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PCL Oklahoma City Comets

OKC Dodgers Game Notes - September 6, 2023

September 6, 2023 - Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release


Oklahoma City Dodgers (30-28/80-51) at Sugar Land Space Cowboys (20-38/53-80)

Game #132 of 148/Second Half #59 of 75/Road #65 of 75

Pitching Probables: OKC-LHP Robbie Erlin (4-2, 6.60) vs. SUG-RHP Ronel Blanco (4-4, 4.91)

Wednesday, September 5, 2023 | Constellation Field | Sugar Land, Texas | 6:35 p.m. CT

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

Today's Game: The Oklahoma City Dodgers look to tie their road series against the Sugar Land Space Cowboys at 6:35 p.m. CT at Constellation Field after the Space Cowboys won Tuesday's series opener...The Dodgers are now 2-1 in their last three games and 4-3 in their last seven games...Tonight the Dodgers will try to avoid their first back-to-back losses against Sugar Land during the same series since Aug. 23-24, 2021.

Last Game: The Sugar Land Space Cowboys scored three runs in both the first and fifth innings and shut out the Oklahoma City Dodgers for the first time this season during a 6-0 win Tuesday night at Constellation Field. The Space Cowboys jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning after a RBI single by Pedro León and two-run single with two outs by JJ Matijevic. Sugar Land had chances to further extend the lead, but left the bases loaded in both the third and fourth innings. After OKC left runners at the corners in the top of the fifth inning, David Hensley finally punished the Dodgers with the bases loaded, making it 5-0 with a two-run double in the bottom of the frame. A balk with the bases loaded later in the inning made it 6-0. The Sugar Land pitching staff kept the Dodgers at bay for the remainder of the game, retiring the final 13 batters.

Today's Probable Pitcher: Robbie Erlin (4-2) makes his second start and third appearance following an injury that kept him off the field for almost three months...Erlin most recently pitched Aug. 30 against Round Rock at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. He pitched 4.0 scoreless innings, allowing two hits and two walks with three strikeouts and did not factor into the decision of OKC's 6-3 win...He returned to game action for the first time since May 31 during a relief appearance Aug. 26 against Albuquerque. He pitched 2.0 scoreless innings with three hits and two strikeouts...Erlin was placed on the Injured List June 3-Aug. 25...Erlin made 11 starts during the first two months of the season, going 4-2 with a 7.35 ERA...He has allowed 16 home runs over 54.2 innings, accounting for 25 of 51 runs allowed (49 percent)...Erlin spent the majority of the 2022 season with OKC, making 21 appearances (14 starts). He went 5-4 with a 7.01 ERA, tied for fourth on the team in starts and ranked fourth in strikeouts. The team went 8-6 in his starts...He originally signed with the Dodgers as a free agent Feb. 21, 2022, and the lefty re-signed with the organization during this past offseason...Erlin was originally selected by Texas in the third round of the 2009 MLB Draft and traded to San Diego July 31, 2011. He has appeared in 117 games (43 starts) in the Majors, primarily with San Diego, but has also logged time with Pittsburgh, Atlanta and Los Angeles (NL)...Erlin last faced the Space Cowboys May 19 in OKC. He allowed six runs (three earned) and seven hits over 5.0 innings with two walks and six strikeouts.

Against the Space Cowboys: 2023: 14-5 2022: 16-8 All-time: 42-25 At SUG: 16-12

The Dodgers and Space Cowboys meet for their fourth and final series and second of the season in Sugar Land...The Dodgers won the first three series of the season April 11-16, 4-2, and May 16-21, 5-1, in OKC as well as the most recent series in Sugar Land June 28-July 3, 5-1. It was the third time this season that the Dodgers won five consecutive games during a single series as they closed out the series with five straight wins. In each of the five wins, the Dodgers limited the Space Cowboys to exactly two runs in each game...Through the first three series of the season, Drew Avans led OKC with 16 hits, 19 runs scored and 20 walks, while Ryan Ward paced the Dodgers with 13 RBI and four homers against the Space Cowboys...The Dodgers outscored the Space Cowboys, 100-61, through the first three series as they held the Space Cowboys to a .200 AVG, but Sugar Land hit 19 homers compared to OKC's 18...The Dodgers won the 2022 series, 16-8, and went 11-4 at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. The Dodgers did not lose back-to-back games to Sugar Land at any point last season...Of last season's 24 total meetings, nine were one-run games and six of 19 meetings so far in 2023 have been decided by one run...In each of the team's three series this season, the Dodgers have won four of the first five games.

Finding Their Footing: The Dodgers entered Tuesday's series opener with wins in back-to-back games, but went on to lose a sixth straight series opener last night and have not won three straight games since Aug. 2-4 against Round Rock, losing after each of their last three sets of consecutive wins...The Dodgers also dropped to 3-10 in their last 13 road games and 4-11 in their last 15 road games...The Dodgers are now 4-3 in their last seven games following a 4-15 stretch from Aug. 5-26 as the Dodgers finished August with 10 wins (10-17), tied for second fewest in the league last month with Salt Lake and ahead of Sugar Land's eight wins (8-19). OKC had not won fewer than 12 games in a month since May 2021 (9-14). It was the team's lowest monthly winning percentage since going 9-19 in August 2019...Despite last night's loss, the Dodgers maintained their 1.5-game lead ahead of second-place Round Rock in the league's overall standings. OKC defeated Round Rock, 4-2, in their previous series in OKC, snapping their first streak of three straight series losses since May 6-25, 2021.

The Big Picture: The Dodgers recorded their 80th win of the season Sunday, becoming the eighth OKC team during the Bricktown era (since 1998) to reach the 80-win mark and fourth team during the Dodgers affiliation (since 2015)...The Dodgers (80-51) have the third-most wins in the Minors, trailing only Triple-A Norfolk (81-51) and High-A Cedar Rapids (81-46)...The Dodgers have had at least a share of first place in the PCL overall standings for all but seven days this season, holding first place from April 1-Aug. 25 and again since Sept. 2...OKC is in sixth place in the second half of the PCL season standings at 30-28, five games behind first-place Round Rock (35-23)...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 wins was also the 2017 Memphis Redbirds who reached the milestone in 121 games (80-41)...During the Bricktown era (since 1998), OKC's best previous record through 131 games was in 2015 when the Dodgers went 79-52...OKC won the PCL's first-half title (50-23) and will host a best-of-three PCL Championship Series Sept. 26-28 against the winner of the second half.

Offensive Lull: The Dodgers suffered their first shutout loss of the season last night. It was the first time the Dodgers had been held scoreless since Game 1 of a doubleheader Sept. 14, 2022 during a 2-0 loss at Albuquerque. The last time OKC was shut out in a nine-inning game was July 30, 2022, also against Sugar Land in a game where the final score was also 6-0. The Dodgers had gone 144 consecutive games of any length without getting shut out and 171 straight nine-inning games in which they scored at least one run...The Dodgers were held to four hits Tuesday night, marking the second time in five games they finished with four hits or less, but also just the second time since July 8 (47 G) and 10th time overall this season...Prior to Tuesday, the Dodger had scored 16 runs on 22 hits between the previous two games (22-for-66), but the in two games before that, they produced a total of six runs on nine hits over the previous two games combined (9-for-55)...OKC is 7-for-42 with runners in scoring position (.167) over the last five games after going 17-for-35 over the previous three games.

Jonny Be Good: Jonny DeLuca went 1-for-4 with a double Tuesday night. He has now hit safely in three straight games (5x11) and in six of his last seven games, going 10-for-24 (.417) with five doubles, a triple, two homers and seven RBI. He has collected at least on extra-base hit in each of the last six games he's hit safely...DeLuca rejoined OKC as part of a Major League Rehab Assignment Aug. 24 and was optioned to OKC Sept. 1. In 26 Triple-A games this season, DeLuca is slashing .324/.398/.618 with 16 extra-base hits and 27 RBI.

Mound Matters: After allowing two runs in the previous two games combined and six runs over the previous three games combined, the Dodgers allowed six runs in yesterday's defeat. Over their last 13 games, the Dodgers have allowed a total of 60 runs in their eight losses (7.5 rpg) and at least six runs seven times, while the team has allowed seven total runs over their five wins during the same span...The team has not allowed a home run in a season-best six straight games and has allowed just one home run over the last eight games. It's the team's longest stretch without allowing a home run since a run of six consecutive games June 10-15, 2021. The last time an OKC team held an opponent without a homer in more than six straight games was July 15-21, 2018 when they did not allow a homer in eight straight games.

Fork in the Road: The Dodgers are tied with High-A Hudson Valley for the most road wins in the Minors and OKC has a 41-23 road record. This is just the fourth time in the team's Bricktown era (since 1998) that OKC has reached at least 40 road wins in a season and the first time since 2016 when OKC went 42-28 on the road...However, the Dodgers have lost 10 of their last 13 road games and 11 of their last 15 road games. For comparison, prior to the current 4-11 stretch, the Dodgers went 26-5 over their previous 31 road games between May 9-July 28.

Back to School: New pitch timer regulations began Tuesday in Triple-A. Time between pitches is now 17 seconds with both the bases empty (previously 14 seconds) and with runners on base (previously 19 seconds). For pitchers on Major League Rehab Assignment, they will continue to receive 15 seconds with the bases empty and 20 seconds with runners on base. After batters are granted time, the home plate umpire will immediately signal for the timer to be reset to 17 seconds. Following a dead ball, the pitcher no longer needs to be on the pitcher's mound once he has possession of the ball for the timer to start. He just needs to be "proximate" to the mound. Other criteria remain the same for the start of the timer following a dead ball. With the modified rules in the place last night, there were four total clock violations (three on pitchers and one on a batter)...In addition to these changes, a different method will be used to set up the ABS strike zone using data from Hawk-Eye's pose tracking system to account for different batting stances rather than calculating the top and bottom strike zone boundaries using a percentage of the batter's height.

Around the Horn: Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder/designated hitter J.D. Martinez opened a Major League Rehab Assignment with OKC Tuesday and went 0-for-4, with two flyouts and two groundouts. The six-time MLB All-Star has been on the Injured List since Aug. 22 with a groin injury...Justin Yurchak went 2-for-3 with a double and accounted for half of the Dodgers' four hits Tuesday evening. Over his last two games, Yurchak is 4-for-6 with a walk and is 12-for-27 (.444) over his last nine games...Over his last 19 games, Miguel Vargas is 25-for-64 (.391) with 11 RBI and 16 walks...David Dahl has hit safely in six straight games, going 6-for-22 with three doubles. Since joining OKC June 20, his 18 doubles lead the league....Reliever Jimmy Nelson has not allowed a run in seven straight appearances. Since Aug. 4, Nelson has thrown 7.0 scoreless innings with three hits, four walks and 12 strikeouts, holding opponents 3-for-23.

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