PCL Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Dodgers Game Notes - August 23, 2023

August 23, 2023 - Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release


Albuquerque Isotopes (24-22/51-70) at Oklahoma City Dodgers (25-21/75-44)

Game #120 of 148/Second Half #47 of 75/Home #57 of 73

Pitching Probables: ABQ-RHP Tanner Gordon (NR, -.--) vs. OKC-LHP Mike Montgomery (3-3, 5.17)

Wednesday, August 23, 2023 | Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark | Oklahoma City, Okla. | 7:05 p.m. CT

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

Today's Game: The Oklahoma City Dodgers try to avoid a third consecutive loss when they continue their series against the Albuquerque Isotopes at 7:05 p.m. at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. The Dodgers will take the field as Cielo Azul de Oklahoma City during ¡Celebración Cielo Azul!...The Dodgers are 2-7 in their last nine games and 3-10 in their last 13 games.

Last Game: The Albuquerque Isotopes used a six-run seventh inning to come back and defeat the Oklahoma City Dodgers, 9-6, Tuesday night at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. The Isotopes built a 3-0 lead in the game before the Dodgers overcame the deficit to take a 6-3 lead in the sixth inning. The Isotopes then scored six runs in the seventh inning, including a two-run double by Coco Montes and a three-run home run by Hunter Goodman - his second homer of the game. After trailing, 3-0, the Dodgers scored three runs in the fifth inning, loading the bases with three straight hits and scoring a run on a wild pitch. Another run scored on a groundout by Drew Avans and a RBI single by Miguel Vargas then tied the score, 3-3. In the sixth inning, Bryson Brigman notched a two-run single and the Dodgers extended to a 6-3 advantage on a sacrifice fly by Avans.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Mike Montgomery (3-3) looks to bounce back from losses in his last two starts...Montgomery last pitched 5.0 innings Aug. 15 in Salt Lake, allowing seven runs and eight hits, tying his season high. He also allowed a season-high five walks (t-career high) and dealt six strikeouts. He was charged with the loss in OKC's 8-6 defeat...Over his last two games, Montgomery has surrendered 15 runs and 16 hits over 7.1 IP, along with eight walks. Opponents have batted .421 (16x38) as his season ERA has jumped from 2.72 to 5.17...In his previous seven games between June 28-Aug. 2, Montgomery posted a 1.16 ERA (4 ER/31.0 IP), allowing 17 hits with opponents batting .159 (17x107)...He was named the PCL Pitcher of the Month for July. Over five appearances (three starts), he went 2-0 with a 1.21 ERA (3 ER/22.1 IP) and opponents batted .132 (10x76) with no home runs and 23 strikeouts. He was also named PCL Pitcher of the Week for July 24-30 following his outing July 27 in Reno that included five scoreless innings and retiring 15 of 18 batters...The left-handed pitcher signed a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers June 7. He started the season with the Acereros Del Norte in the Mexican League, but did not appear in a game and was released in April...Montgomery made 183 appearances (70 starts) in MLB from 2015-20 with the Seattle Mariners (2015-16), Chicago Cubs (2016-19) and Kansas City Royals (2019-20)..In 2016, he earned the save in the Cubs' World Series-clinching Game 7, entering in the bottom of the 10th inning and securing the game's final out in Cleveland...Montgomery was originally selected by the Royals with the 36th overall pick in the 2008 MLB Draft from William S. Hart High School in Santa Clarita, Calif...This is Montgomery's second appearance of the season against Albuquerque. July 8 in OKC, he recorded his longest outing of the season, allowing two runs and three hits over 5.2 innings with four walks and three strikeouts (ND).

Against the Isotopes: 2023: 6-7 2022: 12-6 All-time: 134-112 At OKC: 76-47 The Dodgers and Isotopes are meeting for their third series of the season and second at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark of 2023 as the teams play three series against one another during the second half of the season...The teams most recently met for a six-game series in OKC July 4-9, which the Isotopes won, 4-2, with OKC winning the series opener and series finale. It was Albuquerque's first series win in Bricktown since 2016 and the Isotopes won four straight games against the Dodgers within the same series since Aug. 8-11, 2008 in Albuquerque...The Dodgers won the first series between the teams April 18-23 in Albuquerque, 4-2, taking four of the final five games of the set...Devin Mann led OKC with 15 hits through the first two series, while Hunter Feduccia racked up 14 RBI and Michael Busch hit four homers...The Dodgers won the 2022 series between the teams, 12-6, and went 8-4 at home...The Dodgers have not lost a season series to Albuquerque since 2017, going a combined 6-0 against the Isotopes in 2018 and 2019, 9-9 in 2021 and 12-6 last season.

Summer Stumble: The Dodgers enter tonight's game having lost back-to-back games, seven of the last nine games, 10 of the last 13 games and 11 of the last 15 games. They are trying to avoid starting a third straight series 0-2 and have now lost four straight series openers after winning 12 of the previous 14...Oklahoma City has lost back-to-back series for the first time this season and first time since Aug. 30-Sept. 11, 2022 in Round Rock and against Tacoma...The Dodgers lost at least three consecutive games twice during their 12-game road trip Aug. 8-20 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 39 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 before starting 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 stretch, the Dodgers own the most wins in the Minors (75-44) as well as the third-best winning percentage (.630), trailing only Single-A Clearwater (.649; 74-40) and High-A Vancouver (.632; 72-42). However, Oklahoma City has fallen into fourth place in the standings in the second half of the Pacific Coast League season at 25-21...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 78-41 through 119 games...During the Bricktown era (since 1998), OKC's best previous record through 119 games was in 2015 when the Dodgers went 72-47...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).

Getting Miggy With It: Miguel Vargas recorded a third straight multi-hit game Tuesday night, going 2-for-5 with a RBI and a stolen base. He has now hit safely in five consecutive games (9-for-20) and in six of the last seven games, batting .464 (13-for-28) with three doubles...Vargas has also reached base in eight consecutive games...Entering OKC's road series in Salt Lake last week, Vargas had been held 2-for-23 over the previous six-game series in Tacoma and did not record a hit over the final five games of the series (0-for-19).

Freight Train Derailed: David Freitas' career-best 22-game hitting streak came to an end Tuesday after he was held 0-for-4. The streak was the longest hitting streak by an OKC player this season, the third-longest in the league this season and third-longest in OKC's Bricktown era (since 1998) behind Anderson Hernandez (30 games, 2011) and Warren Newson (23 games, 1998)...During Freitas' streak, which had started June 9 due to his time off and on the active roster, he went 27-for-89 (.303) with 19 RBI, nine extra-base hits and 13 runs scored. He had also collected at least one RBI in five straight games (9 RBI) before Tuesday - tied for the second-longest RBI streak by an OKC player this season and trailing only Jahmai Jones' stretch of seven straight games with a RBI (11 RBI) June 1-8.

Steal My Sunshine: The Isotopes recorded seven stolen bases in last night's game, marking the second time this season the Dodgers have allowed an opponent to steal seven or more bases in a game. Only three teams in the PCL have recorded seven or more stolen bases in a game in 2023 and two of those have come against the Dodgers. Before last night, El Paso had nine stolen bases in OKC July 21 and Tacoma recorded seven steals in Sugar Land Aug. 2. El Paso's nine stolen bases were the most by a Pacific Coast League team since the 2011 season when Fresno had 10 stolen bases against Las Vegas April 10, 2011 and the most allowed by OKC in a game since at least 2005....Wynton Bernard recorded four stolen bases for Albuquerque last night - tied for the second-most in a game by a PCL player this season. Four times this season a player has recorded four or more stolen bases in a game and three of them have come against the Dodgers at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. In addition to Bernard, El Paso's Tim Lopes had five stolen bases July 21, Round Rock's J.P. Martinez had four Aug. 1 in OKC and Tacoma's Cade Marlowe had four in Sacramento July 18...The 168 stolen bases allowed by OKC this season are the most in Triple-A...In the last seven games between the Dodgers and Isotopes, Albuquerque is 22-for-24 in stolen base attempts.

Better Call Dahl: David Dahl did not play yesterday but on Sunday recorded a double. He's now hit safely in four straight games, going 7-for-15, and over his last seven games, Dahl is 11-for-28 (.393) with four multi-hit games...He is tied with Michael Busch for a team-leading 24 hits and is second with 15 RBI in the month of August, slashing .353/.405/.603 across 17 games with four home runs, five doubles and 12 runs scored...Dahl has hit safely in 26 of 32 games since July 3, going 44-for-126 (.349) with 13 doubles, seven homers, 30 RBI and 24 runs scored.

Loose Grip: Last night marked the third time in the last seven games the Dodgers held a lead of at least three runs and lost, and the fourth time in the same seven-game span they led by at least two runs but were unable to hold on to the lead. Through the first 112 games this season, the Dodgers had five total losses after leading by three or more runs and none since June 3. The eight losses this season after leading by three-plus runs has surpassed last season's total of seven...The bullpen has now been charged with six blown saves in the last eight games.

Crooked Numbers: In three of the last five games, the Dodgers have surrendered an inning of five-plus runs in the sixth inning or later after entering the inning with a lead of at least two runs. The six runs scored by the Isotopes in the seventh inning last night marked the 13th time this season the Dodgers allowed six or more runs in an inning - nearly the same number of times they've allowed four runs in one inning this season (15). Nine of the 13 innings allowing six-plus runs have occurred at home, with five of them within the last 18 home games.

Around the Horn: Jorbit Vivas went 1-for-5 in his Triple-A debut, hitting a single in his first at-bat. The infielder joined OKC from Double-A Tulsa Tuesday, where he slashed .280/.391/.436 over 109 games at Double-A Tulsa...The Dodgers pitching staff recorded 10 strikeouts Tuesday and has reached double-digit strikeouts in eight of the last 10 games (118 K). OKC leads the PCL with 1,138 strikeouts this season (9.6 per game)...The Dodgers have not committed an error in four straight games, which is tied for their second-longest streak this season (last June 16-20)...This marks the first time since May 30 the Dodgers have not homered in back-to-back games (67 games)...Cielo Azul translates to "Blue Sky" and since 2018, the Dodgers have participated in MiLB's Copa de la Diversión, or Fun Cup, which aims to celebrate each participating community's Hispanic and Latino fans, create a culturally relevant gameday experience and develop special alternative team identities.

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