PCL Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Dodgers Game Notes - July 25, 2023

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


Oklahoma City Dodgers (13-8/63-31) at Reno Aces (10-11/54-42)

Game #95 of 148/Second Half #22 of 75/Road #46 of 75

Pitching Probables: OKC-RHP Landon Knack (2-0, 2.55) vs. RNO-RHP Peter Solomon (0-3, 11.57)

Tuesday, July 25, 2023 | Greater Nevada Field | Reno, Nev. | 8:35 p.m. CT

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

Today's Game: The Oklahoma City Dodgers seek a third straight win overall and ninth consecutive road win when they open a six-game series against the Reno Aces at 8:35 p.m. CT at Greater Nevada Field. The Dodgers own the most overall wins in the Minors as well as the best road record in Triple-A. The team is 22-5 over the last 27 road games.

Last Game: Michael Busch hit two home runs and drove in four runs for the Oklahoma City Dodgers in a 5-3 win against the El Paso Chihuahuas Sunday night at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. The Dodgers quickly took the game's first lead in the series finale between the teams. After Drew Avans led off with a double, Busch followed with a two-run homer onto the roof of the Budweiser Deck in left field for a 2-0 OKC lead in the first inning. The Chihuahuas cut into the lead with a RBI double in the third inning before Busch connected on his second homer of the game in the bottom of the inning, sending a two-run shot out to center field for a 4-1 OKC advantage. El Paso scored runs in both the fourth and fifth innings to cut OKC's lead to one run before a RBI groundout by David Dahl extended the Dodgers' lead to 5-3 in the eighth inning.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Landon Knack (2-0) makes his fifth start with OKC and second on the road tonight...Knack last started July 19 against El Paso at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, pitching 4.0 scoreless innings with three hits and one walk with three strikeouts. It was his first game in 18 days due to time on the Los Angeles Dodgers' taxi squad followed by the All-Star Break...Over his last two starts with OKC, Knack has thrown 10.0 scoreless innings, with six hits, three walks and 10 strikeouts. He's held opponents 6-for-36 overall, 2-for-19 with runners on base and 0-for-10 with RISP...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 with Tulsa and two or fewer earned runs in 11 of 12 starts. He posted a 1.32 ERA, 0.80 WHIP and .177 BAA through his first nine starts of the season...After allowing a total of three home runs in 57.1 IP with Tulsa, Knack has allowed four home runs in his first 17.2 innings the OKC Dodgers, accounting for all five of the runs he's allowed so far...Knack began the 2023 season as the No. 22 prospect and No. 12 pitcher in the Dodgers system by Baseball America and the No. 18 prospect and No. 9 pitcher by MLB Pipeline...The Johnson City, Tenn., native is in his third professional season after being selected in the second round of the 2020 MLB Draft out of East Tennessee State as a fifth-year senior...He spent the entire 2022 season with Tulsa after starting his pro career in 2021.

Against the Aces: 2023: 4-2 2022: 6-6 All-time: 38-30 At RNO: 12-14

The Dodgers and Aces meet for their second of two series this season and lone series at Greater Nevada Field. The teams met for a six-game series in OKC May 30-June 4 at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark with the Dodgers winning the series, 4-2. OKC outscored the Aces, 47-30, in the series, batting .324 (67x207) with five homers. Devin Mann led OKC with nine hits and nine RBI in the series. During the third game of the series June 1, OKC turned its first triple play since 2005 and the first triple play in the PCL since 2018...The teams split their 2022 season series, 6-6, as they played 12 games against one another in a span of 24 games and each team won a six-game set on the road. OKC scored eight or more runs in five games against Reno last season and 10 or more runs three times. Both teams posted a shutout in the season series...The Dodgers and Aces have split each of their last three season series and OKC has not won a season series against Reno since the 2015 season when OKC went 3-1. The Dodgers are 0-2-4 in season series against the Aces since...Going back to last season, the Dodgers are 8-3 over the last 11 games against the Aces.

Trend Setters: The Dodgers posted their 63rd win of the season Sunday night and own the most wins in the Minors with a 63-31 record, while they have the second-best overall winning percentage (.670) among the 120 full-season teams, trailing only Single-A Clearwater (.685)...The Dodgers reached 60 wins in 88 games - faster than any other Pacific Coast League team since at least 2005, as data from 2004 and earlier is not available. The previous fastest a PCL team reached 60 wins since 2005 was in 93 games, achieved most recently by Memphis in 2017 (60-33), as well as OKC in 2015 (60-33) and Tucson in 2006 (60-33)...During the Bricktown era, the team's best previous record through 94 games was in 2015 when the Dodgers went 60-34...The Dodgers finished the first half with a 50-23 record and won the Pacific Coast League'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: The Dodgers have won eight consecutive road games for the team's longest road winning streak of the season and second-longest road winning streak in the team's Bricktown era (since 1998). With a win tonight, the team can tie the longest road winning streak since 1998 as the team won a team-record nine consecutive road wins May 29-June 15, 2019...This is the second time this season OKC has won at least seven straight road games and fifth time during the Bricktown era. The previous seven-game road win streak included a six-game sweep at Round Rock May 9-14 and then a win in Sacramento May 23. The current win streak began with wins in five straight at Sugar Land June 29-July 3 plus three victories at Sacramento July 14-16...The Dodgers own the best road record in all of Triple-A at 33-12, as well as the second-most road wins in all the Minors, trailing only fellow Dodgers affiliate, High-A Great Lakes' 34 road wins (34-14)...During OKC's eight-game road win streak, the pitching staff has allowed three runs or less in seven of eight games for a total of 20 runs. During that time, they have posted a 2.10 ERA (17 ER/73.0 IP) and a .195 (51x262) BAA.

Buschwacked: Michael Busch recorded his first multi-homer game at the Triple-A level (175 games) Sunday night, as well as his first multi-homer game overall since April 21, 2022 with Double-A Tulsa. Busch went 3-for-3 Sunday with four RBI and reached base four times as he also drew a walk. It was his second four-RBI game of the season and first since June 13 against Salt Lake in OKC. Sunday was also his 10th game of the season with three hits...Busch has now reached base in 19 consecutive games for the longest active streak by an OKC player and tied for the longest active streak in the PCL. This is Busch's second on-base streak of the season of at least 19 games and during the current streak, Busch is 23-for-77 (.299) with eight homers, 11 extra-base hits, 21 RBI, 14 runs scored and 16 walks (.432 OBP)...Busch has hit seven homers in the last 15 games and eight homers in the last 18 games. His eight home runs in July pace the PCL and are tied for the most homers during the month in Triple-A. He now leads the Dodgers with 15 homers overall this season although he has played in 20 fewer games than Devin Mann, who ranks second on the team with 14 homers.

Kole-Fired: Kole Calhoun went 2-for-4 Sunday and tripled in a second consecutive game. Calhoun has now hit safely in six straight games, going 9-for-25 with five extra-base hits. Calhoun has four extra-base hits in his last three games, including a triple in each of the last two games. Between OKC and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, he has five total triples this season for his most in a season since recording five in 2016 with the Los Angeles Angels...This is his second hitting streak of at least six games with OKC as he hit safely in nine consecutive games June 24-July 6. He has hit safely in 17 of his last 19 games, going 25-for-76 (.329) with six doubles, two triples, a home run, 14 RBI and 10 runs scored.

Course Correction: The Dodgers limited El Paso to three runs (two earned) and five hits Sunday, and over the final two games of the series, allowed a total of four runs and eight hits, holding the Chihuahuas 8-for-62 (.129). Over the first four games of the series, the Dodgers had allowed at least six runs in each game and a total of 35 runs during the stretch...On Sunday, starting pitcher Gavin Stone (4-4) earned the win, allowing three runs (two earned) over 5.0 innings with five hits, one walk and five strikeouts. Four relievers then combined for four scoreless and hitless innings...The Dodgers improved to 30-1 when allowing three or fewer runs...The Dodgers' pitching staff has recorded at least nine strikeouts in five straight games (54 K). Overall, the OKC pitching staff's 899 strikeouts (9.6 per game) lead the PCL. The pitching staff has finished with at least 10 strikeouts in 14 of the last 19 games and has now recorded 24 consecutive games with at least seven punchouts.

How He Drew It Up: Drew Avans posted his 25th multi-hit game of the season Sunday night, going 2-for-4 with a double, triple and scored two runs. He has hit safely in nine of his last 10 games, batting .333 (15-for-45) with four doubles, a triple, homer, eight RBI, eight runs scored and six multi-hit games. Going back to July 6, Avans has 19 hits and 10 RBI in his last 13 games with eight multi-hit outings during the stretch, batting .322 (19x59)...Overall this season, Avans leads the Dodgers with 69 runs scored and 58 walks in a team-high 89 games played. His 91 hits are second-most on the team, while his 11 homers are tied for third. He's second in the PCL in runs scored and tied for fourth in walks.

Streaky Second Half: The Dodgers have won seven of their last 10 games and will try to win a third straight game tonight immediately following a stretch of three straight losses. Following a defeat in the first game of the second half June 28, the Dodgers then ripped off six straight wins. That was followed by a season-high four-game losing streak before the Dodgers rebounded with five straight wins entering last Wednesday. The team then lost three straight games during the previous series against El Paso in OKC, marking their second three-game skid over 12 games. In the first 80 games of the season, the Dodgers only had one three-game losing streak.

Around the Horn: Six of the Dodgers' nine hits in Sunday's game went for extra bases, and over the last two games, 11 of 15 total hits have been extra-base hits. OKC has hit at least one triple in three straight games and Sunday marked the third game of the season with two triples, but first since April 27. The team has homered in 10 of the last 11 games (14 HR)...Devin Mann hit his Minor League-leading 33rd double of the season Sunday...The Dodgers went 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position Sunday and are just 11-for-61 (.180) with RISP over the last five games, including 3-for-25 over last two games and 4-for-34 over the last three games...Following a 3-for-40 start over his first 10 games with OKC, David Dahl has now hit safely in eight of his last nine games, going 11-for-33 with five doubles and a homer...The Dodgers committed three more errors Sunday and have committed 23 errors over the last 22 games. Their 22 unearned runs allowed in July (18 G) are most in the PCL by 10...For the third time in four games, the Dodgers allowed at least five stolen bases (20 SB total). Opponents are now 26-for-27 since the All-Star Break (eight games) and 41-for-44 over the last 15 games...The Dodgers are 13-4 in series openers this season, posting wins in three straight, in five of the last six and 11 of the last 13.

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Pacific Coast League Stories from July 25, 2023


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