Yusniel Diaz has 3 hits in Quakes win

Oklahoma City and Rancho Cucamonga won while Tulsa and Great Lakes fell short on Thursday.

Player of the day

Rancho Cucamonga outfielder Yusniel Diaz went 3-for-4 with a double. Diaz has eight hits in his last three games.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

OKC beat the Nashville Sounds (Athletics) 8-1 on Thursday. Justin Masterson held the Sounds scoreless in his five innings of work and he picked up the win. Masterson gave up two hits, walked one and struck out five.

The bullpen was almost as efficient, Patrick Schuster, Jacob Rhame and Brandon Morrow combined to give up one run, five hits and struck out five.

Alex Verdugo had three hits, Rob Segedin and Chris Taylor each had two hits. Cody Bellinger hit his second home run of the season.

Double-A Tulsa

The Drillers saw the Midland RockHounds (Athletics) hit a pair of two-out three-run homers and that was enough for the RockHounds to win 7-5 and ruin the Drillers’ home opener.

The Drillers started the game well with three runs in the first inning. Isaac Anderson started for the Drillers but he did not get past the third inning before giving up the first of those three-run home runs.

Michael Johnson came in to start the fourth inning for the Drillers and he struck out the first two batters. Then an error and a single preceded the second three-run home run.

Edwin Rios hit his second home run of the season to make it 7-5 but that was when the scoring ended.

Tim Locastro and Rios each had three hits, Kyle Farmer was 1-for-2 with two walks and two runs scored.

Class-A Rancho Cucamonga

The Quakes had their home opener on Thursday and they gave their fans a good game beating Lake Elsinore Storm (Padres) 6-3. Pitching has been a strong point for the Quakes in the early season and in this game, the five Quakes pitchers struck out 15.

Caleb Ferguson started and in his three innings, he gave up a run, two hits, one walk and struck out five. Alex Hermeling got his third win as he pitched three scoreless innings and struck out three. The last three pitchers — Kevin Brown, Gavin Pittore and Shea Spitzbarth — each pitched an inning. Brown struck out the side while the other two each struck out two.

Besides Diaz, Drew Jackson had two hits and two RBI, Ariel Sandoval was 1-for-2 with two runs scored and a walk.

Class-A Great Lakes

The Loons had the lead through six innings but then the Dayton Dragons (Reds) scored six runs in the last three innings to comeback and win 6-3. The key inning was the eighth where a hit, two walks, an error, two wild pitches and a hit-by-pitch led to three runs and the lead changing hands.

Prior to that, Dustin May had a good start, going four innings, allowing no runs, two hits and striking out two.

The first five hitters in the Great Lakes lineup were held hitless. Moises Perez was 3-for-3 with a double, RBI and a walk.

Transactions

Class-A: Outfielder Mitchell Hansen assigned to Great Lakes from extended spring training; outfielder Shakir Albert assigned to extended spring from Great Lakes.

Thursday scores

Oklahoma City 8, Nashville 1

Midland 7, Tulsa 5

Rancho Cucamonga 6, Lake Elsinore 3

Dayton 6, Great Lakes 3

Friday schedule

3:05 p.m.: Great Lakes (Devin Smeltzer) vs. Dayton (Ryan Olson)

4:35 p.m.: Oklahoma City (Jair Jurrjens) at Nashville (Cesar Valdez)

5:05 p.m.: Tulsa (Tim Shibuya) vs. Midland (Kyle Friedrichs)

7:05 p.m.: Rancho Cucamonga (Dennis Santana) vs. Lake Elsinore (Pedro Avila)