PCL1 Oklahoma City Comets

RedHawks Game Notes for August 23

Published on August 23, 2009 under Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Oklahoma City Comets News Release


Oklahoma City RedHawks (63-63) at Omaha Royals (54-72)

Games 127, 128 | Aug. 23, 2009, 1:35 pm CDT | Rosenblatt Stadium | Omaha, NE

Today's scheduled starting pitchers:

RH Bryan Corey (6-6, 5.14) vs. RH Chris Nicoll (0-1, 14.54)

RH Elizardo Ramirez (7-10, 4.86) vs. RH Chris Chavez (0-0, 0.00)

TODAY: The RedHawks and Omaha Royals play a pair of 7-inning games in a doubleheader to make up for an April 26 postponement. OKC will look to snap a 5-game losing streak, which matches its longest of the season and immediately follows a season-best equaling 6-game winning streak. The Royals have won 7 of the 12 games between these clubs. OKC will start right-handers Bryan Corey and Elizardo Ramirez, while Omaha starts Chris Nicoll and Chris Chavez. Neither has a career outing against OKC. The RedHawks have dipped to 8 games back of Albuquerque in the American South, while Omaha is 12.5 games behind Memphis in the American North.

TRIP OPENS WITH A LAST AT-BAT LOSS: Cory Aldridge singled in Irving Falu with the winning run in last night's ninth inning to provide Omaha with a series-opening, 5-4 win. A.J. Murray (2-2) pitched the final 1.2 innings for the loss. Jason Godin (1-0) pitched a scoreless ninth for a win in his Triple-A debut. OKC out-hit Omaha 14-11 and received 4 hits and 2 RBIs from Chris Davis. All 14 OKC hits were singles. Joaquin Arias chipped in 3 hits. Brandon McCarthy turned in his fourth and longest rehab start for OKC, finishing 7 innings with 95 pitches, 61 strikes. McCarthy allowed 4 runs on 7 hits, with 3 walks and 7 strikeouts.

DIVISION RACE UPDATE: OKC's 8-game deficit in the American South behind Albuquerque is its farthest margin back of the lead this season. The RedHawks have 18 games remaining (4 at home) and the Isotopes have 16 left, 13 at home. Albuquerque's magic number to clinch the division is 10.

STREAKS CONTINUE: Chris Davis enters today's action on a 23-game on-base streak off a 4-for-5 night with 2 RBIs in Saturday. The 4-hit game was his first of the year as a RedHawk and the team's ninth. Casey Benjamin has reached base by hit or walk in 18 straight. Brian Gordon has not allowed a run in August, a scoreless stretch of 6 games and 9 innings. Mike Hinckley has also not surrendered a run this month, putting up zeros in 6 games and 7.2 innings.

RARE BULLPEN LOSS: Last night's losing decision for reliever A.J. Murray was the bullpen's first loss since Aug. 7, when Warner Madrigal allowed an unearned run in the 12th inning of a 4-3 loss at Sacramento. The starters had taken the loss in each of the previous 6 defeats and 9 of the last 10. For the season, RedHawks starters are 38-47, while the bullpen is 25-16.

DOUBLE DUTY: Today's doubleheader is the RedHawks' sixth of the season. OKC has 4 splits and one sweep in its first 5 doubleheaders. Two of OKC's doubleheaders were split twin bills, with 9-inning games May 18 vs. Tacoma and July 11 vs. Iowa. In those, the RedHawks swept Tacoma and split with Iowa. In conventional doubleheaders created by rainouts, the RedHawks split in Omaha April 27, split at home against Albuquerque May 30 and split at The Brick against the Royals July 5. Barring rain, chemical spills or other misfortune, the RedHawks are slated to play one more doubleheader Sept. 5 at Memphis to make up for a rainout from the fourth day of the season.

THIS SEEMS FAMILIAR: Doubleheaders created by rainouts or other postponements have become common between the RedHawks and Royals. OKC has played 15 conventional, non-split doubleheaders in the past 4 seasons (2006-2009) and 8 have been against Omaha: Aug. 27, 2006; May 24 and June 24, 2007; May 30, June 29 and Aug. 19, 2008; and April 27 and July 5, 2009. The last season OKC and Omaha were not forced to play a twin bill was the 2005, when the RedHawks had just one doubleheader the entire season.

Check out the Oklahoma City Comets Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Pacific Coast League Stories from August 23, 2009


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central