PCL Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Dodgers Game Notes - August 28, 2021

Published on August 28, 2021 under Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release


Las Vegas Aviators (53-45) at Oklahoma City Dodgers (49-48)

Game #98 of 130/Home #44 of 65

Pitching Probables: LV-RHP Brian Howard (4-4, 6.24) vs. OKC-RHP Nick Tropeano (0-0, 3.52)

Saturday, August 28, 2021 | 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 OKC Dodgers and Las Vegas Aviators meet for the third time in their series at 7:05 p.m. at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark on Marvel Super Hero Night. Star-Lord and Black Widow will make special appearances throughout the evening...August's INTEGRIS Health "Home Run For Life" honoree Adrianne Ayers will also be recognized during the game.

Last Game: The Oklahoma City Dodgers scored first and last in Friday night's game, but the Las Vegas Aviators hit three homers in between to send the Dodgers to a 5-4 loss at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. Deacon Liput belted a three-run homer out to center field to give the Dodgers a 3-0 lead in the second inning, marking his first career Triple-A home run. The Aviators cut into the Dodgers' lead with a solo homer by Francisco Peña in the fourth inning. Las Vegas took a 4-3 lead on a three-run homer by Khris Davis in the fifth inning. Carlos Pérez added a solo homer in the top of the ninth inning with two outs to make it a two-run game. Anthony Bemboom drew a walk with two outs in the ninth inning, advanced to second base on a wild pitch and scored on a RBI single by Omar Estévez to trim Las Vegas' lead to one run. Liput followed and hit a soft grounder up the first base line, but was called out on batter interference as the ball hit him while he was running in fair territory for the final out of the game.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Nick Tropeano (0-0) makes his third start with the OKC Dodgers the day after his 31st birthday...He last started OKC's Aug. 22 game in Sugar Land, pitching 4.0 innings for his longest outing since May 13. He allowed two runs (one earned) and four hits with one walk and four strikeouts and did not factor into the decision of the Dodgers' 8-4 victory...Against Round Rock Aug. 13 in OKC, he tossed 2.0 scoreless innings to open the Dodgers' 2-0 win. He allowed four hits and no walks with three strikeouts in his first start with the team, combining with Austin Bibens-Dirkx for OKC's third shutout win...Tropeano signed as a free agent Aug. 6 and made his first appearance with OKC Aug. 9 in Albuquerque...Tropeano has played in the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets organizations this season, spending time in the Majors and at Triple-A with both clubs...In 2020 with Pittsburgh, he went 1-0 with a 1.15 ERA and 19 K's over 15.2 IP...Tropeano spent the 2015-19 seasons in the Los Angeles Angels organization. He underwent Tommy John surgery in August 2016, sat out 2017, then returned with a career-high 14 MLB starts in 2018...Tropeano played for the OKC RedHawks in 2014, pacing the Pacific Coast League with a 3.03 ERA. His nine wins and 120 strikeouts led the team...Tonight is his second appearance of the season against the Aviators. He pitched on the road in Las Vegas May 7 for his first appearance of 2021 with Sacramento (2.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, BB, 6 K, ND).

Against the Aviators: 2021: 0-2 2019: 1-3 All-time: 48-57 At OKC: 23-26 Oklahoma City and Las Vegas are meeting for their first of two series this season and only series of the regular season at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. The teams will also meet as part of Triple-A's Final Stretch during a five-game series Sept. 23-27 in Las Vegas...The teams last met during a four-game series in Las Vegas Aug. 2-5, 2019. The Aviators won the series, 3-1, and scored 10 runs in each of their three wins during the series, outscoring the Dodgers, 36-29, as the Aviators batted .342. Twice in their three wins, the Aviators trailed in their final at-bat, only to rally and walk off with a win...Austin Barnes and Gavin Lux each led OKC with eight hits and Barnes homered four times in the series, collecting 10 RBI...Prior to 2019, the teams split their previous two season series. This is the first time Las Vegas has played in Bricktown since June 16-19, 2018, when the team was known as the 51s and they were affiliated with the New York Mets...OKC last won a series against Las Vegas in 2015 (3-1) on the road and last won a home series against Las Vegas in 2014 (3-1)...Entering tonight, Las Vegas has won seven of the last eight games against OKC going back to 2018.

Cold Spell in the August Heat: Following a win Aug. 17 vs. Round Rock, the Dodgers sat a season-best seven games above .500 at 48-41 and were just 1.0 game out of first place. But since then, the team has dropped seven of eight games and has now fallen 6.5 games out of first place. The Dodgers have matched their longest losing streak of the season with four straight defeats for the first time since May 11-15. This is also the first time since opening their 2021 schedule with a 1-8 record that the Dodgers have lost seven times in an eight-game span...Over the eight-game stretch, the Dodgers have been outscored, 62-45. The pitching staff has allowed at least five runs in each of the seven losses, and opponents have batted .309 (88x285) with a total of 37 extra-base hits, including 17 home runs. They've also issued 37 walks and have a 1.87 WHIP over 67.0 IP. During that same time, the Dodgers are batting .235 (63x268) with 18 extra-base hits, including six home runs...Last night marked the fourth one-run loss during the eight-game slide...After starting August with a 10-4 record, the team is now 11-11 this month...For the second time in the last six games, the Dodgers lost after leading by at least three runs. They had only lost three times all season when leading by at least three runs over the first 91 games, and yesterday was the first time it's happened at home this year.

Santana's Greatest Hits: One night after his 10-game hitting streak came to an end, Cristian Santana went a game-high 3-for-4 Friday and scored a run as he tied his season-high mark for hits, marking his third three-hit game of 2021. He also moved into a tie for the overall team lead with 71 hits this season...Santana has collected at least one hit in 11 of his last 12 games, going 17-for-46 (.370). He has also hit safely in 24 of his last 25 starts, going 39-for-101 (.386) with 16 RBI and 12 multi-hit games...Santana has hit safely in 25 of his last 28 games overall and is the only OKC player this season with multiple 10-game hitting streaks...Since July 23, Santana ranks fifth in Triple-A West with both a .381 AVG and 40 hits. Since July 1, he's batted .348 (54x155) and leads the Dodgers with 54 hits during the stretch after batting .236 through June 30...Santana walked twice in the series opener Thursday and has now reached base safely in 25 consecutive starts. Prior to Thursday night, Santana had not drawn a walk since July 1 - a span of 39 games and 149 plate appearances.

Trending Up?: After being held to one run in back-to-back games, the Dodgers scored four runs last night. However, the six total runs OKC has scored over the last three games is the team's lowest run total over a three-game span since May 13-15 against Sacramento at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark (5 R)...OKC had plated at least five runs in the seven games prior to Tuesday and at least seven runs in 11 of the last 19 games entering Tuesday, including eight games with double-digit hit totals during the stretch...From Aug. 1-23, the Dodgers scored 136 runs over 19 games (7.2 rpg) and ranked second in Triple-A West in runs scored during the month. After the last three games, OKC's 142 runs scored in August are now tied for third-most in Triple-A West...The team has been outscored, 19-6, the last three games while going 17-for-95 (.179) overall and 5-for-31 with runners on base (.161).

Dinger Details: The Dodgers hit just their third homer in the last five games and fifth in the last seven games Friday night. Prior to the recent seven-game stretch, the Dodgers hit 60 homers over 36 games from July 8-Aug. 19 and had the second-most homers in Triple-A West during the span. OKC also hit 22 homers over their first 15 games of August...Las Vegas homered three times Friday night, accounting for all five of the Aviators' runs. They have hit five homers over the first two games in OKC, accounting for 10 of 11 runs so far in the series. Opponents have hit eight homers against OKC over the last four games and have homered in 10 of the last 11 games against the Dodgers, totaling 20 home runs. That includes 17 homers in the last eight games, with opponents going deep more than once in five of the eight contests. Since Aug. 19, the Dodgers are tied with Albuquerque for the most home runs allowed among all teams in the Minors or Majors...The Dodgers have allowed multiple home runs in three straight games for the fifth time this season, but for just the second time since the start of June (last Aug. 8-10 at Albuquerque). It's also the first time all season the Dodgers have allowed at least two homers in consecutive home games...In each of the last four games, an opponent has hit a go-ahead homer in the fifth inning or later to take the lead for good.

Walking Tall: The Dodgers did not draw a walk until there were two outs in the ninth inning last night. It kept their streak alive, as they have now drawn at least one walk in all 97 games this season. Last night was the team's ninth game this season with only one walk...OKC's 404 total walks this season are second-most in Triple-A West, trailing only Tacoma's 406, but the Rainiers have played one more game than the Dodgers.

RISPy Business: The Dodgers went 2-for-3 with runners in scoring position last night and are batting .373 (22x59) with runners in scoring position in their last seven games and .346 ( 66x191) over their 22 games this month...However, the team has only had nine at-bats with RISP over the last three games. The team did not have a runner reach scoring position in seven of nine frames last night.

August Arithmetic: The Dodgers are 11-11 in August. In their 11 wins, they've allowed a total of 44 runs, with four or fewer runs allowed in nine of the 11 games. In the 11 losses, they've allowed 87 runs, with at least seven runs in seven of the 11 games.

Around the Horn: The Dodgers sustained their league-leading 19th one-run loss of the season last night, and they are now 8-19 in one-run games...James Pazos struck out the side in order in the top of the eighth inning Friday night. He's now recorded eight straight scoreless appearances, and in his last seven games he's thrown 6.0 scoreless innings, holding opponents 2-for-20 with 12 strikeouts while going 5-for-5 in save chances...The Dodgers committed an error last night and have committed at least one error in five straight games (6 E). They've committed 20 errors in the last 15 games, paving the way for 19 unearned runs. In seven of the 15 games, they have committed two or more errors...Carlos Asuaje has recorded back-to-back multi-hit games for the first time this season (4x9). He leads the Dodgers with 80 games played this season...The Dodgers are 1-4 in the last five games they've scored first.

Check out the Oklahoma City Comets Statistics

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



Pacific Coast League Stories from August 28, 2021


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