There were some great performances last night, streaks that were kept alive, pitchers who set personal records, hot temperatures, tarps being pulled and just about everything else you could want in a night of Minor League baseball.
AAA OKC Dodgers
The OKC Dodgers pounded out 12 hits and 6 runs to beat Sugarland for the 2nd night in a row at Bricktown Ballpark in front of 3728 fans in OKC.
I do NOT like posting videos and or providing coverage on a struggling performance and I will NOT make a habit of it, but, in this case, I figured Dodgers fans would like to see Pedro Baez in action, and, with all the MLB success he’s had, he can handle it for our sake this one time.
Drew Avans extended his hit streak to 34 games, but he has been much more than that. Avans is hitting .298 w/OPS of .852 & is hitting .333 w/OPS of .838 in July. In June he hit .326 w/OPS of .965, so he has been one of the best offensive players in the league.
Jason Martin collected his 3rd 2-hit night in his last 4, & 4th in his last 7. He’s hitting .316 w/1.049 OPS in July & is .287 w/.956 OPS on the year. He deserves another shot at the MLB, especially considering he hit over .300 in his last 40 at-bats w/ Texas last year.
Michael Busch had another 2-hit game last night which is his 4th out of his last 5 games and 7th of the month. To put that into perspective, he has only gone hitless in 6 games in July, so that means he has more multi-hit games this month than he does 0fers!
James Outman had a great night last night for OKC going 2 for 3 with a 2-run double and a homer. The home run was his 21st of the year, and he now has 22 RBIs just this month in 19 games.
Andre Jackson turned in his best outing since early June going 5, w/ 6 k’s, 3 walks, giving up 1. The key for Jackson is simple…When he’s throwing strikes he’s good! When he’s throwing strikes w/ his fastball, slider, & change, he’s MLB good. See it for yourself!
AA Tulsa Drillers
Despite a great performance from LHP John Rooney, the Drillers dropped a 6-2 decision to the Arkansas Travelers in front of 4875 fans at beautiful OneOk Field.
The Texas League leader in home runs (24), Ryan Ward, had 3 hits last night and is hitting .313 in July with an OPS of 1.074. He now has 9 multi-hit games this month and has had 3 hits in a game 3 different times in July as well.
The best part of the ridiculous play Kody Hoese made last night at 3rd base was that no one, I mean not one single teammate was surprised! He is such an elite defender that it was just kind of business as usual for him! Check it out for yourself!
In games that LHP John Rooney has started on the mound this year, Rooney has an ERA of just 3.00. Last night was the longest outing of his career in terms of innings pitched (7.1), & he K’d 6 & walked just 1. He locates, changes speeds, & moves the ball very well!
High A Great Lakes
The loons came out of the gates swinging and scored 4 runs in the first inning en route to a crazy 8-6 win over the Lansing Lugnuts.
When you’re left-handed, command both sides of the plate, & locate, like Ben Harris, you have a chance to be very good! Check this out! Harris hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last 6 outings & has allowed just 1 in July. He has 16 K’s & just 2 walks this month.
Here’s some video of a sequence from RHP Ryan Sublette’s scoreless outing last night that shows why he is so tough to square up. Fastball rides in on the hands, slider cuts away w/ depth, & it’s from a side slot. He’s gone scoreless in 8 of his last 9!
Jeff Belge was serving up some jam sandwiches last night for Great Lakes. His ability to pitch weak contact should make for some really quick innings. Last night was Belge’s 11th scoreless outing of out 16, & he’s only allowed multiple runs once (2) 7 performances ago.
Robbie Peto threw 3 scoreless for the Loons & had his entire arsenal on display. Couple of things: 1) He is really good in the bulk inning (piggyback) role like last night. 2) I love his breaking ball because it takes so many different shapes & can serve every purpose.
Cole Duensing got his 3rd win of the season last night for the Loons/Camels to continue his great work in the latter half of July. In his last 5 outings, he’s given up just 2 runs, 1 each in 2 separate performances, and has only walked 1 batter in those 5.2 innings.
Jose Ramos had 2 more hits last night to extend his hit streak to 4 games and he added a sac fly and had 2 RBIs0. Ramos has hits in 7 of his last 8 games and 11 out of 13, and is hitting .266 on the year with an OPS of .870.
Imanol Vargas is simply a machine at the plate this year for Great Lakes. He had 2 more hits last night to extend his hit streak to 6 games, and he reached base in all but 3 games this month. Overall he’s hitting .280 with an OPS Of .921.
Edwin Mateo hit his 2nd home run of 2022 last night and it traveled 400 very happy feet. Mateo has hits in each of his last 3 games, 4 out of his last 5, and has a home run, a double, and 7 total bases in his last 3 games.
Eddys Leonard hit his 9th home run of 2022 last night. Leonard is having a great month of July as during this month he is hitting .308 with an OPS of .862. He has hits in 3 games in a row, 5 out of 8, and is 5 for his last 12 with a home run a double, & 13 Total bases.
Low A Rancho Cucamonga
Although last night was a night that most Quakes fans would want to forget, losing 6-0 to the San Jose Giants, there were some very good individual performances.
Maddux Bruns’s stuff is “as advertised”. Check out the slider to both the “back-foot” and the “back-door”, mixed with the curve ball with some “Kershaw” type shape.Bruns threw 2 scoreless last night and hasn’t allowed an earned run in 3 in a row and 5 out of 6!
It didn’t take long for Damon Keith to extend his hit streak to 11 as he nailed the 2nd pitch he saw to right field. During his streak, he is 17/53 (.320) & has 2 homers, 4 doubles, 10 RBIs, 15 runs scored, & 30 total bases. Not much else he can do, IMO, Just keep Rakin!
One thing that is never questioned with Kenneth Betancourt is his “hustle” factor. He used it to extend his hit streak to 6 games last night and now has hits in 8 of his last 9 games. During his hit streak, he is 9/25 (.360) with 9 total bases.
Here’s a good look at the stuff of Joan Valdez RHP with the Quakes. Kind of has some Mariano Rivera to him with the way he cuts the ball and gets subtle late movement to move the ball off the barrel. Also showed slider shape with depth and a good change-up.
