Dodgers minor league news

Peters and Ruiz drive in key runs in Tulsa win

DJ Peters three-run homer highlights four-run 8th inning

By Craig Minami Jun 8, 2018, 6:00am PDT

Five of six Dodger affiliates won as only Great Lakes took a loss on Thursday. One note about the Dominican Summer League teams, the two teams combined for 24 walks received. That is a lot pitches seen.

Player of the day

DJ Peters hit a key three-run homer to ultimately provide the winning run in the Drillers 6-4 win. After a .900 OPS in April, Peters saw his May OPS drop to .741. And June hasn’t been better as Peters is hitting .222/.222/.333 so far.

Peters strikeout pct. has remained consistent, in both 2017 and 2018, it sits at 37.5% of his at bats. One trend is a little concerning, his yearly OPS has continued to go down each year in professional baseball. In 2016, his OPS was 1.052 in the Pioneer League, last season, in the California League, Peters OPS was .886, so far in 2018, his OPS is .780.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

The Dodgers drew five twos on Thursday as they beat the Sacramento River Cats (Giants) 10-6. The Dodgers scored two runs in five of the first seven innings to take a 10-3 lead.

The Dodgers had 16 hits with Travis Taijeron and Angelo Mora each going 4-for-5. Henry Ramos and Taijeron each hit a home run. Andrew Toles doubled and drove in three runs. Edwin Rios had two hits, including a double and a run scored.

Tyler Pill not only got the win for pitching six innings and giving up three wins, Pill also had two hits himself.

Double-A Tulsa

The Drillers broke a 1-1 tie with a four-run eighth inning and then held on to a 6-4 win over the Arkansas Travelers (Mariners). Going to the bottom of the ninth with a 6-2 lead, Corey Copping gave up two runs to make it a two-run game. Copping was able to get last batter to pop to short with a runner on second to end the game.

Before that, Mitchell White had his second straight five-inning start. He gave up a run and five hits while striking out three. Ariel Hernandez got the win though his three walks and three strikeouts in 2⅓ innings is not showing an improvement with his command.

Keibert Ruiz and DJ Peters each had two hits, Ruiz drove in two runs including the tie-breaking run in the eighth inning. Peters followed the Ruiz run-scoring single with a three-run homer to push the lead to four runs. Luke Raley had three hits and a run batted in.

Class-A Rancho Cucamonga

The Quakes won what has to be called a pitcher’s duel in Lancaster by winning 4-2 over the JetHawks (Rockies). Dean Kremer picked up the win by pitching five innings and giving up two runs (one earned) and nine hits. Kremer also struck out seven.

The Quakes bullpen was lights out as Zach Pop and Nolan Long each pitched two innings, gave up one hit and struck out three apiece.

Logan Landon was the offensive star as his three-run homer gave the Quakes their lead in the second inning and his two-out triple drove in the fourth run in the ninth inning.

Class-A Great Lakes

The Loons gave up five unanswered runs to lose 6-1 to West Michigan Whitecaps (Tigers) on Thursday.

The Whitecaps 16 hit attack was combined with a solid outing from their starting pitcher Brad Bass, who gave up one run to Loons in seven innings.

Marcus Chiu and Brandon Montgomery each had two hits but it was otherwise a slow day for the Loons at the plate.

Transactions

Triple-A: Los Angeles recalled right-handed pitcher Pedro Baez and left-handed pitcher Edward Paredes; Los Angeles optioned left-handed pitcher Caleb Ferguson to Oklahoma City; right-handed pitcher Logan Ondrusek assigned to Oklahoma City from Tulsa.

Double-A: Right-handed pitcher Andrew Sopko assigned to Tulsa from Rancho Cucamonga; Tulsa activated right-handed pitcher Shea Spitzbarth from the 7-day disabled list.

Class-A: Right-handed pitcher Parker Curry assigned to Rancho Cucamonga from Tulsa.