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PCL Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Dodgers Game Notes - September 26, 2023

September 26, 2023 - Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release


Round Rock Express (89-60) at Oklahoma City Dodgers (90-57)

PCL Championship Series Game 1

Pitching Probables: RR-RHP Robert Dugger (7-10, 4.39) vs. OKC-RHP Kyle Hurt (2-1, 3.33)

Tuesday, September 26, 2023 | Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark | Oklahoma City, Okla. | 7:05 p.m. CT

Radio: 1340 AM The Game, 1340thegame.com, iHeartRadio; Video: Bally Live, MiLB.tv

Today's Game: The Oklahoma City Dodgers open the 2023 Pacific Coast League Championship Series presented by Paycom against the Round Rock Express at 7:05 p.m. at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. The Dodgers enter the series on a three-game losing streak, while the Express have won four straight games...Tonight is a $2 Tuesday and Bark in the Park. Gates open at 6 p.m. and the first 1,000 fans will receive a rally towel courtesy of SoFi.

Last Game: Michael Busch homered for the Oklahoma City Dodgers' lone run of the day in a 2-1 loss to the Albuquerque Isotopes Sunday afternoon in the regular-season finale at Rio Grande Credit Union Field at Isotopes Park. With two outs in the sixth inning, Busch hit a fly ball out to left-center field for an opposite-field solo home run to put the Dodgers ahead, 1-0. Albuquerque answered in the bottom of the inning, tying the score, 1-1, on a single by Daniel Montaño coupled with an OKC fielding error. The Isotopes then took the lead in the seventh inning. Kyle Datres tripled on a fly ball to center field that was lost in the sun and Jameson Hannah followed with a RBI single to score Datres for a 2-1 Albuquerque lead. The Dodgers only had one runner reach base over the last two innings after falling behind.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Kyle Hurt (2-1) will get the nod to start in Game 1...Hurt most recently pitched Sept. 19 in Albuquerque with 3.2 innings following opener Bryan Hudson. He allowed two runs and three hits, along with three walks and seven strikeouts and did not factor into the decision of OKC's 8-4 win...This past Friday, Hurt was honored at Dodger Stadium as the 2023 Branch Rickey Minor League Pitcher of the Year. Between OKC and Double-A Tulsa, Hurt made 26 appearances (16 starts) and posted a 3.91 ERA, .205 batting average and a 1.23 WHIP over 92.0 innings. He notched 152 strikeouts and led the minor league system in strikeouts by 26. Among organizational pitchers with at least 90.0 IP, ranked second in BAA, second in WHIP and fifth in ERA...Hurt made his Major League debut Sept. 12 with the Los Angeles Dodgers against San Diego, retiring all six batters he faced in relief, including three strikeouts, and did not factor into the decision of Los Angeles' 11-2 win. He was optioned to OKC the following day...Hurt has made seven appearances and one start with OKC and has struck out 42 of the first 109 batters he has faced in Triple-A (38.5 percent)...Prior to joining OKC in early August, Hurt made 19 appearances (15 starts) with Double-A Tulsa this season, posting a 2-3 record with a 4.15 ERA and a team-high 110 strikeouts over 65.0 innings...Overall this season, Hurt led all pitchers in the Minors with at least 90.0 IP in strikeouts per nine innings (14.87) and strikeout rate (39.2 percent)...Hurt was selected by Miami in the fifth round of the 2020 MLB Draft out of the University of Southern California and was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers Feb. 12, 2021 with Alex Vesia in exchange for Dylan Floro...Tonight is his third appearance of 2023 against the Express. Over 8.0 innings, Hurt has allowed five runs and seven hits, with four walks and nine strikeouts.

Against the Express: 2023 Regular Season: 14-4 All-time (Regular Season): 176-139 At OKC (Regular Season): 83-71 Playoffs (All-time): 0-3

The Express and Dodgers meet for the second time in the postseason. The teams last played one another in the 2015 PCL American Conference Finals when the Express swept the Dodgers, 3-0. This is their first meeting in a PCL Championship Series...The Dodgers won the regular-season series between the teams, 14-4, including wins in nine of the first 10 games. OKC has also won four of the last five meetings between the teams...The Dodgers swept the Express May 9-14 in their lone series in Round Rock. It was OKC's first-ever six-game series sweep since PCL teams started playing primarily six-game series starting in 2021. OKC trailed in the seventh inning or later in four of the six wins and hit a go-ahead grand slam in the seventh inning twice...The last 12 meetings between the teams in the regular season were played in OKC, with the Dodgers winning both series, 4-2. During a 17-7 win Aug. 6, OKC set a new team record for hits in a home game with 22...In their most recent series Aug. 29-Sept. 3, the Dodgers held the Express to four runs or less in each of the final five games, including allowing one run in each of the final two meetings of the regular season, winning by a combined score of 16-2...During the regular season, Ryan Ward led OKC with 16 hits in 17 games against the Express, including seven doubles and three homers. David Dahl paced the Dodgers with 12 RBI against the Express in nine games.

Clash of the Titans: The Pacific Coast League Championship Series features the top two teams in the overall 2023 PCL standings after the Dodgers won the PCL's first-half title in June with a 50-23 record and Round Rock won the PCL's second-half title Sunday with a 45-30 record. The Dodgers finished the regular season 90-58 for the best record in the PCL, while the Express finished in second place overall with an 89-60 record...The Dodgers enter the postseason on a three-game losing skid and have lost five of their last eight games, while the Express has won four straight games, as well as seven of the last nine games. The Dodgers' current three-game losing skid is the longest for OKC since a season-high six-game losing streak Aug. 20-26.

Postseason Points: Oklahoma City is making its first postseason appearance since the 2018 season and seeks its first league title since 1996 when the Oklahoma City 89ers won the American Association as a Texas Rangers affiliate. OKC won 10 PCL division titles and three PCL conference titles during the Bricktown era (since 1998) before winning this season's PCL first-half title. During the team's Triple-A baseball history (since 1962), Oklahoma City won PCL titles in 1963 and 1965 and American Association titles in 1992 and 1996...During the Bricktown era, OKC is 17-35 in playoff games, including 9-16 at home. Incredibly, OKC has lost the first game of each of their last 12 playoff series. The team's lone opening win in a playoff series (since 1998) came in the first round against Omaha in 1999 at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark...This is the fourth time OKC is in the PCL Championship Series since 1998, having previously suffered defeats against Vancouver in 1999 (3-1), Sacramento in 2008 (3-1) and El Paso in 2016 (3-1).

I Love the 90s: The Dodgers finished the regular season with 90-58 record overall and with the most wins for an Oklahoma City team in a single season during the Bricktown era (since 1998). Their 90 wins are the second-most wins in OKC's Triple-A history (since 1962) behind only the 1965 Oklahoma City 89ers, who finished 91-54...OKC's 90 wins are tied for the most in the Minors this season with Triple-A Norfolk (90-59) and the Dodgers are just the second Pacific Coast League team since 2006 to notch at least 90 wins, joining the 2017 Memphis Redbirds (91-50). They are also just the fourth PCL team over the last 23 seasons to reach 90 wins. In addition to Memphis in 2017, the feat was also accomplished by Tucson in 2006 and Sacramento in 2003...The Dodgers finished in first place in the overall PCL standings, marking the fourth time that has happened during the team's Bricktown era (also 2005, 2013 and 2015). However, in each of those three seasons, the team was bounced in their first playoff series...The Dodgers held at least a share of first place in the league standings for all but seven days this season, holding first place from April 1-Aug. 25 and again from Sept. 2 to the end of the season...This season's OKC squad became the fastest PCL team to reach 50, 60 and 70 wins since at least 2005, as data from 2004 and earlier is not available. They also became the second-fastest PCL team to reach 75 wins (117 games) since at least 2005, with the 2017 Memphis Redbirds doing it two games earlier (115 games). The fastest PCL team to reach 80, 85 and 90 wins was also the 2017 Memphis Redbirds, who reached the 80-win milestone in 121 games (80-41), the 85-win mark in 133 games (85-48) and the 90-win mark in 140 games (90-50).

Road Dogs and Home Cooking: The Dodgers finished with a 48-27 record on the road, setting a single-season Bricktown-era record for road wins as the Dodgers compiled the most road wins in the Minors this season. Their 48 road wins are the most by any PCL team since 2005 and the 2023 Dodgers are the first team in all of the Minors to win at least 48 road games in one season since High-A Lake Elsinore in 2010 (48-22)...The 2023 Dodgers are just the fourth OKC team to reach at least 40 road wins in a season since 1998, surpassing the 2015 Dodgers who went 44-28 on the road. Earlier this season, the Dodgers set a Bricktown-era record with 12 consecutive road victories from June 29-July 28 between series in Sugar Land, Sacramento and Reno...The Dodgers went 42-31 at home, finishing with a winning record in Oklahoma City for the 20th time in the team's 25 seasons at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. Oklahoma City reached 42 home wins for the 11th time in 25 seasons.

M-V-B: Michael Busch hit his third home run in the last four games as well as his team-leading 27th home run of the season Sunday, going 1-for-3. With the home run, he tied his longest hitting streak of the season with OKC at nine games and is 12-for-32 (.375) during the streak with six extra-base hits, eight RBI and nine runs scored. His 27 home runs this season are the eighth-most homers hit by an OKC player in a single season during the team's Bricktown era. He finished the regular season leading the PCL in SLG (.618) and OPS (1.049) and among the league's top-five qualified players in AVG (2nd, .323), OBP (3rd, .431), homers (4th, 27), extra-base hits (5th, 57), RBI (T-5th, 90) and total bases (T-5th, 241)...Busch was named the 2023 Branch Rickey Minor League Player of the Year by the Los Angeles Dodgers and named the 2023 Dodgers Minor League Player of the Year by Baseball America.

Cooldown: The Oklahoma City offense was limited to five runs on 16 hits over the final three games of the regular season (16x92; .174) and has scored in just four of the last 35 innings going back to Thursday's game in Albuquerque. The Dodgers were shut out Friday by the Isotopes for the second time in the last 16 games and were then held to four runs Saturday night and to one run Sunday. It was the team's lowest three-game run total of the entire season and lowest within three consecutive nine-inning games since April 22-24, 2022 at Sacramento (3 R)...The Dodgers entered Friday night having scored at least six runs in a season-high six straight games (51 runs total) and at least eight runs in four straight games against the Isotopes (43 runs total).

Around the Horn: Ryan Ward connected on a double Sunday as he played in his league-leading 139th game of the season. His 139 games were the most by an OKC player in a single season since at least 2005 and most by a PCL player since Iowa's John Andreoli played in 140 games during the 2016 season. Ward finished the season with 95 RBI - fourth most in the league - as he became the ninth player in OKC's Bricktown era (since 1998) with at least 95 RBI in a single season...Drew Avans finished tied for fifth with 95 runs scored and tied for ninth with 77 walks. His 95 runs are the fifth-most by an OKC player in a season since 1998 and his 77 walks are sixth-most by an OKC player in a season since 1998...The two runs scored by the Isotopes Sunday marked the second time the Dodgers held an opponent to two runs in a game this season and lost, last happening in Sacramento May 27 (2-1)...Sunday's game was completed in 1 hour, 59 minutes for the Dodgers' fastest nine-inning game since a 2-0 victory against Memphis May 11, 2018 at home completed in 1 hour, 54 minutes...The Dodgers used 80 different players during the 2023 regular season, with 29 position players and 51 pitchers. (The number of pitchers grows to 53 when including Drew Avans and Yonny Hernández. Only Drew Avans and Ryan Ward remained on the active roster all season.

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