PCL Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Dodgers Game Notes - August 9, 2023

Published on August 9, 2023 under Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release


Oklahoma City Dodgers (22-12/72-35) at Tacoma Rainiers (20-14/57-52)

Game #108 of 148/Second Half #35 of 75/Road #53 of 75

Pitching Probables: OKC-RHP Matt Andriese (8-5, 5.69) vs. TAC-RHP Adam Oller (5-5, 5.67)

Wednesday, August 9, 2023 | Cheney Stadium | Tacoma, Wash. | 9:05 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 back-to-back losses to open their road trip when they continue their series against the Tacoma Rainiers at 9:05 p.m. CT at Cheney Stadium. The Dodgers have not lost back-to-back games since a three-game losing skid in Oklahoma City July 19-21 against El Paso and the Dodgers have not lost consecutive games on the road since dropping three straight May 3-5 in El Paso...The Dodgers are a Triple-A-best 38-14 on the road this season, with wins in 13 of their last 15 road games.

Last Game: The Tacoma Rainiers exploded for seven runs in the bottom of the third inning, leading the way to a 12-9 win over the Oklahoma City Dodgers Tuesday afternoon at Cheney Stadium. The Rainiers got the scoring started with a solo home run by Taylor Trammell in the second inning, but Pat Valaika evened the score with a RBI single in the third inning. Tacoma promptly responded with seven runs on seven hits in the bottom of the frame, as the Rainiers sent 12 batters to the plate. Zach DeLoach added another for the Rainiers with a RBI single to make it 9-1 in the fourth. David Dahl gave the Dodgers some life with a three-run home run in the fifth inning, cutting the deficit to 9-4. DeLoach hit a three-run blast of his own, pushing Tacoma's lead to 12-4 in the sixth inning. Dahl hit his second home run of the day in the seventh inning to make it 12-5 and Michael Busch got the Dodgers even closer with a three-run home run in the eighth inning to cut the deficit to four runs. Justin Yurchak made it 12-9 with a one-out RBI single in the ninth inning before Yonny Hernández grounded into a game-ending double play.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Matt Andriese (8-5) looks for a team-leading ninth win as he makes his team-leading 19th start of the season...He last pitched in relief Aug. 6 against Round Rock in OKC, allowing four runs and four hits, including two home runs, over 1.0 inning of work in the fifth inning...His last start was July 28 in Reno, and he was charged with eight runs and seven hits, including three home runs and two walks with four strikeouts over 2.2 innings. He did not factor into OKC's eventual 14-12 win...Over his first two starts following the All-Star Break, Andriese went 2-0 and allowed two runs and six hits over 10.0 innings, with both runs scoring on a two-run homer July 16 at Sacramento...His 91.2 IP this season are the most by an OKC pitcher...Andriese was named May's PCL Pitcher of the Month by MiLB, and in four starts, he went 2-0 with a 1.77 ERA, holding opponents to a .194 average and did not allow an earned run in two of his four starts and just one earned run in another outing. He allowed 14 hits over 20.1 IP with four walks and 13 K's, posting a 0.89 WHIP. He was named PCL Pitcher of the Week for May 8-14....Andriese is in his 13th professional season and signed with the Dodgers Jan. 30 after spending the 2022 season with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball...Andriese was selected in the third round of the 2011 MLB Draft by San Diego from UC Riverside and made his ML debut with Tampa Bay April 10, 2015 at Miami. He's made a total of 217 appearances in the Majors with five different teams...Tonight is his second start against the Rainiers. He made his first start of the season against Tacoma in OKC April 1, allowing three runs and eight hits over 4.0 innings with four walks and two strikeouts during OKC's 6-5 win.

Against the Rainiers: 2023: 2-2 2022: 5-7 All-time: 58-59 At TAC: 34-24

The Dodgers and Rainiers meet for 12 games in the next six weeks after opening the season against one another with a three-game series March 31-April 2. The Dodgers took two of the three games at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark in a series with tons of offense. The Rainiers won the season opener, 14-8, before the Dodgers posted back-to-back walk-off wins in the final two games - 6-5, in 10 innings and, 10-9, in nine innings. Michael Busch and Jahmai Jones each led the Dodgers with five hits, while Busch and Luke Williams each had four RBI. Jones provided walk-off hits in both wins, including a home run in the series finale...Tacoma won the 2022 series between the teams, 7-5, marking the first time the Dodgers lost a season series to the Rainiers since 2014 when OKC went 0-4 in Tacoma and entered last season 2-0-3 over the previous five season series. The Dodgers and Rainiers split their series last season in Tacoma...This season marked the first time ever OKC and Tacoma opened the season against each other. The teams were scheduled to start the 2020 season in Tacoma prior to the cancelation of the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trend Setters: The Dodgers lead the Minors with the most wins (72-35) and best winning percentage (.673). Oklahoma City also leads the second half of the Pacific Coast League season with a 22-12 record - the best in all of Triple-A...During the Bricktown era, OKC's best previous record through 107 games was in 2015 when the Dodgers went 65-42...This season's squad became the fastest Pacific Coast League team to reach 70 wins (103 games) since at least 2005, as data from 2004 and earlier is not available. The previous fastest a PCL team reached 70 wins since 2005 was the 2017 Memphis Redbirds, who did so in 106 games (70-36)...Oklahoma City has won 11 of the last 15 games and 16 of the last 23 games...The Dodgers finished the first half with a 50-23 record and won the PCL's first-half championship. By virtue of winning the first half in the split-season format, the Dodgers will host a best-of-three PCL Championship Series Sept. 26-28 at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark against the winner of the second half (or second-place finisher should the Dodgers also win the second half).

At Home on the Road: Despite last night's loss, the Dodgers are a Minor League-best 38-14 on the road this season with wins in 13 of their last 15 road games and in 16 of their last 19 road games. They compiled a Bricktown-era record (since 1998) 12 consecutive road victories from June 29-July 28. The streak started with five consecutive wins in Sugar Land June 29-July 3, followed by three victories in Sacramento during a series sweep July 14-16 and wins in the first four games of OKC's previous road series in Reno. The previous team record of nine straight road wins was accomplished May 29-June 15, 2019...The Dodgers have now won at least seven straight road games twice this season and five times during the Bricktown era. The previous seven-game road win streak this season included a six-game sweep at Round Rock May 9-14 and then a win in Sacramento May 23.

Better Call Dahl: David Dahl went 2-for-5 with two home runs and four RBI Tuesday. It was his second multi-homer game of the season, with both occurring within his last eight games (also July 30 at Reno). He has hit safely in six straight games, going 12-for-25 with three homers, 12 RBI and four multi-hit games. Dahl has also hit safely in 14 of his last 15 games, going 25-for-56 (.446) with 11 extra-base hits (5 HR), 22 RBI, 13 runs scored and eight multi-hit games. Since July 20, he leads the PCL in batting average and RBI while ranking second in OBP (.508) and OPS (1.329) and third in SLG (.821)...Following a 3-for-40 start after joining the Dodgers, he has now hit safely in 18 of his last 20 games, going 31-for-78 (.397) with 14 extra-base hits...Dahl has picked up 18 RBI in his last nine games, 22 RBI in his last 13 games and 26 RBI in his last 17 games.

Buschwacked: Michael Busch went 1-for-3 with a home run, two walks and three RBI Tuesday afternoon as he extended his season-best and career-high on-base streak to 32 consecutive games. The streak is longest by an Oklahoma City player this season, is the longest active on-base streak in the PCL and the fourth-longest streak in the league this season. During the streak, Busch is 46-for-139 (.331) with 13 homers, 21 extra-base hits, 35 RBI, 21 walks and 29 runs scored. His on-base streak is the longest by an OKC player since Drew Avans reached base in 50 straight games during the 2022 season for the longest on-base streak by an OKC player during the MLBAM era (since 2005). Busch's 32-game on-base streak is the fourth-longest during OKC's Dodgers affiliation (since 2015)...He has hit safely in 13 of his last 14 games, batting .400 (26x65) with seven homers, five doubles, 18 RBI and 17 runs scored...His 20 homers overall this season lead OKC and he ranks second in PCL this season in SLG (.600) and OPS (1.029).

Yonny On the Spot: Yonny Hernández reached base four times Tuesday with a single and three walks while also swiping two bases. The three walks set a new season high and was his first three-walk game since he did it with the Texas Rangers on Sept. 25, 2021 at Baltimore...Hernández has now hit safely in five consecutive games, batting 6-for-16 (.375) with a home run, seven walks and seven runs scored...Over his last six games, he has reached base in 18 of 29 plate appearances and has nine walks against one strikeout.

Dinger Details: The Dodgers homered three times Tuesday and have now homered in eight of the last 10 games (20 HR) and in 20 of the last 24 games (38 HR). The Dodgers have compiled 80 homers over their last 52 games since June 3 after compiling 47 homers through their first 55 games of the 2023 season. Yesterday was the team's third game with three or more homers in the last 10 games...On the other hand, Tacoma homered twice yesterday, and the Dodgers have allowed six homers over the last three games and allowed at least one homer in 11 of the last 13 games (21 HR). Including Zach DeLoach's three-run homer yesterday, the Dodgers have now allowed six three-run homers/grand slams over the last 10 games, seven three-run homers/grand slams over 13 games and eight within the last 17 games. Between May 5-July 19 (60 games), the team allowed just two home runs with at least two runners on base.

Getting Offensive: Tuesday marked the third time in the last four games the Dodgers compiled at least 11 hits and was the fourth time in the last five games the Dodgers scored at least seven runs. Going back further, eight times in the last 13 games the Dodgers have scored at least seven runs and the team has scored 13 or more runs five times during the stretch. Since July 25, the Dodgers' 112 runs and 158 hits lead all PCL team offenses during the 13-game span...On the other hand, the seven hits by the Rainiers in the third inning Tuesday tied for the most hits in an inning by an opponent this season, joining Salt Lake on June 16 in Oklahoma City. It was also second time in four games against OKC this season the Rainiers notched at least seven runs in one inning and was the seventh time this season an opponent scored seven or more runs in an inning against OKC. The Dodgers have now allowed 23 hits and 19 runs in the last two games combined.

Around the Horn: OKC has not started a series 0-2 this season, following up each of their first five series-opening losses with a win in the next game...Pat Valaika is 5-for-11 with five RBI in his last two games after being held 1-for-26 in his previous seven games...The Dodgers are 19-for-41 with runners in scoring position across the last two games after going just 9-for-48 (.188) over the previous five games...Ryan Ward has hit safely in 11 of his last 12 games, going 19-for-51 (.373) with 12 RBI and 13 runs scored...Miguel Vargas went 2-for-4 yesterday, picking up his third multi-hit game in his last four outings (6x18) and sixth in his last 10 games (15x44)...David Freitas returned to the Dodgers' active roster yesterday and has not appeared in a game since July 20. He has hist safely in each of his last 14 games, going 17-for-55 (.309) with nine RBI and nine runs scored.

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Pacific Coast League Stories from August 9, 2023


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