of 55 games when allowing three runs or less until the final regular season game of 2023, and starting with last year's regular season finale, is 8-5 in such games since.

Trey Bien: Trey Sweeney was held 0-for-5 Wednesday to snap his career-high 27-game on-base streak. He had reached base in each of the first 27 games he played this season for the longest on-base streak to start the season in all of Triple-A and the longest on-base streak by an OKC player since last season's PCL MVP Michael Busch reached base in 39 straight games June 30-Aug. 16, 2023...Sweeney leads the league with 26 walks this season and ranks among the PCL's top-10 in runs with 23 (T-7th) and a .412 OBP (9th).

Around the Horn: Oklahoma City pitchers did not allow an extra-base hit Wednesday for the fourth time this season, limiting Salt Lake to six singles...OKC is now 11-2 in games in which it scores first this season and 6-10 when it does not...Even though the team scored nine runs, OKC went 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position. Over the last five games, the team is 9-for-43 (.209) with RISP...Starting pitcher Dinelson Lamet threw five scoreless innings and recorded a season-high seven strikeouts - tied for the most by an OKC pitcher this season...Reliever Michael Petersen closed yesterday's game with a 1-2-3 ninth inning. He has not yielded a run in 11 of his 12 appearances this season, giving up a total of two runs and seven hits over 11.2 innings with 16 strikeouts...Over his last eight games, Andre Lipcius is 14-for-37 (.378) with four homers, a triple, 11 RBI, nine runs scored and five multi-hit games...The Bees recorded six stolen bases Wednesday - the most allowed by OKC in a game this season and the most by an opponent since Albuquerque recorded seven stolen bases in OKC Aug. 22, 2023.

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