Justin Masterson solid for seven innings, Oklahoma City wins 5-2

Lately, it seems like we get a daily split of the four games played by the Dodger minor league teams. On Friday, it was Oklahoma City and Tulsa that won while Rancho Cucamonga and Great Lakes took the losses.

Player of the day

Justin Masterson matched his season-high seven innings pitched as he picked up his third win on Friday night. Masterson has now struck out 40 against 12 walks in 37⅔ innings this season.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

The Dodgers fell behind to the Fresno Grizzlies (Astros) but a four-run rally in the fourth put them in the lead on their way to a 5-2 win. Bobby Wilson and Darnell Sweeney each had run-scoring singles that tied the game and then, Alex Verdugo singled home both Wilson and Sweeney to give the Dodgers the lead.

In the eighth, Max Muncy singled home O’Koyea Dickson with the final run. Muncy and Sweeney each had two hits.

Justin Masterson was the winner as noted above, he pitched seven innings and allowed two runs, three hits, two walks and struck out six. Madison Younginer pitched the final two innings for his second save.

Double-A Tulsa

In a game where the Drillers scored nine runs to beat the NW Arkansas Naturals (Royals) 9-4, this game was also notable for being Walker Buehler’s Texas League debut.

Buehler had pitched 16 ⅓ innings for the Quakes and he had struck out 27 and walked five in his five starts. While Buehler reportedly hit 100 mph a few times on Friday, he allowed two runs, six hits, one walk in his four inning start. He did strike out three.

One Driller pitcher who continues to be someone watch is Yaisel Sierra. Sierra pitched a scoreless ninth with one hit allowed and two strikeouts.

Edwin Rios did have two hits and two RBI but it was Kyle Farmer who was the offensive star, he was 3-for-3 with a double, two runs scored, two RBI and he also picked up two walks. Jacob Scavuzzo also had three hits and Tim Locastro had two hits.

Class-A Rancho Cucamonga

Dennis Santana had given a total eight runs in six prior games before Friday. Before there was one out in the first inning, Santana had allowed Visalia Rawhide (Diamondbacks) to score four runs. That was too big of hill the climb and the Rawhide won 7-3 over the Quakes.

Santana would pitch 4⅓ innings and give up a total of seven runs (five earned) on only two hits and three walks. The three Quakes relievers, Chris Powell, Kevin Brown and Shea Spitzbarth each struck out three as nine of the final 11 outs recorded by the Quakes were by strikeout.

However, the Quakes hitters struck out 15 times and could only produce six singles and three runs.

Class-A Great Lakes

The Loons were beaten by the Clinton LumberKings (Mariners) 8-3 on Friday. A.J. Alexy only pitched 2⅔ innings as he gave up five runs, three hits and three walks in that short outing. Chris Mathewson and Andre Scrubb combined for five innings of scoreless relief.

As for the bats, Loons hitters struck out 15 times and walked once. Keibert Ruiz did go 2-for-4 with a double and run scored.

Transactions

Triple-A: Left-handed pitcher Logan Darnell assigned to Oklahoma City from Extended Spring Training; right-handed pitchers Layne Somsen and Fabio Castillo assigned to Extended Spring Training from Oklahoma City.

Class-A: Left-handed pitcher Caleb Ferguson assigned to Extended Spring Training from Rancho Cucamonga; right-handed pitcher Ryan Moseley assigned to Rancho Cucamonga from Extended Spring Training.

Friday scores

Oklahoma City 5, Fresno 2

Tulsa 9, NW Arkansas 4

Visalia 7, Rancho Cucamonga 3

Clinton 8, Great Lakes 3

Saturday schedule

4:05 p.m.: Tulsa (Scott Barlow) at NW Arkansas (Corey Ray)

4:30 p.m.: Great Lakes (Willian Soto) at Clinton (Brandon Miller)

5:05 p.m.: Oklahoma City (Jair Jurrjens) vs. Fresno (Mike Hauschild)

7:00 p.m.: Rancho Cucamonga (Dean Kremer) at Visalia (Bo Takahashi)