Tim Locastro homers in Drillers’ 3-0 win

The Drillers won their first home game while both the OKC Dodgers and Quakes rally for wins. The Loons pitched well but could not score as they were shutout.

Player of the day

Tim Locastro has gotten off to a hot start for the Drillers. The 24-year old shortstop is in his second year at Tulsa and his two-run home run pushed the lead to three which was more than enough for the win.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City scored two runs in the ninth and held on to beat the Nashville Sounds (Athletics) 3-2 to take their third straight and three out of four in this series. With one out, Alex Verdugo hit a fly ball to left that was misplayed and both Cody Bellinger and O’Koyea Dickson scored.

Brandon Morrow gave up an one-out solo home run but then got the final two outs to record his second save.

Jair Jurrjens had his second impressive start, pitching six innings and allowing one run, five hits and striking out five. Oklahoma City did not give up a walk and that continued an impressive run by their pitching staff.

Double-A Tulsa

The Drillers got ahead early and went on to shutout the Midland RockHounds (Athletics) 3-0 to win their first game at home. Paul Hoenecke started the scoring with a solo home run and later that inning, Tim Locastro hit a two-run homer to make it 3-0.

Tim Shibuya held the RockHounds scoreless for five and he was followed by Edward Paredes, Ralston Cash and Joe Broussard who completed the shutout win.

Class-A Rancho Cucamonga

The Quakes fell behind by three runs but a four run inning propelled them ahead and they went on to beat Lake Elsinore Storm (Padres) 5-4 on Friday night at LoanMart Field. The Quakes had 12 hits, Omar Estevez and DJ Peters each had three hits, two hits apiece for Ibandel Isabel and Brandon Montgomery.

The winning rally started with an Estevez double that was followed by Peters’ first triple of the season. Yusniel Diaz singled home Peters and Diaz moved to second on an error.

With one out, Isabel tied the game with a single. Another error put runners on first and third and then Montgomery drove in the tie-breaking run with a sacrifice fly.

Right-handed pitcher Dennis Santana, who was an All-Star for Great Lakes in 2016, made his second start of the season and he was impressive, sitting in the 90s with his fastball and at times overpowering hitters. He gave up an unearned run, a hit, one walk and struck out four.

Chris Powell relieved Santana, who got the win, gave up two runs in his first inning of work but then the Quakes scored four to take the lead. Powell went on to pitch one more inning, he was followed Gavin Pittore, and Andrew Istler, Istler got his first save of the season.

Class-A Great Lakes

The Loons and Dayton Dragons (Reds) were in a scoreless tie until with two out in the sixth, Tyler Stephenson singled in two for the Dragons and that was enough for a 2-0 win for the Dragons.

Devin Smeltzer pitched the first five innings for the Loons and he was near perfect, facing only 16 batters and giving up just one hit and striking out five. Nolan Long had a rough sixth inning as he could only get two outs. During the sixth, Long walked the bases-loaded, gave up the single to score two and then had one more walk before exiting the game.

Brendon Davis, who is hitting .409, got two singles in the game but that was not enough on Friday.

Transactions

Triple-A: Dodgers optioned right-handed pitcher Josh Fields to Oklahoma City.

Friday scores

Oklahoma City 3, Nashville 2

Tulsa 3, Midland 0

Rancho Cucamonga 5, Lake Elsinore 4

Dayton 2, Great Lakes 0

Saturday schedule

11:05 a.m.: Great Lakes (A.J. Alexy) vs. Dayton (Andrew Jordan)

4:35 p.m.: Oklahoma City (Julio Urias) at Memphis Redbirds (Cardinals) (Josh Zeid)

5:05 p.m.: Tulsa (Colt Hynes) vs. Midland (Corey Walter)

7:05 p.m.: Rancho Cucamonga (Walker Buehler) vs. Lake Elsinore (Jean Cosme)