PCL Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Dodgers Game Notes - July 4, 2023

Published on July 4, 2023 under Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release


Albuquerque Isotopes (5-1/32-49) at Oklahoma City Dodgers (5-1/55-24)

Game #80 of 148/Second Half #7 of 75/Home #38 of 73

Pitching Probables: ABQ-LHP Josh Rogers (1-5, 9.00) vs. OKC-RHP Justin Hagenman (3-0, 3.14)

Tuesday, July 4, 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 open a six-game home series against the Albuquerque Isotopes at 7:05 p.m. at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark with an Independence Day celebration including patriotic festivities and postgame fireworks presented by INTEGRIS Health...The Dodgers have won five consecutive games for their longest winning streak since a season-best 10-game winning streak May 9-19. The Isotopes are also riding season-high five game win streak...The Dodgers are playing at home on July 4 for a ninth straight season.

Last Game: Starting Pitcher Mike Montgomery led the way with five scoreless innings and Devin Mann homered in the Oklahoma City Dodgers' 5-2 win against the Sugar Land Space Cowboys Monday night at Constellation Field in the series finale between the teams. The Dodgers won a fifth straight game as they shut out the Space Cowboys through eight innings and led the rest of the game after Mann hit a solo home run out to left-center field in the second inning. The Space Cowboys loaded the bases in the third inning, but Mike Montgomery escaped the jam by striking out Pedro León. David Freitas scored on a passed ball in the fourth inning. Kole Calhoun knocked a RBI double in the sixth inning and Ryan Ward followed with a RBI single for a 4-0 Oklahoma City lead. Patrick Mazeika boosted OKC's advantage to 5-0 with a RBI single in the ninth inning. The Space Cowboys offense broke through in the ninth inning, notching back-to-back two-out RBI singles in an inning that also included three Oklahoma City errors. With the tying run at the plate, Alec Gamboa got León to ground out and end the game.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Justin Hagenman (3-0) is scheduled to make his fifth start and 22nd appearance of the season for OKC tonight as he continues to fill in as part of the starting rotation...Hagenman most recently pitched June 29 in Sugar Land, matching his season-long outing of 4.0 innings. He allowed two runs and five hits, including back-to-back home runs in the fourth inning. He did not issue a walk in a third straight outing and recorded six strikeouts...As either an opener or traditional starter, Hagenman has made four starts this season and the team is 4-0 in those games. In 14.0 innings as a starter, he has allowed seven runs and 16 hits (4 HR) with two walks against 19 strikeouts...On June 7 at El Paso, he notched a career-high eight strikeouts over 4.0 innings during his longest appearance since 2019...Hagenman did not allow a run during the entire month of May (14.0 IP), allowing seven hits with two walks and 14 strikeouts...Hagenman made 41 appearances with OKC last season, going 4-2 with a 6.08 ERA in his first Triple-A season with 55 strikeouts and 21 walks...Hagenman was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 23rd round of the 2018 MLB Draft out of Penn State...Tonight is his third appearance of the season against the Isotopes. Over a combined 2.1 innings, he is 1-0, and has allowed two runs and three hits with one walk and two strikeouts.

Against the Isotopes: 2023: 4-2 2022: 12-6 All-time: 132-107 At OKC: 74-42

The Dodgers and Isotopes are meeting for their second series of the season and first at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark of 2023...The teams played one series during the first half of the season, but will play three series (18 G) during the second half...The Dodgers won the first series between the teams April 18-23 in Albuquerque, 4-2, and won four of the final five games of the set...Ryan Ward led OKC with 11 hits in the road series, while Hunter Feduccia went 10-for-18 and had 13 RBI, including two home runs...OKC batted .323 in the series, outscoring the Isotopes, 50-39, and outhitting them, 74-54...The Dodgers won the 2022 series between the teams, 12-6, and went 8-4 at home...Last season, the Dodgers outscored the Isotopes, 128-87, and hit 28 homers compared to Albuquerque's 19...Six of the 18 games played between the teams in 2022 were decided by one run, and so far two of the first six games this season have been one-run games...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.

Let Freedom Ring: The Dodgers are playing a home game on the Fourth of July for a ninth straight season and 16th time overall since 1998. OKC is 8-7 at home on July 4, but are 8-4 in their last 12 home games on Independence Day despite a 12-4 loss against Las Vegas last year at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark...Overall, the Dodgers are 10-12 on July 4 since 1998 and have had two games rained out...OKC lost eight straight Fourth of July games from 1998-2005, but have gone 10-4 on the holiday from 2006-22...OKC and Albuquerque last met on July 4 in 2005 in Albuquerque, with the Isotopes winning, 11-7. This marks the first-ever meeting between the teams on Independence Day in Bricktown.

Trend Setters: The Dodgers closed out their previous six-game road series in Sugar Land with five consecutive wins to improve to 55-24 overall and win their 12th series of the season. The Dodgers lead the Minors in overall wins, winning percentage as well as road wins (30-12) this season....The Sugar Land series was the third time this season the Dodgers won at least five consecutive games during a series. Since the switch to primarily six-game series in 2021, the team never won five straight within a series over the past two seasons. It was also the fifth time in 11 six-game series this season the Dodgers won at least five games...With last night's win, the Dodgers reached 55 wins in 79 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 55 wins in a season since 2005 was in 86 games when the 2015 OKC Dodgers went 55-31...The Dodgers are 31 games above .500 for the first time during the team's Bricktown era (since 1998). The team's previous best mark of 30 games above .500 was only previously achieved once in September 2015 (85-55)...During the Bricktown era (since 1998), the team's best previous record through 79 games was in 2015 when the Dodgers went 52-27...OKC is 33-13 since May 9 and has lost consecutive games just twice during the 46-game stretch...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).

Deuces: The Dodgers pitching staff allowed two runs for a fifth consecutive game last night in Sugar Land, marking the first time since June 23-27, 2017 that the Dodgers have held an opponent to two runs or less in five consecutive games. The 10 total runs allowed by the Dodgers over the last five games is the team's lowest total over a five-game span since April 22-29 when the team allowed a total of eight runs over five games, but that included two seven-inning games during a doubleheader April 27 vs. Sacramento. And of the 10 runs allowed over the past five games, four of those runs scored with two outs in the ninth inning with the Dodgers leading by at least five at the time...Mike Montgomery (1-1) started Monday and pitched a season-high 5.0 scoreless innings, allowing two hits and four walks with a season-high eight strikeouts as he recorded his first win with OKC. Over the last three games, starting pitchers have combined to allow nine hits and one run - on a solo home run - with six walks and 23 strikeouts over 17.0 innings. The starting rotation has already matched its win total through three games in July as it had in all of June, when the starters collectively posted an 8.07 ERA and averaged about 4.0 innings per start...Last night was the fourth straight game the pitching staff recorded 10 or more strikeouts (43 K), reaching double-digit strikeouts in four consecutive games for the first time since a season-best five-game stretch (48 K) April 18-22 in Albuquerque...The Dodgers have now allowed four runs or less in six consecutive games, in eight of their last 10 games and in nine of the last 12 games. The team has posted a league-low 2.93 ERA over the last 10 games (29 ER/89.0 IP) after owning a 6.28 ERA over the previous 17 games...The Dodgers held Sugar Land 4-for-38 with runners in scoring position in the previous series and had an 0-for-26 string end with two hits with two outs in the ninth inning last night...Last night also marked the second time in six games did the Dodgers did not allow an extra-base hit, and they allowed a total of seven extra-base hits (4 HR) over the six games in Sugar Land.

What a Mighty Good Mann: Devin Mann hit his team-leading 13th home run of the season Sunday and drew a walk as he increased his team-leading RBI total to 60 and his team-leading hit total to 79. All of his home runs have been hit since May 7 (41 games) and he sits tied for third in the PCL in homers during that time. He's now gone deep nine times in his last 21 games...He has hit safely in six straight games (9x25), in eight of his last nine games (12x38) and in 11 of his last 13 games (18x49)...Mann leads the PCL with 28 doubles and his doubles total ranks tied for second in the Minors. The 28 doubles set a new career high for Mann in 68 games. His previous career-high mark of 27 doubles was set over 110 games with Double-A Tulsa in 2021. Last year, Michael Busch and Miguel Vargas led the Dodgers with 32 doubles apiece over 111 and 113 games, respectively...Mann's 41 extra-base hits are tied for the most in the PCL, while his 1.003 OPS ranks second, his .586 SLG is third and his 60 RBI are tied for fifth...He leads all Dodgers minor leaguers this season in doubles, extra-base hits, total bases (146) and RBI.

Carrying the Freit: David Freitas connected on a double, drew a walk and scored a run Sunday to extend his hitting streak to 11 games - the longest active hitting streak for an OKC player, the second-longest active hitting streak in the league and third-longest hitting streak of the season by an OKC player. During the streak, Freitas is 13-for-44 (.295) with seven RBI and eight runs scored. This is his longest hitting streak since the 2019 season when he hit safely in 12 straight games with Triple-A San Antonio Aug. 3-16, 2019...He has hit safely in 13 of his 14 total games with OKC this season, batting .308 (16x52) with four doubles, two homers, 13 RBI and 10 runs scored.

In the Hunt: Hunter Feduccia had Sunday off but on Saturday homered for the second time in OKC's road series in Sugar Land. Over his last five games, Feduccia is 11-for-20 with six extra-base hits and is one game shy of matching his longest hitting streak of the season at six games (June 9-20)...Feduccia has hit safely in 11 of his last 12 games, going 22-for-44 (.500) with 10 extra-base hits, nine RBI, 13 runs scored and nine walks. Thanks to the recent heater, he has raised his season batting average from .246 to .310...Feduccia has turned in eight multi-hit outings in his last 11 games, going 21-for-40 (.525).

Buschwacked: Michael Busch was held without a hit Sunday but reached base twice with a walk and hit by pitch. In his first four games since his most recent option to Triple-A, Busch is 5-for-15 with three-extra base hits, five RBI, six walks and has reached base in 12 of 22 plate appearances...In his last 13 games with OKC, Busch is 22-for-51 (.431) with 14 extra-base hits and 20 RBI.

Around the Horn: Kole Calhoun hit a RBI double and scored a run Sunday night as he extended his hitting streak to seven games. He is 11-for-28 during the streak with seven RBI...Over the last two games Ryan Ward is 4-for-8 with two homers and four RBI. Over his last 18 games (since June 9), Ward is slashing .279/.410/.647 with 12 extra-base hits and 16 RBI...Justin Yurchak did not play Sunday but is in the midst of a season-high six-game hitting streak (7x24)...OKC is 2-2 in its last four series openers overall but has won six straight home series openers.

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Pacific Coast League Stories from July 4, 2023


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