PCL Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Dodgers Game Notes - August 18, 2023

August 18, 2023 - Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release


Oklahoma City Dodgers (23-19/73-42) at Salt Lake Bees (18-24/55-61)

Game #116 of 149/Second Half #43 of 75/Road #61 of 75

Pitching Probables: OKC-RHP Landon Knack (2-1, 3.44)/RHP Kyle Hurt (0-1, 4.50) vs. SL-RHP Carson Fulmer (0-0, 7.82)

Friday, August 18, 2023 | Smith's Ballpark | Salt Lake City, Utah | 7:35 p.m. CT

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

Today's Game: The Oklahoma City Dodgers will try to snap their longest losing streak of the season when they continue their series against the Salt Lake Bees at 7:35 p.m. CT at Smith's Ballpark. The Dodgers have lost a season-high five consecutive games and have not lost six games in a row since Aug. 6-12, 2022...The Dodgers are 1-8 on their current road trip and have lost nine of their last 11 games.

Last Game: The Oklahoma City Dodgers held a multiple-run lead on two occasions but could not maintain them as they fell, 9-5, to the Salt Lake Bees Thursday night at Smith's Ballpark. Oklahoma City got on the board in the second inning with a solo blast from David Freitas before Bryson Brigman and Drew Avans recorded RBI singles to make it 3-0. The Bees got one run back in the bottom of the frame, and Michael Stefanic drew Salt Lake even with a two-run double in the fifth inning. The Dodgers answered immediately when Pat Valaika hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning to regain the lead at 5-3. However, the Bees responded with five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, tallying five hits during the rally, including three doubles. Salt Lake scored again in the seventh inning to make it 9-5. Following Valaika's home run, the Dodgers did not record a hit, as 12 of the last 14 batters were retired.

Today's Probable Pitchers: Landon Knack (2-1) makes his ninth start with the Dodgers looking to rebound from his first loss with OKC...He last pitched Aug. 12 in Tacoma and was charged with five runs (three earned) and seven hits over 4.0 innings. He allowed one homer, hit one batter, issued two walks and recorded two strikeouts. The seven hits allowed matched his season high with OKC...Prior to his last start in Tacoma, Knack had not allowed an earned run in four of his previous five games. Over that span he allowed seven runs (five earned) and 21 hits over 22.1 IP, with seven walks against 21 strikeouts...Knack joined the Dodgers June 17 from Double-A Tulsa where he ranked among Texas League leaders in ERA (2nd, 2.20), AVG (2nd, .202), WHIP (2nd, 0.94) and innings (5th, 57.1) at the time of his promotion. Knack made 12 starts with the Drillers, going 2-0 with 61 strikeouts against 12 walks. He allowed one or no runs in eight of 12 starts...After allowing a total of three home runs in 57.1 IP with Tulsa, Knack has allowed six home runs in his first 34.0 innings with OKC...Knack began the 2023 season as the No. 22 prospect and No. 12 pitcher in the Dodgers system by Baseball America and the No. 18 prospect and No. 9 pitcher by MLB Pipeline...The Johnson City, Tenn., native was selected in the second round of the 2020 MLB Draft out of East Tennessee State...Knack made his Triple-A debut against the Bees in OKC June 17. He allowed three runs and four hits, including two homers, in 2.2 innings of work with three walks and three strikeouts during a no decision.

Kyle Hurt (0-1) is expected to follow Knack and make his third Triple-A appearance...Hurt pitched 3.0 scoreless innings of relief Aug. 12 in Tacoma. He allowed one hit and one walk with seven strikeouts. After the first batter he faced singled, he proceeded to retire nine of 10 batters, and he struck out seven of the last nine hitters he faced...He made his Triple-A debut Aug. 5 against Round Rock and has piggybacked Landon Knack in each of his first two games...Hurt made 19 appearances (15 starts) with Double-A Tulsa this season, posting a 2-3 record with a 4.15 ERA and a team-high 110 strikeouts over 65.0 innings...Between OKC and Tulsa, he leads all pitchers in the Minors who have thrown at least 70.0 innings with 15.16 strikeouts per nine innings and a 39.7 percent strikeout rate...Hurt was selected by Miami in the fifth round of the 2020 MLB Draft out of the University of Southern California and was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers Feb. 12, 2021 with Alex Vesia in exchange for Dylan Floro.

Against the Bees: 2023: 2-6 2022: 8-4 All-time: 69-65 At SL: 31-35

The Dodgers and Bees meet for their second of two series and lone series at Smith's Ballpark...The teams played a truncated five-game series in Oklahoma City June 13-18, which Salt Lake won, 3-2, and outscored OKC, 60-46. The scheduled six-game series included one game canceled due to weather and the Bees won three of the final four games of the series...Hunter Feduccia led OKC with seven hits during the first series and Devin Mann had seven RBI, including two homers...The teams closed out the 2022 season against one another with a three-game series in OKC, which the Dodgers swept, 3-0, and outscored the Bees, 11-4. The Dodgers finished 5-1 against the Bees in OKC last season and won the overall season series, 8-4...Since OKC became affiliated with the Dodgers, the team owns a 30-20 advantage against the Bees in the Triple-A version of the Freeway Series and are 16-10 in Salt Lake. However, the Bees have won six of the last seven meetings overall as well as six of the last seven games between the teams at Smith's Ballpark, including the last five straight. Salt Lake has already clinched a win in the season series for the first time since 2013.

Slippery Slope: The Dodgers are in the midst of their roughest stretch of the season, having lost eight of the last nine games and nine of the last 11 games. They have lost at least three consecutive games twice during the current road trip after they had lost just three straight games on the road once all season, May 3-5 in El Paso...Over the first 80 games of the season, the Dodgers had just one three-game losing streak. In the last 35 games, they've now had four losing streaks of at least three games, including two of at least four games...The Dodgers had not started any of their first 19 series this season with even two losses until the previous series in Tacoma, and now they have started each of the last two series down 0-3. In fact, OKC had not opened a series with three straight losses since losing four in a row to begin a home series against Round Rock Aug. 9-12, 2022, going 26 series between 0-3 starts before it's now happened in consecutive series.

The Big Picture: Even with the recent rough patch, the Dodgers are tied for the most wins in the Minors (73-42) and own the second-best winning percentage (.635), trailing only Single-A Clearwater (.664; 73-37). However, Oklahoma City has fallen into fourth place in the standings in the second half of the Pacific Coast League season at 23-19 - trailing first-place Las Vegas and Tacoma (26-16) and third-place Round Rock (25-17)...This season's OKC squad became the fastest Pacific Coast League team to reach 70 wins (103 games) since at least 2005, as data from 2004 and earlier is not available. The previous fastest a PCL team reached 70 wins since 2005 was the 2017 Memphis Redbirds, who did so in 106 games (70-36). However, that Memphis squad was 75-40 through 115 games...During the Bricktown era (since 1998), OKC's best previous record through 115 games was in 2015 when the Dodgers went 68-47...The Dodgers won the PCL's first-half title (50-23) and will host a best-of-three PCL Championship Series Sept. 26-28 against the winner of the second half (or second-place finisher should the Dodgers also win the second half).

Road Block: The Dodgers have lost eight of the first nine games of their road trip and nine of their last 11 road games overall. For comparison, prior to the current 2-9 stretch, the Dodgers went 26-5 over their previous 31 road games between May 9-July 28. The Dodgers had started the second half of the PCL schedule with a 12-1 road record after posting a 25-11 road record during the first half of the season...The Dodgers dropped five of their six games to begin the current road trip in Tacoma, marking the first time the Dodgers lost five games during a six-game series since Aug. 26-31, 2021 against Las Vegas in OKC - a span of 40 six-game series. OKC's series loss in Tacoma was just the team's second road series loss of the season (May 2-7 in El Paso) and fourth series loss of the season overall...Until losing each of the first three games in Tacoma, the Dodgers had not lost consecutive games on the road from May 6 through Aug. 8 - a span of 35 road games between consecutive losses...The Dodgers still own the most road wins in the Minors with a 39-21 record. They set a Bricktown-era (since 1998) record with 12 consecutive road victories from June 29-July 28 between series in Sugar Land, Sacramento and Reno. The previous team record of nine straight road wins was accomplished May 29-June 15, 2019.

Freight Train: David Freitas went 1-for-5 with a home run Thursday to extend his hitting streak to 21 games - tying the longest hitting streak by an OKC player this season, along with Jahmai Jones (May 19-June 17). During the streak, Freitas is 26-for-85 (.306) with 17 RBI. It's also the longest active hitting streak in the PCL and tied for the third-longest in the PCL this season...Freitas became the fourth player in OKC's Bricktown era (since 1998) to record a hitting streak of at least 21 games, joining Anderson Hernandez (30 games, 2011), Warren Newson (23 games, 1998) and Jones. This is the first time in the team's Bricktown era there have been two hitting streaks of at least 20 games in the same season...What makes Freitas' streak unique is that it began June 9 due to his various stints on and off the active roster...This has matched his career-high 21-game hitting streak, last accomplished during his first professional season in 2010 with the short-season Vermont Lake Monsters from June 27-July 25...Freitas has homered twice in three games in Salt Lake and has picked up at least one RBI in four straight games for a total of seven RBI.

Buschwacked: Michael Busch had his 39-game on-base streak come to an end last night after he went 0-for-5 with four flyouts and one lineout. It was the longest on-base streak by an Oklahoma City player this season and the third-longest streak in the league this season. During the streak, Busch batted .329 (54x164) with 16 home runs, 25 extra-base hits, 40 RBI, 27 walks and 35 runs scored...It was also the third-longest on-base streak during OKC's Dodgers affiliation (since 2015)...The last game with OKC Busch was kept off base was June 14, also against Salt Lake and also started by Kenny Rosenberg...Busch has hit safely in 18 of last 22 games, batting .358 (34x95) with 16 extra-base hits (10 HR), 23 RBI and 23 runs scored.

How He Drew It Up: Drew Avans recorded another hit and drove in a run last night. He is now 5-for-14 with two doubles to start the series in Salt Lake. Leading up to Tuesday, Avans had missed seven of the team's previous nine games due to a leg injury...He has hit safely in six of his last seven games, going 9-for-29 with three doubles. He has also hit safely in 20 of his last 23 games with a plate appearance, going 30-for-101 (.297) with 10 doubles, a triple, homer, 14 RBI, 18 runs scored and 10 multi-hit games.

Special K: The Dodgers' pitching staff recorded 11 more strikeouts last night have notched 74 strikeouts over the last six games, with at least 10 in five of the six contests and a minimum of nine punchouts in all seven games. OKC leads the PCL and ranks second among all Triple-A teams this season with 1,094 strikeouts...However, even though Salt Lake has struck out 34 times in three games this series, the Bees have managed to go 35-for-69 (.507) when making contact, including 13-for-26 last night.

Around the Horn: Prior to Tuesday's series opener, the Dodgers had lost five games all season when leading by at least three runs and none since June 3. They've now lost twice in three games during the current series after leading by at least three runs...The Dodgers have committed at least one error in 11 of the last 12 games (14 E) - tied for the most errors in the league during the stretch with Round Rock...David Dahl went 2-for-4 with a double last night. He is tied with Michael Busch for a team-leading 19 hits in August, while his 13 RBI pace the team this month.

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Pacific Coast League Stories from August 18, 2023


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