PCL1 Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Dodgers Game Notes - June 21, 2018

Published on June 21, 2018 under Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release


Oklahoma City Dodgers (41-26) vs. Omaha Storm Chasers (33-37)

Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Kansas City Royals

Game #68 of 140/Road #32 of 70 (14-17)

Pitching Probables: OKC-LHP Manny Bañuelos (7-3, 3.14) vs. OMA-RHP Josh Staumont (1-1, 1.95)

Thursday, June 21, 2018 | Werner Park | Papillion, Neb. | 7:05 p.m. CT

Radio: KGHM AM-1340 The Game, 1340thegame.com, iHeartRadio - Alex Freedman

Today's Game: The Oklahoma City Dodgers open a four-game road series against the Omaha Storm Chasers at 7:05 p.m. at Werner Park. The Dodgers will take the field tonight as Cielo Azul de Oklahoma City against the Omaha Cazadores de Tormentas as part of MiLB's "Es Divertido Ser Un Fan" initiative. The team is looking to avoid losing three straight games for the first time since May 14.

Last Game: Wednesday was a league-wide day off, but on Tuesday, Las Vegas broke a 2-2 tie, scoring a go-ahead run in the top of the 10th inning, for a 3-2 win against the Dodgers in the series finale between the teams at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. Las Vegas reliever and former OKC Dodger Jacob Rhame (1-1) then retired all three OKC batters he faced in the bottom of the 10th inning to seal the win for the 51s. The 51s took the game's first lead, scoring a run on a RBI double by Jeff McNeil for a 1-0 advantage in the first inning. Edwin RÃ-os and Travis Taijeron opened the bottom of the fifth inning with back-to-back singles and advanced a base on Henry Ramos' sacrifice bunt. Angelo Mora followed with a sacrifice fly to left field to put OKC on the board and tie the game, 1-1. The 51s regained the lead, 2-1, on a RBI single by Patrick Kivlehan in the sixth inning. Rocky Gale's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth tied the game, 2-2. The Dodgers extended into extra innings for the ninth time this season. The 51s' Zach Borenstein started the 10th inning on second base as part of the new rules in Minor League Baseball. He advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored when McNeil reached base on a fielding error by Mora. Dodgers reliever Pat Venditte (2-1) was charged with the loss, allowing the go-ahead run for the 51s in the 10th inning.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Lefty Manny Bañuelos (7-3) makes his team-leading 13th start of the season tonight...He picked up his third win in as many starts in his last outing June 15 against Salt Lake. He tossed six scoreless innings, holding the Bees to one hit with three walks and six strikeouts, as OKC went on to win, 6-1...Bañuelos currently ranks tied for second in the league in wins and tied for third in the PCL with 77 strikeouts. He ranks sixth in the league with a 3.14 ERA, and his 1.21 WHIP is tied for third-best. He is also posting 10.36 strikeouts per nine innings - third-highest among starting pitchers in the league...In addition to starts and wins, he leads OKC in innings (66.0) and strikeouts (77)...Fellow lefties are batting a paltry .158...He signed with the Dodgers as a free agent Nov. 14, 2017 after spending the 2017 season with Triple-A Salt Lake in the Los Angeles Angels organization...With the Bees last season, he posted a 5-6 record over 39 appearances (nine starts) with a 4.83 ERA over 95.0 innings. He posted 85 K's against 49 walks...Bañuelos has appeared in seven career ML games (six starts), all with Atlanta in 2015...Tonight is his second meeting of the season against the Storm Chasers. On June 1 he piggybacked starter Caleb Ferguson and allowed three runs and five hits over 4.1 innings, with one walk and six strikeouts in a no decision.

Against the Storm Chasers: 2018: 3-2 2017: 7-10 All-time: 152-140 At OMA: 73-71 Division foes OKC and Omaha are meeting for their second series of the season and first at Werner Park...The Dodgers won their first series of the season, 3-2, at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, with the Dodgers winning the middle three meetings of the series...Each team scored 31 runs in the series. Edwin RÃ-os paced OKC with nine hits in five games and batted .409 in five games. Kyle Farmer collected a team-best five RBI and scored five runs as the Dodgers batted .302 in the series...On the other side, Frank Schwindel went 10-for-22 with two homers and six RBI...The Storm Chasers won the 2017 season series, 10-7, marking the fifth time in seven years they won the season series, as well as the seventh time in 10 years. The teams split their final series of 2017, 2-2, in OKC, but the Dodgers dropped eight of the last 11 meetings...OKC went 3-6 at Werner Park last season, but won five of six meetings there in 2016...Overall, OKC is 1-5-1 in the season series since 2011.

Teach Me How to Dougie: Alex Verdugo was held without a hit Tuesday, snapping his season-best 13-game hitting streak. He went 25-for-56 (.446) during the streak with 10 RBI and six runs scored. He also notched five straight multi-hit games. It was his second hitting streak this season to reach double digits...Despite being held 0-for-4 Tuesday against Las Vegas, he has hit safely in 24 of his last 26 games, going 42-for-108 (.389) with 14 runs scored and 14 RBI...Verdugo paces the Dodgers with 63 hits despite playing in just 45 games, and his .342 average ranks sixth in the PCL...His 26 hits in June lead the PCL...Each of his last seven hits have gone for extra bases (five doubles, two homers)...On Tuesday he committed his first ever error in an OKC uniform, spanning 292 total chances over the last two seasons. His last error prior to Tuesday was Aug. 18, 2016 with Double-A Tulsa.

Winding Road: The Dodgers are 4-2 in their last six road games and have won six of their last 11 away from Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark...The Dodgers are 27-9 at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark this season and own the best home winning percentage (.750) among full season teams in the Minors. They also have the most home wins of any team in the Minors, but are just 14-17 on the road this season...After struggling at the plate on the road for most of the season, the Dodgers performed well during their last road trip June 5-11 in Sacramento and Fresno, slashing .340/.423/.537 while scoring 45 runs (6.4 rpg). Overall, the Dodgers are slashing .254/.317/.309 and scoring 4.3 runs on 8.8 hits per game on the road this season, compared to .309/.369/.483 with 5.8 runs and 10.6 hits per game at home.

Like A Rock: Rocky Gale doubled Tuesday afternoon to extend his hitting streak to five games (8x18). During the stretch, he has four doubles, a triple, five RBI and two runs scored. Gale has hit safely in nine of his 12 games in June, collecting 13 hits so far this month...Behind the dish, Gale leads the PCL with a 43.2 percent caught stealing rate.

Mound Men: The Dodgers allowed just one earned run Tuesday, reducing their league-best ERA to 3.42...The team has allowed just one home run over the last six games, and their 50 home runs allowed overall are tied for second-fewest in the PCL...The Dodgers lead the league with 135 strikeouts this month, averaging 9.49 strikeouts per nine innings...Opponents over the last 19 games are batting just .212 with RISP (44x208), but they are averaging 10.9 at-bats per game with RISP. Las Vegas had 17 at-bats with RISP in each of the last two games and 59 AB's over the four-game series...On Tuesday, Las Vegas scored in the first inning for the third straight game. The Dodgers' opponent has now scored in first or second inning in 12 of the last 15 games, as well as 21 of the last 27 games.

Around The Horn: The Dodgers have not lost three straight games since May 12-14. They have successfully avoided a three-game skid on three different occasions since then...The Dodgers have lost four of the last five series openers, as well as five of the last seven and seven of the last 10. They've also dropped four of the last five road series openers...Edwin RÃ-os was the only Dodger with a multi-hit game Tuesday and he has hit safely in his last four starts, going 6-for-15 with four RBI and three runs scored...The Dodgers fell to 5-4 in extra-inning games this season. They are tied for the second-most extra-inning contests in the PCL this season with Iowa and trailing only New Orleans (10).

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