Dodgers minor league news

Yadier Alvarez puts up second straight scoreless start

By Brandon Lennox Jun 27, 2016, 6:00am PDT

Yadier Alvarez prior to signing with the Dodgers

It was a rough day for the Dodgers minor league affiliates on Sunday as five of the six teams lost, with only the Arizona Dodgers pulling out a victory.

Player of the day

Yadier Alvarez's second professional start was very similar to his first in that he gave up just one hit and did not allow a run. While he walked three in this outing and "only" struck out three (compared to seven in his last start), Alvarez's competition is clearly overmatched.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

The Dodgers and Cubs were supposed to play two on Sunday, but after Iowa's 6-5 victory in game one the rains moved in postponed game two. Jharel Cotton had his worst outing in a while as he gave up five runs on five hits and three walks over five frames. Mike Bolsinger tossed a shutout inning of relief in his second appearance since rejoining OKC, while Luis Avilan actually took the loss after allowing a run in the final frame.

At the dish O'Koyea Dickson continued his solid season with his sixth homer of the season, while Alex Hassan was 2-for-4 with two doubles and a RBI.

Double-A Tulsa

The Drillers pitching staff allowed 17 hits in their 8-3 loss to the Naturals (Royals). Starter Jeremy Kehrt permitted almost half of this hits and four runs in just under four innings of work, while a trio of relievers struggled through the rest of the game.

Tulsa was relatively quiet offensively as Paul Hoenecke's solo homer was the club's only extra base hit. Cody Bellinger and Alex Verdugo both finished the game 1-for-4.

Class-A Rancho Cucamonga

The Mavericks (Rangers) doubled up on the Quakes as Rancho fell 4-2. Starter Josh Sborz had his shortest outing of the year as gave up three hits and two runs over four innings, but it was due to him being on a limited pitch count to conserve his innings. Philip Pfeifer took the loss after allowing what turned out to be the game winner in the fifth inning.

In what seemed to be a trend on Sunday the Quakes offense was very quiet as Tim Locastro's RBI double was the team's only extra base hit. Edwin Rios drove in the other run while Erick Mejia was 2-for-4.

Class-A Great Lakes

The Loons got a solid start out of Victor Gonzalez, but the bullpen could not hold as Great Lakes fell to Lake County Indians) 6-3. Gonzalez vied for the player of the day award after allowing just two hits and one run over five frames, although he did walk four. Nolan Long was the one that got punished in relief as he got pounded for five runs in the seventh.

The Loons offense actually had quite a few extra base hits in the loss as Erick Meza connected on two doubles while Gage Green also had a two-bagger. 18 year old Omar Estevez also got in on the action with his second homer of the season.

Rookie-level Ogden

The Raptors fell to 1-8 on the season after losing 10-1 to Orem (Angels). The story of the game was six errors by the Ogden defense, along with four hits batsmen and five wild pitches. Starter Gregor Mora took the loss while Johan Diaz also got hit hard.

The offense managed just five hits, but Mitchell Hansen was the bright spot as he collected three of those base knocks to increase his average to .343.

Rookie-level Arizona

The Arizona Dodgers salvaged the day for the organization with a 9-4 win over the Reds. Player of the day Alvarez tossed 4 2/3 shutout frames, then Adalberto Pena followed with three hitless innings.

17 year old Keibert Ruiz, a catcher from Venezuela who was signed in 2014 and spent last year in the DSL, was 4-for-5 and drove in five runs despite the fact that all of his hits were singles. Gavin Lux was 2-for-5 with a double and a RBI, although he did make his first error as a pro.