Locastro leads OKC to a big win

Oklahoma City started their home stand with a normal outcome for them, a win. The other three affiliates, Tulsa, Rancho Cucamonga and Great Lakes, lost on Monday.

Player of the day

Tim Locastro returned to Oklahoma City and in his first game back, Locastro drove in a run in the second with a double and then hit a three-run homer that put the game away.

While Locastro gets the nod today, special mention has to go to Starling Heredia. Heredia has been on a tear, he hit two home runs on Thursday. That gave him four home runs since Monday.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

The Dodgers had won 17 games at home when they faced the Nashville Sounds (Athletics) in the first game of their home stand. The Dodgers added one more in the win column when they won 13-3 over the Sounds.

The Dodgers had seven players with two or more hits this game. Tim Locastro was making his first appearance since being optioned back to Oklahoma City earlier this week. Locastro went 2-for-4 with a home run and a double. Breyvic Valera and Travis Taijeron each had three hits.

With a one-run lead going to the bottom of the fourth, the Dodgers sent 12 batters to the plate and eight of those scored, three runs scored on Locastro’s home run.

Brock Stewart started and pitched three scoreless innings. Ariel Hernandez pitched an ineffective inning, giving up two runs and three hits. Joe Broussard got the win for pitching two scoreless innings right after the Dodgers took their big lead.

Double-A Tulsa

The Drillers fell too far behind and lost 8-5 to the Springfield Cardinals. The Drillers gave up eight runs by the middle of the fourth inning and a late rally was not enough to pull out the win.

Mitch White could not get out of the first inning, he faced six batters and make 29 pitches. White got one out but he also gave up two runs, two hits and two walks. After Michael Johnson tried to get things in order with 2⅔ innings pitched and giving up a run and one hit.

But then Nolan Long gave up five runs in the top of the fourth to make it 8-1 over the Drillers.

Four of the Drillers’ runs came from a three-run homer by Luke Raley and a solo shot from Connor Joe.

Class-A Rancho Cucamonga

The Quakes fell 2-1 to the Stockton Ports (Athletics) due to their fine pitching on Thursday. Jake Bray pitched five innings and gave up a run and two hits. Bray struck out nine and had no walks. Will Gilbert and Miguel Romero followed with two scoreless innings apiece. Gilbert would get the win and Romero recorded his eighth save.

Jeren Kendall hit his second home run of the season and that gave the Quakes a short early lead. The Quakes did not do much else offensively as they only had one inning where they put runners in scoring position.

Class-A Great Lakes

The Loons tied the game in the bottom of the eighth but then the Bowling Green Hot Rods (Rays) scored a run on a sacrifice fly out which was enough for a 5-4 win over the Loons.

With the game tied 4-4, Devin Hemmerich walked the first two hitters in the top of the ninth. A sacrifice bunt and an intentional walk loaded the bases with one out. Adrian Rondon hit a sacrifice fly to make it 5-4 Hot Rods.

Starling Heredia provided the offense for the Loons, he had two hits. Both were home runs, a three-run homer in the fourth and the solo shot in the eighth.

Transactions

Class-AA: Outfielder Tyler Goeddel assinged to Tulsa.

Class-A: Catcher Hamlet Marte assigned to Rancho Cucamonga from Tulsa.

Thursday’s scores

Oklahoma City 13, Nashville 3

Springfield 8, Tulsa 5

Stockton 2, Rancho Cucamonga 1

Bowling Green 5, Great Lakes 4

Friday’s schedule

4:00 p.m. PT: Great Lakes (TBD & TBD) at Dayton [Reds] (Hunter Greene & Tyler Mondile)

5:05 p.m.: Oklahoma City (Justin DeFratus) vs. Nashville (Eric Jokisch)

5:05 p.m.: Tulsa (Devin Smeltzer) vs. Arkansas [Mariners] (Nathan Bannister)

7:05 p.m.: Rancho Cucamonga (Andrew Sopko) vs. Lake Elsinore [Padres] (TBD)