Late inning Heredia homer ties game, Loons win in 10th

Tulsa and Great Lakes complete late-inning comebacks while Oklahoma City and Rancho Cucamonga lose their games on Monday.

Player of the day

Starling Heredia has had a slow start to his 2018 season. Heredia is hitting .192/.248/.308 in over 120 plate appearances. However, Heredia had a good game on Monday, going 3-for-4 with a ninth inning game-tying home run.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

The Dodgers fell behind early and were unable to catch up as they lost 8-5 to the Colorado Springs Sky Sox (Brewers). The Dodgers scored two runs in the ninth but were able to push across any more runs.

Manny Bañuelos started and he gave up four runs in his three innings pitched. Bañuelos has seen his ERA nearly double after his last two starts. After his May 4th start, Bañuelos had a 1.80 ERA in 30 innings pitched. Since then, he has pitched eight total innings and given up nine runs. Bañuelos now has a 3.55 ERA.

Jake Peter went 4-for-5 with a triple, Donovan Solano and Alex Verdugo each had two hits. Kyle Garlick hit his sixth home run with Oklahoma City.

Double-A Tulsa

The Drillers saw the Springfield Cardinals take a seven run lead before they mounted a comeback to win 9-8 and take the first game of their series. The Drillers had cut their deficit to three runs when Peter O’Brien hit a grand slam in the eighth inning to take the lead and ultimately the game.

Dennis Santana started the game for Drillers and he had limited the Cardinals to one run. But Santana was unable to complete the fifth inning and he left responsible for seven runs (three earned), four hits and four walks. Santana had three strikeouts, his 51 strikeouts still leads the Texas League.

DJ Peters hit his eighth home run of the season and he went 2-for-4. Zak Reks and Angelo Mora also had two hits.

Class-A Rancho Cucamonga

The Quakes fell victim to a 5-0 shutout by the Visalia Rawhide (Diamondbacks). The Quakes did not produce many opportunities to score as they went 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position.

Dustin May pitched 4⅓ innings and he gave up three runs and seven hits. His opposing pitcher, Emilio Vargas, had one of his best starts of the season. He pitched 6⅔ innings, giving up two hits while striking out eight and walking two.

Rylan Bannon and Jeren Kendall each had two hits but that was it for the Quakes offense on Monday.

Class-A Great Lakes

The Loons trailed by a run from the fifth inning and it looked like the Bowling Green Hot Rods (Rays) were going to win when Starling Heredia came up in the ninth with two outs already recorded.

Heredia, who already had two hits including a triple, drilled a line drive over the left field wall to tie the game. After the Loons held Hot Rods scoreless in the top of the tenth, the Loons scored in the bottom of the tenth to win 6-5 on Monday night.

In the bottom of the tenth, Mitchell Hanson was the runner placed on second base to start the inning. Hanson had advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt but after a strikeout and a walk, he was still there.

With Brandon Montgomery at the plate, Hanson would score the winning run on a wild pitch.

The Loons got good pitching from Marshall Kasowski and Aneurys Zabala, who combined to pitch the last five innings. They allowed no runs, one hit and they struck out a total of seven hitters while walking three.

Transactions

Triple-A: Los Angeles optioned catcher/infielder Kyle Farmer and utility player Tim Locastro to Oklahoma City.

Class-AA: Outfielder Tyler Colvin assigned to Tulsa.

Class-A: Right-handed pitcher Zach Pop assigned to Rancho Cucamonga from Great Lakes; Rancho Cucamonga placed right-handed pitcher Sven Schueller on the 7-day disabled list. Left-handed pitcher Justin Hoyt assigned to Great Lakes from Tulsa.

Monday’s scores

Colorado Springs 8, Oklahoma City 5

Tulsa 9, Springfield 8

Visalia 5, Rancho Cucamonga 0

Great Lakes 6, Bowling Green 5 (10)

Tuesday’s schedule

7:35 a.m. PT: Great Lakes (TBD) vs. Bowling Green (Tobias Myers)

5:05 p.m.: Tulsa (Caleb Ferguson) vs. Springfield [Cardinals] (TBD)

5:40 p.m.: Oklahoma City (Daniel Corcino) at Colorado Springs (Aaron Brooks)

7:10 p.m.: Rancho Cucamonga (Tony Gonsolin) at Stockton [Athletics] (TBD)