For the second straight day, it was a clean sweep for all four Dodgers affiliates.
Player of the day
Jarred Karros had the audacity to walk two batters on Thursday, his first free passes issued his four starts this season. But he made up for it was a season-high eight strikeouts in five scoreless innings.
Karros on the season has a 2.70 ERA in four starts, all of them five innings, with 25 strikeouts and a 32.9-percent strikeout rate in those 20 innings. Since getting promoted to High-A last August, Karros has a 1.91 ERA in 33 innings, with 36 strikeouts against only three walks.
Triple-A Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City won its third straight over the Albuquerque Isotopes (Rockies), this one with its widest margin to date (12 runs). The three games in this series at the hitting eden in Albuquerque, the teams have combined to score 30, 20, and 30 runs.
Ryan Ward homered twice, doubled, and drove in six. Trey Sweeney had four hits, including a home run and double, and drove in five. Chris Ownings homered; he and Drew Avans each scored four times.
Here’s a compendium of the many times OKC rounded the bases on Thursday:
21 runs on 16 hits!@okc_baseball totaled 10 extra-base hits and 11 walks in a big day at the park. pic.twitter.com/NepNGXjJHw
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) April 25, 2024
With offenses putting up video game numbers, let’s appreciate a few fine pitching outings. J.P. Feyereisen struck out four in 2⅔ scoreless innings, allowing only a single. Left-hander Stephen Gonsalves loaded the bases, but struck out two and pitched a scoreless inning, his second scoreless frame of the series.
Double-A Tulsa
A three-run home run by first baseman Griffin Lockwood-Powell in the sixth inning propelled the Drillers to a win over the Northwest Arkansas Naturals (Royals) that was shortened to eight innings by rain.
Center fielder Jose Ramos hit a two-run home run in the first inning and also doubled.
Logan Boyer, the Dodgers’ 11th-round draft pick in 2019 out of San Diego State, did not pitch in either of the last two seasons while on the injured list. This year the right-hander has a 1.35 ERA in six appearances for Tulsa, including a five-out save on Thursday, the first save of his professional career.
High-A Great Lakes
A four-run fourth inning gave Karros all the support he needed in the Loons’ road win over the Fort Wayne TinCaps (Padres).
Catcher Thayron Liranzo started the fourth inning with a double, and Dylan Campbell and Alex Freeland added RBI singles in a busy inning that also featured two walks, and error, and a stolen base.
The switch-hitting Freeland had two hits and a stolen base Thursday to extend his on-base streak to six games. One of those hits for Freeland was off left-handed starter Miguel Cienfuegos, giving Freeland five hits in 10 at-bats against southpaws this season. He’s doing just fine against right-handers too, hitting .333/.500/.538.
Given that Freeland is repeating High-A, and that he has more than twice as many walks (15) as strikeouts (seven) with his 1.087 OPS this year, a promotion in the near future for the 22-year-old wouldn’t be surprising at all.
Another strong Great Lakes pitching performance was by Lucas Wepf, who earned his first save by striking out four of the five batters he faced on Thursday, including escaping a two-out, two-out situation when he entered in the eighth inning. The right-hander has a 2.79 ERA in 9⅔ innings with a 36.8-percent strikeout rate (and five walks, a 13.2-percent rate).
Low-A Rancho Cucamonga
The Quakes built a big lead thanks to three huge innings, then held on for dear life to beat the Lake Elsinore Storm (Padres). Their opponent literally stormed back with five runs in the eighth inning and one more in the ninth before Carlos Martinez got a strikeout to leave the tying runs on base.
First baseman Logan Wagner homered in his second game with Rancho Cucamonga, and catcher Jesus Galiz homered as well. Shortstop Jordan Thompson had three hits, including a double and stolen base, scoring two, and driving in two.
Kendall George had two hits, drove in a run, and scored twice, and was back in center field for the first time since April 12. He also stole a base for the second straight game, his second straight game with a steal along with Tuesday night as the designated hitter.
Rancho Cucamonga stole five bases on Thursday, and lead the California League with 22 stolen bases in 16 games this season.
Transaction
Low-A: Jefferson Valladares joined the Quakes from Arizona. The 2019 international signee out of Venezuela hit .273/.419/.455 in 22 games in the Arizona Complex League last season playing first base, catcher, and left field, and turns 22 on May 30. He pinch-hit for George and popped out in the eighth inning. then finished the game in left field.
Thursday scores
- Oklahoma City 21, Albuquerque 9
- Tulsa 6, NW Arkansas 4
- Great Lakes 5, Fort Wayne 1
- Rancho Cucamonga 12, Lake Elsinore 10
Friday schedule
- 4:05 p.m. PT: Great Lakes (Peter Heubeck) at Fort Wayne (Henry Baez)
- 5 p.m.: Tulsa (Kendall Williams) vs. Northwest Arkansas (Eric Cerantola)
- 5:35 p.m.: Oklahoma City (Elieser Hernández) at Albuquerque (Karl Kauffmann)
- 6:30 p.m.: Rancho Cucamonga (Patrick Copen) vs. Lake Elsinore (Eric Yost)