OKC Dodgers Game Notes - August 20, 2023
Published on August 20, 2023 under Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release
Oklahoma City Dodgers (25-19/75-42) at Salt Lake Bees (18-26/55-63)
Game #118 of 148/Second Half #45 of 75/Road #63 of 75
Pitching Probables: OKC-LHP James Jones (0-1, 2.70)/RHP Emmet Sheehan (0-0, 2.25) vs. SL-LHP Jake Kalish (7-8, 7.16)
Sunday, August 20, 2023 | Smith's Ballpark | Salt Lake City, Utah | 2:05 p.m. CT
Radio: KGHM-AM 1340 The Game, 1340thegame.com, iHeartRadio; Video: MiLB.tv
Today's Game: The Oklahoma City Dodgers try for a third straight win when they close out their series against the Salt Lake Bees at 2:05 p.m. CT at Smith's Ballpark. Today also wraps up a 12-game road trip for the Dodgers as they look for three consecutive wins for the first time since winning three games in a row Aug. 2-4 against Round Rock in OKC.
Last Game: The Oklahoma City Dodgers scored four runs in the first inning and the pitching staff limited the Salt Lake Bees to one run for the second straight game, as the Dodgers were victorious, 4-1, Saturday night at Smith's Ballpark. Five batters into the game, the Dodgers had a four-run lead. Three of the first four batters singled, including a RBI knock by David Dahl. Ryan Ward stepped up next and drilled a three-run homer to make it 4-0. The teams then endured a lengthy rain delay before resuming play in the bottom of the first inning. The Bees scored one run in the bottom of the third inning when OKC pitcher Kyle Hurt committed a balk with the bases loaded. However, Hurt retired the next two batters to prevent further damage. Neither team scored over the final six innings, with the OKC pitching staff allowing four singles and no runners to advance into scoring position during that time.
Today's Probable Pitchers: James Jones (0-1) makes his seventh appearance and first start today with OKC as he opens this afternoon's game...Jones pitched both Tuesday and Thursday during the current series. He allowed one run and three hits over 1.2 innings Thursday with two strikeouts and on Tuesday allowed one run and three hits with three walks and a strikeout over 2.0 innings. His 2.0 innings Tuesday matched his longest outing of the season...Jones initially joined OKC April 21 from Extended Spring Training, made one appearance with OKC April 25 against Sacramento, and then returned to Arizona until early August...Jones signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a minor league free agent in December 2022...He was originally selected as an outfielder by Seattle in the fourth round of the 2009 MLB Draft out of Long Island University Brooklyn and has played in 136 ML games during his career as an outfielder (2014-15), but has yet to pitch in a ML game.
Emmet Sheehan (0-0) is set to appear in his second game with OKC and follow Jones...Sheehan made his team debut Aug. 10 in Tacoma, allowing two runs (one earned) on two hits, including a home run, with two walks and six strikeouts over 4.0 innings...He was originally scheduled to make his Triple-A debut in mid-June, but jumped to join the Los Angeles Dodgers instead. He made eight appearances (seven starts) in the Majors before being optioned to OKC Aug. 4. Sheehan went 3-1 with LAD and posted a 5.63 ERA over 38.1 innings with 30 strikeouts and 18 walks...Sheehan made his ML debut June 16 against San Francisco. He did not allow a run or a hit across six innings, walked two and struck out three. He earned his first ML win in his next start June 23 against Houston....With Double-A Tulsa, Sheehan posted a Texas League-leading 1.86 ERA, 88 strikeouts, 0.88 WHIP and .131 AVG through his first 12 games of 2023 and was named Texas League Pitcher of the Month for May...He is in his third professional season after being selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the sixth round of the MLB Draft out of Boston College.
Against the Bees: 2023: 4-6 2022: 8-4 All-time: 71-65 At SL: 33-35
The Dodgers and Bees close out 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 32-20 advantage against the Bees in the Triple-A version of the Freeway Series and are 18-10 in Salt Lake. However, the Bees have won six of the last nine meetings overall as well as six of the last nine games between the teams at Smith's Ballpark, including five of the last seven games. Salt Lake has clinched a win in the season series against the Dodgers for the first time since 2013.
Rebounding: The Dodgers have won back-to-back games following their roughest stretch of the season. Prior to Friday, OKC had lost five straight games, eight of the last nine games and nine of the previous 11 games. They 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 37 games, they've now had four losing streaks of at least three games, including two of at least four games...OKC had not started any of its first 19 series this season with even two losses until the previous series in Tacoma, and now the team has 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.
The Big Picture: Even with the recent rough patch, the Dodgers own the most wins in the Minors (75-42) as well as the second-best winning percentage (.641), trailing only Single-A Clearwater (.661; 74-38). However, Oklahoma City has fallen into fourth place in the standings in the second half of the Pacific Coast League season at 25-19 - trailing Las Vegas, Round Rock and Tacoma, which are all tied for first place with 27-17 records...This season's OKC squad became the second-fastest Pacific Coast League team to reach 75 wins (117 games) since at least 2005, as data from 2004 and earlier is not available. The 2017 Memphis Redbirds reached 75 wins two games earlier in 115 games and that Memphis squad was 77-40 through 117 games...During the Bricktown era (since 1998), OKC's best previous record through 117 games was in 2015 when the Dodgers went 70-47...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).
Fork in the Road: The Dodgers own the most road wins in the Minors with a 41-21 record. This is just the fourth time in the team's Bricktown era (since 1998) that OKC has reached at least 40 road wins in a season and just the third time the team has recorded 41 road wins. It's the first time since the 2016 season when OKC went 42-28 on the road...However, the Dodgers have lost eight of the first 11 games of their road trip and nine of their last 13 road games overall. For comparison, prior to the current 4-9 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...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 set a Bricktown-era (since 1998) record with 12 consecutive road victories this season 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.
Pitching Prowess: Last night, the Dodgers pitching staff allowed one run for the second straight game and has limited Salt Lake to a total of two runs and 10 hits the last two nights. It's the third time this season the Dodgers have allowed one or no runs in consecutive games this season, but the first time since May 12-13 at Round Rock...The pitching staff notched 17 strikeouts Saturday, marking the fourth game with 17-plus strikeouts this season, including the second time in the last six games. It was also the sixth time in the last eight games that OKC's pitching staff recorded double-digit K's. OKC leads the PCL with 1,117 strikeouts this season (9.5 per game)...Kyle Hurt served as the team's primary pitcher between the third and sixth innings. He earned his first Triple-A win after allowing one run and three hits, with two walks and eight strikeouts...Relief pitcher Shelby Miller made the second appearance of his current Major League Rehab Assignment. He tossed a scoreless second inning, with one hit and one strikeout. Miller threw 12 pitches, with nine strikes.
Buschwacked: Michael Busch went 2-for-4 last night and has now hit safely in 20 of his last 24 games, batting .376 (38x101) with 11 home runs, 17 extra-base hits, 26 RBI and 25 runs scored...Busch leads the Dodgers with 24 home runs this season and has hit five homers through the first 11 games of the current road trip...He's reached base in 41 of his last 42 games, and his 39-game on-base streak June 30-Aug. 16 was the longest on-base streak by an Oklahoma City player this season and the third-longest streak in the league this season...Busch has hit 17 home runs since July 1 (41 games) - most among all players in the Minors or Majors...He leads the PCL with a 1.046 OPS, a .615 SLG, is tied for first with 51 extra-base hits and is currently tied for third with 81 RBI and 24 HR.
Freight Train: David Freitas has not played the last two games but is riding a 21-game hitting streak - tied for 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. What makes Freitas' streak unique is that it began June 9 due to his various stints on and off the active roster...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...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.
Better Call Dahl: Last night, David Dahl picked up his third straight multi-hit game and fourth multi-hit game in his last five games overall, going 2-for-4 with a RBI. During the five-game stretch, Dahl is 9-for-20...He is tied with Michael Busch for a team-leading 23 hits and 15 RBI in the month of August, slashing .359/.414/.609 across 16 games.
Around the Horn: Ryan Ward's three-run homer in the first inning Saturday was his 18th home run of the season and his third of the road trip. He ranks second on the team in both home runs and RBI (79)...Drew Avans extended his hitting streak to five games and is batting .391 (9x23) during the series in Salt Lake with three doubles and seven runs scored...Following the completion of the top of the first inning, Saturday's game entered a rain delay that lasted 1 hour, 33 minutes - the longest delay before or during a Dodgers game this season...OKC is 14-6 in series finales this season, including 8-2 on the road after dropping their previous series finale in Tacoma.
Pacific Coast League Stories from August 20, 2023
- Round Rock Beats Sugar Land for 12th Consecutive Win - Round Rock Express
- Sacramento Shuts Out Tacoma to Close Series - Sacramento River Cats
- Isotopes Claim Series with 7-1 Victory - Albuquerque Isotopes
- Rainiers split series on Sunday - Tacoma Rainiers
- Dodgers See Game Get away in the Seventh - Oklahoma City Comets
- Aces Stymie High Flying Aviators, Force Series Split - Reno Aces
- Chihuahuas Can't Break through against Criswell - El Paso Chihuahuas
- Bats Break out to Give Bees Series Win - Salt Lake Bees
- Tacoma Rainiers Game Notes: at Sacramento (1:05 PT) - Tacoma Rainiers
- OKC Dodgers Game Notes - August 20, 2023 - Oklahoma City Comets
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