PCL Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Dodgers Game Notes - August 25, 2023

Published on August 25, 2023 under Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release


Albuquerque Isotopes (26-22/53-70) at Oklahoma City Dodgers (25-23/75-46)

Game #122 of 148/Second Half #49 of 75/Home #59 of 73

Pitching Probables: ABQ-RHP Noah Davis (0-3, 4.31) vs. OKC-RHP Kyle Hurt (1-1, 3.75)

Friday, August 25, 2023 | Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark | Oklahoma City, Okla. | 7:05 p.m. CT

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

Today's Game: The Oklahoma City Dodgers have lost four consecutive games and try to avoid matching their longest losing streak of the season when they continue their series against the Albuquerque Isotopes at 7:05 p.m. at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark on Salute to Armed Forces Night presented by Casey's. Current and former local military personnel and their families will be celebrated throughout the night and fireworks are scheduled to follow the game. Dodgers players and coaches will take the field in special commemorative camouflage jerseys and hats and the game-worn jerseys will be auctioned online to benefit the OKC Dodgers Baseball Foundation.

Last Game: The Albuquerque Isotopes scored runs in four of the final five innings to come back and defeat the Oklahoma City Dodgers, 6-3, Thursday night at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. The Dodgers built a 3-1 lead through three innings. The Dodgers took the first lead of the night on a sacrifice fly in the first inning before the Isotopes tied the score. Bryson Brigman hit a solo home run in the second inning for a 2-1 lead. A sacrifice fly by Miguel Vargas in the third inning boosted the Dodgers' lead to 3-1. The Isotopes then chipped away at OKC's lead, scoring runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, including home runs by Jonathan Morales and Wynton Bernard to put the Isotopes ahead, 4-3. Albuquerque then added two runs in the ninth inning.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Kyle Hurt (1-1) is set to make his fourth appearance and first start with OKC tonight...Hurt has been used as a bulk reliever in each of his first three Triple-A appearances and last pitched Aug. 19 in Salt Lake. He allowed one run and three hits over 4.0 innings of relief with two walks and eight strikeouts - his most in a game since recording a season-high 11 K's June 23 with Double-A Tulsa against Northwest Arkansas. He picked up his first Triple-A win during the team's 4-1 victory...Through his first three games with OKC, he has allowed five runs and seven hits over 12.0 innings with five walks and 21 strikeouts. Four of the five total runs allowed occurred during one inning in his Triple-A debut, and he has allowed just one run across his other 11.0 innings...Hurt has struck out 21 of his first 47 batters faced with OKC (44.7 percent), including 15 of 27 batters faced in his last two games. He currently leads all pitchers in the Minors with at least 70.0 IP this season in both strikeouts per nine innings (15.31) and strikeout rate (40.2 percent)...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...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...Tonight is his first career appearance against Albuquerque.

Against the Isotopes: 2023: 6-9 2022: 12-6 All-time: 134-114 At OKC: 76-49

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 seven of the last eight meetings, all in OKC. This is the first time ever Albuquerque has won seven games in one season in Bricktown. The previous most was five wins in 2009.

Summer Stumble: The Dodgers suffered a fourth consecutive loss last night as they fell to 0-3 in their series against Albuquerque. OKC had not started any of its first 19 series this season with even two losses but has now opened three straight series by losing the first three games. In fact, prior to their road series at Tacoma (Aug. 8-13), 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 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)...OKC has now lost nine of the last 11 games, 12 of the last 15 games and 13 of the last 17 games overall...Over the first 80 games of the season, the Dodgers had just one three-game losing streak. In the last 41 games, they've now had five losing streaks of at least three games and three losing streaks of at least four games. The Dodgers lost four consecutive games against the Isotopes July 5-8 in OKC and have now lost three straight during the current series...OKC's seven wins in August are second-fewest in the PCL this month (7-14). Only Sugar Land (5-16) has fewer wins.

The Big Picture: Even with the recent rough stretch, the Dodgers are still tied for the most wins in the Minors (75-46) and have the fourth-best winning percentage (.620). Single-A Clearwater (.647; 75-41) owns the best winning percentage in the Minors and is tied with the Dodgers with 75 wins. However, fellow Triple-A teams Round Rock and Norfolk sit one win behind, owning matching 74-48 records...Oklahoma City is in fifth place in the standings in the second half of the Pacific Coast League season standings at 25-23, five games behind surging Round Rock (30-18), who had a 14-game winning streak come to an end last night...This season's OKC squad became the fastest PCL team to reach 50, 60 and 70 wins since at least 2005, as data from 2004 and earlier is not available. They also became the second-fastest Pacific Coast League team to reach 75 wins (117 games) since at least 2005, with the 2017 Memphis Redbirds doing it two games earlier in 115 games...During the Bricktown era (since 1998), OKC's best previous record through 121 games was in 2015 when the Dodgers went 73-48...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 extended his hitting streak to seven games, going 1-for-2 with a double, walk and sac fly last night. During his hitting streak, Vargas is 12-for-27 (.444) with three doubles, five RBI and five walks. He's tallied two or more hits in four the last five games, going 10-fo-20...He has also reached base in 10 consecutive games and has hit safely in eight of his last nine games, batting .457 (16x35) with four doubles, five RBI and six walks...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 a season-best eight consecutive games with OKC July 25-Aug. 2 and reached base in 19 straight games July 14-Aug. 4...His 23 hits in August are tied for the team lead with Michael Busch and David Dahl and his six doubles lead the team.

Loose Grip: Last night was the fourth straight game in which the Dodgers led in the sixth inning or later and lost. It was also the fifth time in the last nine games that OKC led by at least two runs, but were unable to hold onto the lead. That includes three games leading by at least three runs before falling...The bullpen has now been charged with eight blown saves in the last 10 games, taking five losses when giving up the lead in the seventh inning or later...Over the first three games of the current series, Albuquerque has scored 13 of its 23 total runs in the seventh inning or later.

Mound Matters: The Dodgers have allowed 30 runs over their four-game losing streak and have allowed at least six runs in four straight games for the third time this season, also July 18-21 (35 R vs. ELP) and April 16-20 (38 R - 1 G vs. SUG + 3 G @ ABQ). OKC has also now allowed at least six runs in seven of their last nine games (55 R)...The bullpen has been responsible for allowing 24 of the 30 runs over the last four games, along with 31 hits and 15 walks over 20.0 IP...Through 21 games this month, the Dodgers have allowed a total of 112 runs - and nearly half of the runs (49.1 percent) have come in the last nine games as the Dodgers allowed six runs or more in just four of their first 12 games of the month...During the current 3-12 stretch, the Dodgers have allowed a total of four runs in their three wins but 83 runs across the 12 losses (6.9 rpg), with at least six runs in nine of the 12 defeats.

Proton Power: Ryan Ward and Hunter Feduccia have led the way for the Dodgers' offense against the Isotopes this season. Ward picked up a hit last night and paces the Dodgers with 18 hits in 14 games against the Isotopes this season, batting .317 (18x56) with three doubles and 10 RBI. Feduccia did not play last night, but on Wednesday went 2-for-5 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: David Freitas recorded a hit last night and has hit safely in 23 of his last 24 games, batting .289 (28x97) with five doubles, four homers, 19 RBI and 13 runs scored. His career-best 22-game hitting streak came to an end Tuesday. 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)...Overall this season, Freitas has hit safely in 29 of his 31 total games, batting .295 (31x105).

Steal My Sunshine: The Isotopes swiped five more bases last night, bringing up their series total to 13 through just three games. That includes seven steals on Tuesday night, 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...The 174 stolen bases allowed by OKC this season are the most in Triple-A.

Around the Horn: Bryson Brigman went 2-for-3 yesterday, hitting his third home run this season and drawing a walk. He is 4-for-7 in his last two games with three RBI and two runs scored. Through his first 15 games of August, Brigman has hit safely in 11 of 15 games, batting .327 (18x55)...OKC has a total of only 10 extra-base hits over the last five games. They have hit two solo home runs across the last four games...Jonny DeLuca opened a Major League Rehab Assignment last night after being placed on the Los Angeles Dodgers Injured List July 26 with a right hamstring strain. He served as OKC's designated hitter and went 0-for-3 with a sac fly...The Dodgers were charged with two errors last night after not having committed an error in five straight games.

Check out the Oklahoma City Comets Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Pacific Coast League Stories from August 25, 2023


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.

OurSports Central