OKC Dodgers Game Notes - August 24, 2023
Published on August 24, 2023 under Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release
Albuquerque Isotopes (25-22/52-70) at Oklahoma City Dodgers (25-22/75-45)
Game #121 of 148/Second Half #48 of 75/Home #58 of 73
Pitching Probables: ABQ-RHP Chase Anderson (MLR) vs. OKC-RHP Landon Knack (3-1, 3.07)
Thursday, August 24, 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 look to stop a three-game losing streak and avoid a third straight 0-3 start to a series when they play they 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!...Oklahoma City is 2-8 in their last 10 games and 3-11 in their last 14 games.
Last Game: The Albuquerque Isotopes edged the Oklahoma City Dodgers, 8-7, in a back-and-forth game Wednesday night at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. The teams entered the ninth inning in a 6-6 tie before the Isotopes took the lead on a solo home run by Coco Montes and went ahead, 8-6, on a RBI triple by Aaron Schunk. In the Dodgers' final at-bat, Pat Valaika led off with a solo home run to trim Albuquerque's lead to one run. The Dodgers went on to load the bases with one out, but the next two batters were retired before the Dodgers could even the score. Albuquerque built a 3-0 lead before the Dodgers scored three runs in the second inning to tie the game. After the Isotopes took a 4-3 lead, the Dodgers responded with two runs in the seventh inning on a RBI single by Hunter Feduccia and bases-loaded walk by Justin Yurchak for a 5-4 advantage. Albuquerque went back in front with two runs in the eighth inning before the Dodgers knotted the score at 6-6 on a RBI single by Ryan Ward.
Today's Probable Pitcher: Landon Knack (3-1) seeks back-to-back wins when he makes his 10th start with the Dodgers tonight...He last pitched Aug. 18 in Salt Lake, becoming the first OKC pitcher to complete seven innings this season. He allowed one run and three hits, with three walks and four strikeouts. Through six innings, Knack held the Bees scoreless while allowing two hits and one walk. He retired 19 of the first 22 batters he faced, and during one stretch between the first and sixth innings retired 16 of 17 batters, including a run of 11 in a row at one point. It marked the third time this season and in Knack's career he pitched at least 7.0 innings and his first time at Triple-A...Over his last seven games, Knack has allowed one or no runs five times, including four games with no earned runs allowed...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 41.0 innings with OKC...Knack is currently ranked as the No. 7 prospect in the Dodgers system by Baseball America and the No. 9 prospect by MLB Pipeline...The Johnson City, Tenn., native was selected in the second round of the 2020 MLB Draft out of East Tennessee State...Tonight is his first career appearance against Albuquerque.
Against the Isotopes: 2023: 6-8 2022: 12-6 All-time: 134-113 At OKC: 76-48
The Dodgers and Isotopes are meeting for their third series of the season and second at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark 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...Entering tonight, the Isotopes have won six of the last seven meetings, all in OKC. This is the first time ever Albuquerque has won six games in one season in Bricktown. The previous most was five wins in 2009.
Summer Stumble: The Dodgers suffered a third consecutive loss last night as they fell to 0-2 in their series against Albuquerque. OKC had not started any of its first 19 series this season with consecutive losses but has now opened three straight series by losing the first two games. The Dodgers entered the current Albuquerque series having lost back-to-back series (in Tacoma and Salt Lake) for the first time this season and first time since Aug. 30-Sept. 11, 2022 (in Round Rock and against Tacoma). Oklahoma City has also 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...OKC has now lost eight of the last 10 games, 11 of the last 14 games and 12 of the last 16 games overall...Over the first 80 games of the season, the Dodgers had just one three-game losing streak. In the last 40 games, they've now had five losing streaks of at least three games, including two of at least four games...OKC's seven wins in August are second-fewest in the PCL this month (7-13). Only Sugar Land (5-15) has fewer wins.
The Big Picture: Even with the recent rough stretch, the Dodgers are tied for the most wins in the Minors (75-45) as well as the third-best winning percentage (.625), trailing only Single-A Clearwater (.652; 75-40) and High-A Vancouver (.626; 72-43). However, Oklahoma City into a tie for fourth place in the standings in the second half of the Pacific Coast League season at 25-22, five games behind surging Round Rock (30-17). The Express has won 14 straight games and now only has one fewer win than Dodgers overall this season...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 79-41 through 120 games...During the Bricktown era (since 1998), OKC's best previous record through 120 games was in 2015 when the Dodgers went 72-48...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.
Getting Miggy With It: Miguel Vargas finished with two hits, a RBI and a walk as he recorded a fourth straight multi-hit game (9x18) and extended his hitting streak to six games (11x25). He has hit safely in seven of his last eight games, batting .455 (15x33) and has reached base safely in nine straight 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 (0x19)...Since being optioned to OKC in mid-July, this is Vargas' second hitting streak of at least six games in Triple-A this season, as he hit safely in eight consecutive games with OKC July 25-Aug. 2...His 23 hits in August are one shy of the team lead behind Michael Busch and David Dahl.
Cutting it Close: The Dodgers fell to 21-14 in one-run games this season with last night's loss. It was the seventh time in the team's last 12 losses that the Dodgers have lost by two runs or less, and the team has lost each of its last four one-run games...So far in 2023, OKC is 35-21 in games decided by two runs or less, but is 16-19 after starting the season 19-2...Yesterday was the team's 32nd game this season to be decided in a final at-bat, with Albuquerque nabbing an opponent's 11th last at-bat win.
Loose Grip: Last night marked the third straight game the Dodgers led the in the seventh inning or later and lost. The bullpen has now been charged with seven blown saves in the last nine games, taking four losses after leading in the seventh inning or later...Including Tuesday's series opener, the Dodgers have loss three times in the last eight games after holding a lead of at least three runs, and the fourth time in the same eight-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...Over the first two games of the current series against Albuquerque, the Isotopes have scored 10 of their 17 total runs in the seventh inning or later.
Proton Power: Ryan Ward and Hunter Feduccia have led the way for the Dodgers' offense against the Isotopes this season. Ward went 2-for-4 with a RBI and run scored last night and paces the Dodgers with 17 hits in 13 games against the Isotopes this season, batting .327 (17x52) with three doubles and 10 RBI. Feduccia went 2-for-5 last night with a double, RBI and run scored. He is slashing .395/.489/.658 in 10 games against Albuquerque this season with two homers and a team-best 15 RBI, while his 10 runs scored are tied for most on the team.
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.
Mound Matters: The Dodgers have allowed 17 runs over the first two games of the series with the Isotopes and have now allowed at least seven runs in three straight games (24 R) and at least six runs in six of their last eight games (49 R). This is just the second time this season that the Dodgers have allowed at least seven runs in three straight games. It also happened July 28-30 in hitter-friendly Reno when the Dodgers allowed 35 runs over a three-game span, but OKC went 2-1 in those games. The bullpen has been responsible for allowing 19 of the 24 runs over the last three games, along with 21 hits and 13 walks over 13.0 IP...Through 20 games this month, the Dodgers have allowed a total of 106 runs - but nearly half of the runs (46.2 percent) have come in the last eight games...During the current 3-11 stretch, the Dodgers have allowed a total of four runs in their three wins but 77 runs across the 11 losses, with at least six runs in eight of the 11 defeats.
Around the Horn: The Dodgers left a season-high 16 runners on base last night, including the bases loaded in both the seventh and ninth innings. It's the first time OKC has left at least 16 runners on base in any game since Aug. 6, 2016 during a 5-4 loss in 15 innings against Round Rock (17 LOB) and the first time it's happened in a nine-inning game since Aug. 7, 2011 during a 13-5 win at Tucson...Pat Valaika's solo homer in the ninth inning Wednesday was OKC's first homer since Saturday night in Salt Lake. The Dodgers had not homered in back-to-back games for the first time since May 30 (67 games). OKC had just two extra-base hits last night and now has a total of only seven extra-base hits over the last four games...The Dodgers have not committed an error in five straight games, one game shy of the team's longest stretch without an error this season (May 25-31).
Pacific Coast League Stories from August 24, 2023
- Albuquerque Rallies Late Again for 6-3 Triumph - Albuquerque Isotopes
- Sacramento Takes Down El Paso, 14-6 - El Paso Chihuahuas
- Express' Winning Streak Snapped at 14 Games After Extra-Inning Defeat by Bees - Round Rock Express
- Aces Use Two Big Frames to Take Down Space Cowboys - Sugar Land Space Cowboys
- Isotopes Double-up Dodgers, 6-3 - Oklahoma City Comets
- Aces Wrangle Space Cowboys, Capture Series Lead with Decisive Victory - Reno Aces
- OKC Dodgers Game Notes - August 24, 2023 - Oklahoma City Comets
- Bees Fall to Express 9-1 - Salt Lake Bees
- Isotopes Top Dodgers, 8-7 - Oklahoma City Comets
- Sacramento Takes Down El Paso, 6-1 - El Paso Chihuahuas
- Montes, Schunk Lead Isotopes to Thrilling 8-7 Victory - Albuquerque Isotopes
- Vegas Hangs on After R Late Rally Cooper Hummel - Tacoma Rainiers
- Tamarez Brilliant in Six Shutout Innings for Sugar Land - Sugar Land Space Cowboys
- Cats Come Together for Third Straight Win - Sacramento River Cats
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
