Dodgers minor league news

Dodgers minors: Rob Segedin homers, Chase De Jong throws 6 scoreless, 5 Quakes suspended

By Eric Stephen@ericstephen Jun 26, 2016, 6:00am PDT

Around the Dodgers' minor league affiliates on Saturday featured a high-leverage save, another strong outing by a Tulsa pitcher, another shutout in the Midwest League and suspensions levied in Rancho Cucamonga one night after a brawl.

Player of the day

Staked to a one-run lead, Jacob Rhame struck out a season-high five in recording the final six outs of the game for Triple-A Oklahoma City. Rhame struck out his first two batters in a perfect eighth inning, but then allowed a leadoff single in the ninth. A wild pitch and a stolen base but the tying run just 90 feet away, but Rhame recovered to strike out the next three batters, including the final two looking, to preserve the victory.

It was the seventh appearance of at least two innings this season for Rhame, who has a 27.6-percent strikeout rate to go with his 2.86 ERA in his 27 relief appearances.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

Rob Segedin hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning that gave Oklahoma City the lead for good in a 6-5 win over Iowa (Cubs). Segedin was 1-for-3 with a walk on Saturday, continuing his stellar season, hitting .297/.375/.562 with 13 home runs, part of his 34 extra-base hits in 68 games.

Jose De Leon allowed three runs on seven hits, including two home runs. He struck out five, but also needed 77 pitches in his 3⅓ innings, and is not a consideration to start for the Dodgers on Wednesday.

Double-A Tulsa

The Drillers have graduated two starting pitchers to Triple-A already this season, but that hasn't stopped Tulsa from continuing to put up strong games. Chase De Jong was the latest to excel with six shutout innings in a 2-0 win over the Northwest Arkansas Naturals (Royals). De Jong struck out five and walked only one, allowing four hits. The 22-year-old right-hander has a 2.45 ERA in 15 starts for Tulsa this season to go with a 23.1-percent strikeout rate and 7.5-percent walk rate.

Andrew Toles doubled, walked and drove in a run from the leadoff spot. Kyle Garlick doubled and scored, and Jacob Scavuzzo doubled in the win. Relief pitchers Jordan Schafer, Joe Broussard and Caleb Dirks combined for three scoreless innings, and all three have sub-2.00 ERAs with the Drillers this season.

Dirks walked a batter on Saturday which was rare. He now has seven walks on the season to go with 35 strikeouts n 31⅓ innings.

Class-A Rancho Cucamonga

Left fielder Joey Curletta homered and doubled to lead the Quakes over the High Desert Mavericks (Rangers) 7-3. Curletta was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two driven in. Matt Beaty, the designated hitter, was 3-for-4 with a pair of RBI, and Edwin Rios continued his extra-base onslaught by going 2-for-3 with a double, a walk and two RBI. Rios has five extra-base hits in his last six games.

Grant Holmes wasn't at his best but got the win by fighting through five innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on three hits, with five walks and three strikeouts. The walks were an anomaly for Holmes, who had 10 total walks in his previous nine starts, and on the season has 29 walks in 75 innings, with 73 strikeouts. The home run Holmes allowed was also just his second surrendered in his last nine starts.

Suspensions

Stemming from Friday night's brawl against High Desert, the punishment was levied on Saturday in the form of 10 suspensions, five from each team. There weren't full details of the suspensions, but three Quakes were removed from Saturday's starting lineup — catcher Julian Leon, designated hitter Spencer Navin, and center fielder Johan Mieses.

With the suspensions the Quakes had to scramble with their lineup, including pitcher Bubby Rossman starting in right field. The former Division II Gold Glove Award winner as a switch-hitting outfielder at Cal State Dominguez Hills, had yet to bat as a professional since getting drafted in the 22nd round in 2014. Rossman struck out in his first three plate appearances batting left-handed, but reached base on a bunt single as a right-hander in the eighth inning.

Class-A Great Lakes

Michael Boyle allowed just one run in six innings, with a walk and three strikeouts, but he suffered the hard-luck loss in Great Lakes' 1-0 loss on the road to the Lake County Captain (Indians).

It was a rough night on offense for the Loons, who were shutout for the 10th time this season. Great Lakes tallied six singles in the game, including three in the second inning, but a pickoff helped neuter that inning and three double plays in the game by Lake County helped subdue the Loons.

Rookie-level Ogden

The Raptors fell 4-1 to the Orem Owlz (Angels), though catcher Gersel Pitre was 3-for-4 with a run scored in defeat. Third baseman Brock Carpenter, drafted by the Dodgers this year in the 20th round, doubled and walked.

Rookie-level Arizona

Carlos Mosquera, a 20-year-old center fielder signed in 2014 out of Panama, had two doubles and drove in a run in the AZL Dodgers' 3-2 win over the AZL Reds.

Veteran relief pitcher Randy Choate allowed two singles and struck out two in a scoreless inning in his second appearance since signing a minor league deal with the Dodgers.

Dominican Summer League

The DSL Dodgers1 lost to the DSL Orioles2 3-2, and the DSL Dodgers2 beat the DSL Rays1 5-0. The highlights were 18-year-old Venezuelan right-hander Celis Flames (signed in 2014) throwing three scoreless innings, with two strikeouts; 18-year-old Dominican right-hander Yeison Cespedes (signed this April) throwing five scoreless innings with four strikeouts, running his professional scoreless-inning streak to 8⅓ in his first two games; and big-ticket 17-year-old Dominican outfielder Starling Heredia, signed to a $2.6 million bonus on July 2, 2015, going 2-for-4 with a run scored.

Transactions

Triple-A: New waiver claim Layne Somsen was added to the Oklahoma City roster; outfielder Will Venable was sent outright to Oklahoma City; infielder Chris Taylor was recalled to Los Angeles.

Class-A: Donavan Tate was promoted to Rancho Cucamonga after two games with Great Lakes. Pitcher Luis De Paula was placed on the disabled list; Logan Landon was activated from the DL to replace Tate in the Loons' outfield.