OKC Baseball Club Game Notes - May 8, 2024
Published on May 8, 2024 under Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release
Oklahoma City Baseball Club (20-14) at Sugar Land Space Cowboys (23-11)
Game #35 of 150/First Half #35 of 75/Road #17 of 75
Pitching Probables: OKC-RHP Elieser Hernández (3-1, 3.13) vs. SUG-RHP Blair Henley (1-1, 4.74)
Wednesday, May 8, 2024 | Constellation Field | Sugar Land, Texas | 11:05 a.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 look to even the series against the Sugar Land Space Cowboys when the teams meet for the second time in their series at 11:05 a.m. at Constellation Field...Sugar Land took a 1-0 lead in the series with a win last night and OKC has not lost back-to-back games to Sugar Land during the same series since the 2021 season.
Last Game: Corey Julks hit game-winning sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th inning, sending the Sugar Land Space Cowboys to a 3-2 win over the Oklahoma City Baseball Club Tuesday night at Constellation Field. Oklahoma City took the game's first lead in the second inning with a RBI groundout by Kody Hoese. Drew Avans led off the third inning with a triple and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Miguel Vargas to extend the lead to 2-0. Sugar Land tied the game in the sixth inning when Pedro León hit a two-run homer. OKC had a golden opportunity to regain the lead in the ninth inning, loading the bases with none out, but was unable to score. The Space Cowboys had the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the 10th inning when Julks hit a fly ball to deep right field that resulted in a walk-off sacrifice fly.
Today's Probable Pitcher: Elieser Hernández (3-1) tries for his team-leading fourth win of the season today in Sugar Land - as well as a third straight winning decision...Hernández pitched 5.0 scoreless innings in his last outing May 2 against Salt Lake at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. He allowed three hits and one walk with five strikeouts in his third win of the season - a 5-2 OKC victory. The 5.0 innings pitched matched his season-high...Over his last four outings, Hernández has allowed six earned runs across 20.0 innings while notching 21 strikeouts against four walks...Overall this season, Hernández has 26 strikeouts over 23.0 IP and Oklahoma City is 4-1 when he pitches...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...Today is his first career appearance against the Space Cowboys.
Against the Space Cowboys: 2024: 0-1 2023: 18-6 All-time: 46-27 At SUG: 20-14 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 23-11 record while OKC is three games back...Sugar Land's offense leads the PCL with 247 runs scored and 52 home runs so far 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: Last night, Oklahoma City played extra innings for the second time in three games and dropped to 1-2 in extra-inning games this season, including 0-2 on the road. It was the team's first game to be decided in the 10th inning as OKC's other two extra-inning games extended into the 11th inning...Last night was also the team's seventh one-run loss of the season, as half of their losses so far in 2024 have been by one run. Additionally, 10 of Oklahoma City's 14 total losses so far this season have been by two runs or less...OKC's 13 one-run games this season are tied with Sacramento for most in the PCL...Of OKC's 34 total games this season, eight have been decided in a final at-bat, and Tuesday was an opponent's fifth last at-bat win of the season.
Sales Pitch: Yesterday the Oklahoma City pitching staff allowed three or fewer earned runs for a seventh consecutive game. Tuesday was the fifth time in the last seven games OKC allowed a total of three runs or less and OKC has not allowed more than four total runs in seven straight games...OKC has allowed 20 total runs during that stretch, including allowing a total of 17 runs over its 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, holding the Space Cowboys to two runs in five consecutive games and marking the first time since June 23-27, 2017 that OKC held an opponent to two runs or less in five consecutive games...Opponents have been held scoreless in 53 of 66 innings during the last seven games, including 52 of 63 non-extra innings...OKC limited the Space Cowboys to just five hits Tuesday, holding an opponent to five hits or less in a third consecutive game (12 H). OKC had held Salt Lake to 40 total hits in the series, allowing an average of 6.67 per game, and allowed eight total extra-base hits in the series - all doubles.
Starting Line: Over the last seven games, OKC's starting/primary pitchers have combined to allow six earned runs, 27 hits and 14 walks over 36.1 innings while recording 35 strikeouts. During OKC's previous road series in Albuquerque, prior to the current seven-game stretch, starting pitchers allowed 32 runs, 44 hits and 15 walks over just 20.1 innings across six games...On Tuesday, starting pitcher Dinelson Lamet completed his second consecutive outing with five scoreless innings. He allowed two hits and issued a season-high four walks to go along with two strikeouts. Lamet held Sugar Land 0-for-7 with runners on base, including 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position.
Light Switch Offense: OKC was held to four hits last night to tie the team's season-low mark and finished with four hits for the second time in the last four games. However, two of OKC's hits went for extra bases as Drew Avans hit a triple and Hunter Feduccia connected on a double...Over the last seven games, OKC has been limited to five hits or less five times...Over the last five games, OKC has batted 26-for-133 (.195) after batting .331 over the previous eight games. Between Thursday and Friday, OKC was held without an extra-base hit in consecutive games for the first time since July 24-25, 2014, when the team went a combined 8-for-58 between games at home against Round Rock and at Nashville. The team had piled up 54 XBH in the previous eight games leading into Thursday...Oklahoma City has been limited to six total runs over the last two games and to 16 total runs over the last five games combined (3.2 per game)...However, OKC's 100 runs scored since April 21 are still the most in Triple-A. The team's 136 hits in the last 14 games are third-most in Triple-A behind Reno (155) and Albuquerque (150)...Overall this season, OKC's .485 SLG leads the PCL, while the team's .846 OPS, 13 triples and 49 home runs are second and OKC's .274 AVG, 75 doubles, 212 runs and 322 hits are all third in the league.
Drew Up: Drew Avans went 2-for-4 with a triple, walk and run scored Tuesday. Avans led off the third inning with a triple - the 23rd of his Oklahoma City career - giving him sole possession of the OKC career triples record during the Bricktown era (since 1998). He entered last night's game in a tie for first place with Joaquin Arias (2006-09)...Tuesday marked Avans' fourth multi-hit outing in his last six games (8x25) and his team-leading 15 multi-hit game so far this season...Overall in 2024, Avans is batting .313 and paces OKC with 40 hits and 31 runs scored...Since April 21, Avans has hit safely in 12 of his last 14 games with an at-bat, going 19-for-57 (.333) with six extra-base hits and 16 runs scored...Avans' five triples this season are second-most in the league. He is one of three PCL players with at least 40 hits this season and his 31 runs scored are tied for the league lead...Avans owns sole possession of first place on OKC's all-time career walks list as he has 196 walks with OKC after adding another walk Tuesday. He also ranks second all-time with 368 games played and 89 stolen bases and ranks fourth with 355 career hits.
Full and Empty: Last night OKC had four plate appearances with the bases loaded and went 0-for-4 without scoring a run. That included no runs after having the bases loaded with none out in the ninth inning - the fourth time this season OKC has not scored after having the bases loaded with no outs. The club has had 57 plate appearances with the bases loaded this year but has collected just eight hits, going 8-for-49 (.163) with three sacrifice flies, three walks, one hit batter and 22 strikeouts (most in the PCL). The team's last 33 plate appearances with the bases loaded have resulted in going 4-for-30 (.133), including 1-for the-last-17 with seven strikeouts...OKC has had at least one plate appearance with the bases loaded in 22 of 34 games this season and their 57 total PA are third-most in the PCL.
Dinger Details: Oklahoma City was held without a home run last night for the third time in the last five games after Kevin Padlo and Ryan Ward hit back-to-back home runs in the sixth inning of the team's last game on Sunday at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark...OKC has still hit 22 homers over the last 13 games and 38 home runs over the last 22 games...Since April 12 (22 games), OKC's 38 home runs are the most in the Minors, and OKC's 49 total home runs this season are second-most in the PCL behind Sugar Land's 52 home runs...OKC allowed a home run by the Space Cowboys Tuesday night, marking the first home run allowed by OKC since the team's previous road game April 28 in Albuquerque. Before last night, OKC had not allowed a home run in seven of the previous nine games, including a season-high six straight...OKC has allowed 27 total homers this season - fewest in the league.
RISPy Business: OKC held Sugar Land 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position in Tuesday's series opener and has held opponents 8-for-62 (.129) with RISP over the last seven games. On the other hand, OKC also went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position last night and over the last 10 games, OKC is 14-for-81 (.173) with RISP.
Around the Horn: OKC is 3-0 in games with local start times of 11:05 a.m., including 1-0 on the road. The team has won six of its last seven day games overall...Hunter Feduccia reached base four times Tuesday night, going 2-for-2 with a single, double, two walks and his first stolen base of the season. Feduccia had been held 1-for-22 in his previous six games...In his Triple-A debut last night, Austin Gauthier drew two walks...Reliever Michael Petersen has not yielded a run in 13 of his 14 appearances this season, giving up a total of two runs and seven hits over 13.1 innings with 20 strikeouts.
Pacific Coast League Stories from May 8, 2024
- May 8 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers at Reno Aces - Tacoma Rainiers
- Isotopes Hold off Chihuahuas for 11-7 Triumph - Albuquerque Isotopes
- Salt Lake Bats Stay Hot in Win over River Cats - Salt Lake Bees
- Albuquerque Evens Series behind Hot Bats - El Paso Chihuahuas
- Sugar Land Cannot Complete Wednesday Comeback, Drop Afternoon Contest 8-6 - Sugar Land Space Cowboys
- OKC Stop Sugar Land Short - Oklahoma City Comets
- OKC Baseball Club Game Notes - May 8, 2024 - Oklahoma City Comets
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