OKC Comets Game Notes - March 29, 2025
March 29, 2025 - Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release
Oklahoma City Comets (0-1) at Sugar Land Space Cowboys (1-0)
Game #2 of 150/First Half #2 of 75/Road #2 of 75
Pitching Probables: OKC-RHP Carlos Duran (NR, -.--) vs. SUG-RHP Aaron Brown (NR, -.--)
Saturday, March 29, 2025 | Constellation Field | Sugar Land, Texas | 6:05 p.m. CT
Radio: KGHM-AM 1340 The Game, 1340thegame.com, iHeartRadio; Video: MiLB.tv, Bally Sports Live
Today's Game: The Oklahoma City Comets seek their first win of 2025 when they continue their three-game road series against the Sugar Land Space Cowboys at 6:05 p.m. at Constellation Field...OKC is opening on the road for a second straight season and beginning a season against Sugar Land for the first in team history.
Last Game: The Sugar Land Space Cowboys scored four runs with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to rally for a 4-3 win over the Oklahoma City Comets Friday night at Constellation Field in the 2025 season opener. The Comets led, 3-0, with two outs in the ninth inning before the Space Cowboys tied the game with a RBI single by Cesár Salazar and a two-run homer by Zack Short. Later in the inning, Brice Matthews hit a RBI single for the game-winner. Oklahoma City hit three solo home runs throughout the game by Dalton Rushing, Michael Chavis and Hunter Feduccia to build the lead.
Today's Probable Pitcher: Carlos Duran is scheduled to make his 2025 debut and his second career appearance for OKC...Duran closed out 2024 by making his Triple-A debut against Tacoma Sept. 14. He started and allowed two runs and three walks with three strikeouts over 1.1 innings before exiting the game due to injury...OKC was the third level of the organization he appeared at last season after he started with Single-A Rancho Cucamonga and advanced to Double-A Tulsa in July...Over 11 starts with Tulsa, Duran went 0-4 with a 3.05 ERA, notching 48 strikeouts in 38.1 IP. He struck out a season-high seven batters Aug. 2 against Springfield (3.0 IP)...Duran missed the entire 2023 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery...He originally signed with the Dodgers in March 2018 as an international free agent out of the Dominican Republic.
Against the Space Cowboys : 2025: 0-1 2024: 6-12 All-time: 52-39 At SUG: 25-21
Sugar Land enters 2025 as the defending Triple-A National Champions. The Space Cowboys also won the PCL's first-half title outright and tied for the second-half crown with Reno. The Space Cowboys went 93-56 overall during the regular season before defeating Reno in the PCL Championship Series and Omaha in the Triple-A National Championship Game...Sugar Land won nine of the final 11 meetings against Oklahoma City last season, but five of OKC's six total wins against the Space Cowboys in 2024 came at Constellation Field (5-7)...Despite going 6-12, OKC outscored Sugar land, 91-89, last season and hit 19 homers compared to Sugar Land's 15...Over the final series of 2024 between the teams Sept. 3-8, OKC scored 10 total runs for OKC's lowest-scoring six-game series since the team started playing primarily six-game series in 2021...Entering tonight, OKC has lost six of the last seven and 10 of the last 12 meetings with the Space Cowboys.
Struggle to Launch: With last night's defeat, OKC is 11-16 in season openers during the Bricktown era (since 1998), including 7-7 on the road in the first game of a season. OKC has now lost three straight season openers as well as five of the last six...Friday marked the second straight year OKC sustained a one-run, walk-off loss on Opening Night after losing to Tacoma, 1-0, in 11 innings to open the 2024 season...In each of the last two seasons, OKC has followed up a season-opening loss with a win in the next game.
Rocket Fuel: All three of OKC's runs came via solo home runs Friday night by Dalton Rushing, Michael Chavis and Hunter Feduccia. Oklahoma City compiled 20 games with three or more homers throughout the 2024 season and last hit at least three homers in a game Sept. 21, 2024 at Salt Lake when the team hit a season-high six homers, including two homers by Rushing, two by Ryan Ward and additional homers by James Outman and Chris Okey - all members of OKC's 2025 Opening Day roster.
Eclipsed: Last night marked OKC's first loss when leading by three runs in the ninth inning or later since Sept. 3, 2022 at Round Rock. In that game, OKC led, 4-1, in the ninth inning - as well as 6-4 in the 10th inning - before eventually losing, 7-6, in 11 innings...Last season, Oklahoma City went 70-1 when leading after eight innings, with the only defeat also occurring at Constellation Field May 10, as Sugar Land flipped a 4-3 deficit in the ninth inning into a 5-4 victory...Yesterday was also OKC's first loss when leading by at least three runs in the sixth inning or later since Aug. 25, 2023 at home against Albuquerque.
Mound Turnaround: Oklahoma City pitchers held the Space Cowboys without a run through 8.2 innings and did not allow a Sugar Land hit from the second through eighth innings before allowing four hits and four runs in the ninth inning with two outs...Starting pitcher Nick Frasso appeared in his first official game since Sept. 14, 2023 after undergoing right shoulder surgery, causing him to miss the entire 2024 season. Frasso pitched two innings, allowing no runs, two hits, and one walk. He notched two strikeouts and threw 36 pitches (22 strikes)...Justin Jarvis piggybacked Frasso with 4.2 scoreless innings. Jarvis did not give up a hit, but did issue five walks with five strikeouts.
Seeing Stars: OKC's Opening Day roster features two of the Los Angeles Dodgers' top three prospects, and three of the organization's top nine prospects, per Baseball America : Catcher Dalton Rushing (No. 2), infielder Alex Freeland (No. 3) and pitcher Justin Wrobleski (No. 9). Starting pitcher Nick Frasso is rated No. 17 among Dodgers prospects. The roster features nine total members of the Los Angeles Dodgers' 40-man roster including pitchers Noah Davis, Landon Knack, Bobby Miller and Matt Sauer, catcher Hunter Feduccia, infielder Hyesong Kim, and outfielder James Outman in addition to Wrobleski and Frasso. A total of 17 players on the roster spent at least part of the 2024 season in Oklahoma City and 13 players have previous Major League experience, with five appearing for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2024 while five others appeared elsewhere in the Major Leagues last season. The most notable veteran is Eddie Rosario, the 2021 NLCS MVP with the Atlanta Braves, who is closing in on 10 years of ML service time and has appeared in over 1,100 games. Rosario has collected 1,063 hits and 169 home runs during his Major League career.
Launchpad: Outfielder Ryan Ward led the Pacific Coast League with 33 home runs last season, finished second with 62 extra-base hits and finished third with 101 RBI. He became just the third player in OKC's Bricktown era (since 1998) to hit 33 or more homers in one season and the first to do it since Mike Hessman hit 35 home runs in 2012. Including a home run hit in the Arizona Complex League during a rehab assignment in May, Ward hit 34 home runs last season - second-most in the Minors. Ward also became just the fourth player during the Bricktown era to reach the century mark in RBI in a season...With 54 career homers in Oklahoma City, he is now six home runs away from tying Jason Hart's Bricktown-era career record of 40 home runs from 2002-03 and 2006. With 196 career RBI as he enters his third Triple-A season, Ward is 34 RBI away from tying Jason Botts' Bricktown-era career record of 230 RBI from 2005-08.
Mission Control: Scott Hennessey joins the Comets for his first season as manager as he becomes Oklahoma City's fourth manager during the team's affiliation with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Hennessey previously served as manager of Double-A Tulsa from the middle of the 2017 season through 2024. With 455 career wins with the Drillers, including 16 playoff victories, he is the second-winningest manager in Tulsa professional baseball history since 1905. In 2018, Hennessey led the Drillers to the team's first Texas League title in 20 years. The team advanced to the playoffs four times under Hennessey, including to the Texas League Championship Series in 2017 and 2019, and finished with winning records in six of seven seasons. He has been a member of the Dodgers organization since 2007, first serving as an amateur scout in Florida before transitioning to coaching in player development in 2017.
Out of This World: The Triple-A affiliate of the 2024 World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers rebranded to the Oklahoma City Comets in October 2024 with a name that boasts strong ties to Oklahoma. The Comets brand honors Oklahoma native and Hall of Fame center fielder Mickey Mantle, known as the "Commerce Comet." The team's new space theme celebrates Oklahoma's ties to the aerospace industry while also drawing inspiration from the parent club Dodgers' legendary "shooting ball" logo...The Comets name is the sixth in Oklahoma City's Triple-A franchise history, following the Oklahoma City 89ers (1962-97), Oklahoma RedHawks (1998-2009), Oklahoma City RedHawks (2010-2014), Oklahoma City Dodgers (2015-23) and Oklahoma City Baseball Club (2024).
Pacific Coast League Stories from March 29, 2025
- Hamilton Drives in a Pair But Space Cowboys Topped on Saturday Night - Sugar Land Space Cowboys
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- OKC Comets Game Notes - March 29, 2025 - Oklahoma City Comets
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