PCL Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Dodgers Game Notes - September 13, 2021

Published on September 13, 2021 under Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release


Oklahoma City Dodgers (57-54) at Salt Lake Bees (47-64)

Game #112 of 130/Road #59 of 65

Pitching Probables: OKC-LHP Vidal Nuño (5-1, 7.46) vs. SL-RHP Cooper Criswell (2-3, 6.16)

Monday, September 13, 2021 | Smith's Ballpark | Salt Lake City, Utah | 7:35 p.m. CT

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

Today's Game: The Oklahoma City Dodgers continue their road series against the Salt Lake Bees at 7:35 p.m. CT at Smith's Ballpark as part of Triple-A West Night in America. The Dodgers lead the current series, 3-1, and despite a loss yesterday, OKC has won five of the last six games and seven of the last nine games.

Last Game: The Salt Lake Bees scored six runs within the first three innings, and their hot start paved the way to an 8-5 win over the Oklahoma City Dodgers Sunday afternoon at Smith's Ballpark. Less than 24 hours after being shut out, the Bees scored twice in their first at-bat. The Dodgers tied things in the second inning, thanks to a two-run homer by Omar Estévez. The Bees responded with another run in the bottom of the inning to take a 3-2 lead. On the first pitch of the third inning, Sheldon Neuse lined a game-tying home run to left field. However, Salt Lake went back ahead in their next at-bat on a three-run homer by Jake Gatewood. Following Neuse's homer, the Salt Lake pitching staff retired 15 of the next 17 Dodgers batters. The Bees added to their lead with two runs in the seventh inning to go in front 8-3, but doubles by Neuse and Cristian Santana in the eighth inning led to two runs for the Dodgers, cutting the deficit to 8-5.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Vidal Nuño (5-1) makes his 15th appearance and sixth start of the season, as he makes a spot start. Mitch White was scheduled to pitch tonight for OKC, but was recalled by the Los Angeles Dodgers Sunday...Nuño appeared earlier in the current series Sept. 10 and allowed one run and one hit over 1.1 innings with one strikeout...He last started Aug. 27 against Las Vegas at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark and was charged with his first loss of the season. He allowed four runs and six hits over 4.1 innings, including two home runs, with three walks and four strikeouts...Nuño has spilt time between starting and relief roles while with the OKC Dodgers. In his five starts, he is 2-1 with a 7.48 ERA, and the team is 2-3. Opponents have batted .273, and the lefty has notched 20 strikeouts against six walks...Nuño signed with the Dodgers as a minor league free agent June 1 and was assigned to OKC June 12 after beginning the season with Toros de Tijuana of the Mexican Baseball League. With the Toros, he made two starts and threw 11.0 scoreless innings, going 2-0 and allowing 10 hits with two walks and 11 K's...He did not play during the 2020 season due to the cancellation of the Minor League Baseball season, and in 2019, appeared in 45 Triple-A games (three starts) with Fresno (WSH) and Durham (TB)...He has appeared in 151 career ML games with the Yankees (2013-14), Diamondbacks (2014-15), Mariners (2015-16), Orioles (2017) and Rays (2018), with a career 8-21 record and 4.06 ERA...The native of National City, Calif., played college baseball for Baker University (Kan.), and was a 48th round pick of Cleveland in 2009.

Against the Bees: 2021: 5-5 2019: 2-1 All-time: 57-55 At SL: 26-29 The Dodgers and Bees are meeting for their second of two series in 2021 and their lone series at Smith's Ballpark...The Bees won the first series between the teams, 4-2, at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark July 1-6, winning four of the final five games of the series after the Dodgers won the series opener. Keibert Ruiz led OKC with six hits during the series, including two homers, while Matt Davidson paced OKC with six RBI and two homers. The Bees outscored OKC, 34-25, and outhit the Dodgers, 54-48, as they won their first series against OKC since 2013. Over the final five games of the series, the Dodgers were held to a total of 14 runs and batted .230 (38x165) with two home runs, scoring one or two runs in three of the five contests...The teams last played at Smith's Ballpark for a three-game series in 2019. OKC won the first two games of the series by a combined score of 14-8 before the Bees won the series finale, 14-4. Edwin Ríos homered twice and had six RBI...Since OKC became affiliated with the Dodgers, the team owns an 18-10 advantage against the Bees in the Triple-A version of the Freeway Series, including an 11-4 record at Smith's Ballpark...So far in the 2021 season series, the road team is 7-3.

Trending Up: The Dodgers have opened the month of September with a 7-3 record - tying their best start to a month this season after also opening August at 7-3. OKC's five-game winning streak came to an end yesterday, tying for their longest winning streak of the season, but the Dodgers have won five of the last six games and seven of the last nine games...The recent success follows a stretch in which the Dodgers lost 11 of 13 games. OKC's overall record this season is back above .500 (57-54) after being at or below .500 Aug. 30-Sept. 6. Prior to Aug. 31, the team had not been below .500 since they were 20-21 entering play June 22...Before the slide began Aug. 19, the Dodgers were a season-best seven games above .500 (48-41) and stood only 1.0 game out of first place. But since then, the Dodgers have gone 9-13, finding themselves 6.5 games out of first place in the Triple-A West East Division and tied with Round Rock for second place...Tonight the Dodgers will seek to win four of the first five games of a series for the fifth time this year, last achieved Aug. 12-17 at home against Round Rock.

Santana's Greatest Hits: Cristian Santana was named Triple-A West Player of the Week for Sept. 6-12 earlier today, posting a league-best .556 AVG during the week. He picked up a team-high three hits Sunday afternoon, going 3-for-4 with two doubles, a RBI and a run scored. During his current five-game hitting streak, Santana is 10-for-18 with two homers, three doubles, six RBI and six runs scored...In his last six starts, Santana is 12-for-25 (.480) with three homers, four doubles, 10 RBI and four multi-hit games, including three games with three hits...He paces the Dodgers with 86 hits in 76 games this season as well as 25 multi-hit games...Since Aug. 1, Santana has 44 hits in 34 games - tied for fourth-most in Triple-A West during the span, while his .346 average during the span ranks fifth-best in the league...Santana has homered in three of his last seven games after going deep in four of his first 69 games of 2021...This is Santana's third career weekly award and first since Aug. 19, 2018 with High-A Rancho Cucamonga. He's also the third OKC position player this season to take home Triple-A West Player of the Week honors, joining Luke Raley (May 24-30) and Keibert Ruiz (July 19-25).

Young Sheldon: Sheldon Neuse went 2-for-4 Sunday afternoon with a home run and a double. Five of his six hits over the first four games of this series have gone for extra bases, including three home runs. Since his return off the Injured List, Neuse is 8-for-23 (.348) with six extra-base hits...He has hit safely in eight of his last nine games overall with OKC, going 14-for-42 (.333) with three doubles, four homers, 13 RBI and 10 runs scored. During the nine-game stretch, he has four multi-hit games and has posted games with both four and five RBI.

On the Run: Despite the loss Sunday, the Dodgers scored five more runs and have scored at least five runs in eight of their last 10 games. They have also scored at least eight runs in five of their last eight games...Over the last six games, OKC has scored 49 runs and has 32 extra-base hits (12 HR), batting .295 (65x220) as a team overall and .367 (22x60) with runners in scoring position...OKC's 49 extra-base hits since Sept. 1 lead Triple-A West. Six of Oklahoma City's eight hits Sunday went for extra bases, with four doubles and two homers. The team has collected at least six extra-base hits in three of the last six contests.

Dinger Details: The Dodgers hit two more home runs yesterday and have hit 12 homers over the last six games after being held to four homers in the six games prior. Five of the team's last six homers have been hit with at least one runner on base, as well as seven of the last nine and 11 of the last 15. OKC has 15 homers so far in September - second-most in Triple-A West behind Reno's 20 homers...The Dodgers' pitching staff has allowed just one home run in the last three games, but it was a three-run homer with two outs in the third inning yesterday that put the Bees in the lead for good. In the last 10 games, the Dodgers have allowed four three-run homers, with three of them occurring with two outs. Three of the four have also tied the game or given the opponent the lead.

Walking Backwards: For the second time in three games, the Dodgers did not draw a walk. Prior to Friday, they had drawn at least one walk in each of the first 108 games of the season and had drawn 55 walks in the previous 10 games...The Dodgers' 456 walks this season are second-most in Triple-A West, trailing league-leading Tacoma's 461 walks. OKC has drawn at least five walks in eight of the last 13 games for a total of 60 free passes during that time...On the other hand, the Dodgers' pitching staff handed out six walks Sunday, running their total to 21 over the first four games of the series. They have allowed at least five walks in three of the four games. Entering this series, the team had walked a total of six batters over their last five games and 10 in their last six games.

Quack Attack: Kevin Quackenbush retired all three batters in the bottom of the 10th inning Friday night for his 18th save of the season. He's now tied with Sugar Land's Ronel Blanco for the Triple-A West lead in saves and is 18-for-19 in save opportunities through 38 appearances...With 29 saves over the 2019 and 2021 seasons with OKC, he's second all-time on the team's career saves list during the team's Bricktown era...Among all Minor League relievers with at least 38 appearances, Quackenbush's 0.96 ERA and nine runs total allowed are both second-best, trailing only Dauri Moreta of the Reds organization, who has posted a 0.70 ERA and allowed eight runs total over 40 appearances between the Double-A and Triple-A levels...Of the nine runs he's allowed this season, four have been automatic runners scoring in extra innings.

Around the Horn: Omar Estévez hit a two-run homer yesterday and has hit safely in four of his last five games, going 6-for-16 with two homers, five RBI and five runs scored...The Dodgers tied their season high with three errors Sunday, marking their fifth three-error game of 2021. The defense had been error-free in six of the last eight games entering Sunday, with a total of three errors during that time...The OKC pitching staff has retired the leadoff batter 16 of the last 18 innings pitched...The Dodgers have allowed 102 runs over the last 13 road games (7.9 rpg), with at least eight runs in nine of the 13 games...Zach McKinstry (six games) and Drew Avans (five games) each had season-high hitting streaks end yesterday...Matt Davidson picked up his team-leading 68th RBI of the season yesterday. He now has 19 RBI in 13 games since returning from the Injured List Aug. 28.

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