PCL Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Dodgers Game Notes - August 14, 2022

Published on August 14, 2022 under Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release


Round Rock Express (59-51) at Oklahoma City Dodgers (63-47)

Game #111 of 150/Home #60 of 75

Pitching Probables: RR-RHP Tyson Miller (2-5, 4.94) vs. OKC-RHP Dustin May (0-0, 1.93)

Sunday, August 14, 2022 | Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark | Oklahoma City, Okla. | 6:05 p.m. CT

Radio: KGHM-AM 1340 The Game, 1340thegame.com, iHeartRadio; Video: MiLB.tv

Today's Game: The Oklahoma City Dodgers close out their home series against the Round Rock Express at 6:05 p.m. at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. The Dodgers snapped a season-high six-game losing streak last night and try for back-to-back victories.

Last Game: A five-run eighth inning pushed the Oklahoma City Dodgers to a 9-5 win against the Round Rock Express Saturday night at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. Trailing, 5-4, Tomás Telis lined a single to right field to score the tying run. Later with the bases loaded, Drew Avans drew a walk to bring in the go-ahead run for OKC. Edwin Ríos followed with a two-run single before Miguel Vargas hit into a fielder's choice that scored Avans, giving OKC a 9-5 advantage. The Dodgers faced a three-run deficit twice throughout the game. The Express scored three runs in the first inning on back-to-back home runs by Josh Jung and Andy Ibáñez. OKC scored two runs in the fourth inning on a single by Ryan Noda. Round Rock went back in front by three runs on a two-run homer by Mark Mathias in the seventh inning before the Dodgers answered with two runs on a RBI groundout by Ríos and RBI single by Vargas to cut the Express lead to 5-4.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Dustin May (0-0) continues a Major League Rehab Assignment and makes his fifth appearance with OKC, including his fourth at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark...In Tuesday's series opener against the Express, he threw 5.0 innings, allowing one run and three hits with one walk and eight strikeouts in his longest outing with OKC so far. He faced 20 batters, throwing 68 pitches (45 strikes)...Over his last three outings, May has allowed just two runs and seven hits over 12.0 innings, while opponents have batted .156 (7x45) with 20 strikeouts against two walks...May underwent Tommy John surgery in May 2021. He made his first outing of this rehab assignment July 16 with the Arizona Complex League Dodgers, marking his first game action in more than 14 months...He started five games for the Los Angeles Dodgers last season before tearing his right ulnar collateral ligament May 1 at Milwaukee. In five starts prior to the injury, May went 1-1 and posted a 2.74 ERA with six walks and 35 strikeouts over 23.0 innings and held opponents to a .186 average...Since making his ML debut in 2019, May has made 31 appearances (19 starts) for the LA Dodgers and has a 2.93 ERA, 1.06 WHIP and .222 BAA...He pitched in seven playoff games in 2020 as the Dodgers went on to win the World Series...The right-handed pitcher from Justin, Texas was selected by Los Angeles in the 3rd round (101st overall) of the 2016 MLB Draft out of Northwest High School.

Against the Express: 2022: 13-10 2021: 16-13 All-time: 159-131 At OKC: 74-67 The Dodgers and Express meet for their fourth of five series this season and first since late June. Today is also the teams' final meeting of the season at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark as the final series between the teams will be played in Round Rock Aug. 30-Sept.4...The Express lead the current series, 4-1, and will win their first series against OKC this season after the Dodgers took each of the first three series by 4-2 margins...Through the first 23 games of the season between the teams, Miguel Vargas has a team-best 31 hits and 21 RBI, and Ryan Noda has hit five home runs...The teams had a wild first series in Round Rock May 10-15, which OKC won, 4-2. OKC recorded its largest shutout win in the team's Bricktown era (since 1998) with a 19-0 victory May 12 and Yefry Ramírez became the first OKC Dodger and first pitcher throughout the entire PCL to throw a nine-inning shutout since 2018. Six different players homered in that same game for the first time in the team's Bricktown era. In series finale May 15, OKC lost a game when scoring at least 13 runs for the first time since 2007, as Round Rock won, 14-13...After the Dodgers started the season 11-5 against Round Rock, the Express has won five of the last seven meetings. Round Rock won four straight games within the same series at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark since April 19-22, 2011.

Funk Buster?: With yesterday's come-from-behind victory, the Dodgers ended their longest losing streak since a seven-game skid Aug. 20-26, 2019. Following a 9-2 start after the All-Star Break, the Dodgers are now 2-7 in the last nine games. Prior to dropping the first four games of the current series, the last time the Dodgers lost four consecutive home games was in Aug. 2019 and they had not lost four straight home games within the same series since June 21-24, 2019 against Memphis...The Dodgers hold first place in the PCL East Division with a 63-47 record. After a win last night, coupled with a loss by second-place El Paso, the Dodgers increased their lead ahead of the Chihuahuas in the division standings to 2.5 games. Round Rock holds third place in the division, 4.0 games behind OKC.

Drew Dat: Drew Avans extended his PCL-best on-base streak to 49 games Saturday, going 1-for-3 with two walks, a RBI and three runs scored, which tied his season-high mark. Avans owns the longest active on-base streak in the Minors and the longest on-base streak by an OKC player during the MLBAM era (since 205). He has reached base in 63 of his last 64 games and his 49-game on-base streak is the longest in the PCL since a 66-game streak by Nashville's Nick Martini in 2018. He owns one of four on-base streaks of at least 49 games recorded this season in the Minors, and tonight will look to become just the third player to get to 50 straight games. He is closing in on the longest on-base streak of the season in the Minors, held by Luke Berryhill of Double-A Corpus Christi at 51 games...From the start of the season through May 31 (31 games), Avans batted .235 (20x85) with seven extra-base hits, eight RBI and 15 runs scored. Since June 1 (58 games), Avans is batting .310 (70x226) with 13 doubles, seven triples, three homers, 22 RBI, 32 walks and 51 runs scored. During that span he ranks first in the PCL with seven triples, second with 70 hits, third with 19 stolen bases, tied for third with 51 runs and fifth with a .403 OBP...His 26 stolen bases - a career high - are tied for fifth in the PCL. It's the most stolen bases by an OKC player since Micah Johnson also had 26 in 2016, and the last OKC Dodgers player with more than that was Darnell Sweeney with 32 in 2015...He hit his PCL-leading 10th triple of the season Friday, which tied the OKC team record for triples in a season during the Bricktown era (since 1998), matching Joaquin Arias' 10 triples during the 2006 season.

On the Mend: Edwin Ríos extended his hitting streak to 10 games Saturday, going 1-for-4 with three RBI and a walk as he continued his Major League Rehab Assignment. During the 10-game streak he is 13-for-41 (.317) with four doubles. He owns the longest active hitting streak by an OKC player and the second-longest active hitting streak in the PCL. It's Ríos' longest hitting streak since hitting safely in 14 straight games with OKC July 21-Aug. 20, 2019...Ríos was initially placed on the Los Angeles Dodgers Injured List June 3 with a right hamstring injury and was transferred to the 60-day IL June 22.

Beast Node: Ryan Noda drove in two runs with a two-out single in the fourth inning last night and has a team-best 12 RBI through his 11 games in August. On Saturday he went 1-for-2 with two RBI, two walks and scored a run. Over his last nine games, Noda is 13-for-30 (.433) with two doubles, three homers, 11 RBI, six runs and eight walks...He has hit seven homers in his last 20 games, batting .300 (21x70) during the stretch with 21 RBI and 14 runs scored. Since the All-Star Break, his seven homers are tied for most in the PCL, while his 21 RBI are third...His 62 total walks this season are second-most in the league.

Comeback Trail: Yesterday's win was the team's eighth this season at home when trailing in the seventh inning or later, as well as the sixth time they've won at home when trailing in the eighth inning or later. It's the eighth overall time they've won a game after trailing by at least three runs at any point and the fourth time they've won when trailing by three or more in the seventh inning or later (all at home). It was their first win when trailing by three runs overall since June 17 at Reno (trailed 3-0; won 12-7).

The Rundown: After scoring 16 total runs during their six-game losing streak, the Dodgers scored nine runs Saturday. The team had been held to three or fewer runs in five of the six games and had not eclipsed five runs in any of the six games. The Dodgers had scored four runs through seven innings Saturday until scoring five runs in the eighth inning alone...After starting Saturday's game 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position the Dodgers finished 3-for-6 with RISP. Until Miguel Vargas' RBI single in the seventh inning, the Dodgers had been 6-for-58 with RISP since the start of the losing skid, 5-for-43 during the current series and 2-for-their-last-32.

Walking Papers: OKC drew nine more walks last night for their 13th game of the season with nine or more walks. The Dodgers lead all Triple-A teams with 538 walks this season and the team has drawn 114 walks across the 20 games following the All-Star Break for an average of 5.7 per game, including seven games with seven or more walks. The Dodgers are on pace for 734 walks this season, which would shatter the current team single-season record of 573...The Dodgers have three of the top five players in the league in walks: Ryan Noda (62, 2nd), Miguel Vargas (56, T-3rd) and Jason Martin (54, T-5th). Since joining the team June 14, Jake Amaya ranks tied for second in the PCL with 30 walks...After converting just three of 20 walks into runs during the first four games of the series, the Dodgers turned five of their nine walks into runs yesterday.

Dinger Details: For the third time this season, the Dodgers have been held without a home run in three straight games, most recently May 31-June 2 at Round Rock. The last time the team didn't go deep in four straight games was Aug. 13-16, 2018 (all in Omaha). The Dodgers have hit just one home run over the last six games and have hit two homers over the last seven games - both solo shots by Ryan Noda...On the other hand, the Dodgers have surrendered 14 home runs over the last seven games. Eight of the last 10 homers during that span have been with at least one runner on base and nine of the last 12 home runs allowed have been with two outs. Round Rock scored all five of its runs on three home runs yesterday and has scored 17 runs during the series via nine home runs, including each of the last nine runs (5 HR).

Around the Horn: Jason Martin has hit safely in five straight games and has recorded back-to-back multi-hit games, including 2-for-4 Saturday with a walk and stolen base, and is 7-for-19 across the five games. Martin ranks second in the league with 82 RBI and tied for second in the league with 24 homers...The Dodgers pitching staff leads the league with 120 strikeouts through 11 games this month...OKC is 11-9 in series finales, but 2-4 in the last six. This is the first time this season they enter a series finale having lost four of the first five games. Since switching to a primarily six-game series format in 2021, the Dodgers have lost five of six games on three previous occasions.

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