Tulsa returns to Texas League Championship Series

So there will be two Dodger minor-league affiliates playing for their league championships on Tuesday. Tulsa joined Rancho Cucamonga when they won 5-3 on Sunday at home.

Unfortunately, Oklahoma City and Ogden did not win and thus their seasons ended yesterday. Oklahoma City lost two leads, that last lost lead resulted in a walk-off win for Memphis.

Ogden fell behind early and their comeback fell one run short.

Monday is an off-day before the playoffs resume on Tuesday.

Player of the Game

Rich Crimi

Mitchell White pitched seven scoreless innings and got the key win to advance the Drillers to the Texas League Championship Series.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

The Dodgers lost 4-3 in the tenth inning to the defending Pacific Coast League Champions Memphis Redbirds (Cardinals). The loss meant the Redbirds will advance to the Championship Series as they beat the Dodgers 3 games to 1.

If the Dodgers choose to look back at this series, they will know that in the last two losses, they took the lead to last inning and saw the Redbirds walk-off with wins.

With Saturday’s rainout, there was a chance that the teams would play two games on Sunday. So two seven-inning games were scheduled.

The Dodgers took a 1-0 lead to the bottom of the seventh but saw a leadoff double, a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly tie the game.

Eventually the game reached the tenth inning and with two outs and one on, Henry Ramos continued his hot hitting with a two-run homer. It was his third home run in this series.

Josh Sborz tried to finish the game but after walking the first batter, he was removed for Zach McAllister. McAllister would then give up a bad hop double to put the tying runs in scoring position.

A wild pitch would score a run but then McAllister struck out the next two hitters to put Oklahoma City one out away from forcing a fifth game.

But Alex Mejia would get the single to tie the game. Eventually the Dodgers would load the bases to bring up pitcher Giovanny Gallegos. Gallegos was hitting because the Redbirds did not have any position players left to pinch-hit for him. Gallegos was 0-for-5 this season.

Edward Paredes got ahead 0 and 2. Then Gallegos hit a line drive single to win the game and the series.

Zach Neal started the game for the Dodgers and he pitched five scoreless innings. Julio Urias relieved in the sixth inning and after giving up a hit, he retired the next three in order.

But that eventually was for naught as the Redbirds would fly on and the Dodgers headed back home to start their off-season.

Double-A Tulsa

Throughout the 2018 season, the Drillers had a number of top Dodger prospects on their roster. Many of those players had good games in the the Drillers 5-3 win over the Arkansas Travelers (Mariners) on Sunday.

The win gave the Drillers a 3-2 series win and they will now host the San Antonio Missions (Padres) in the first two games of the Texas League Championship Series that begins on Tuesday.

As noted above, Mitchell White was the man on Sunday. His best start in the regular season was a seven scoreless innings with nine strikeouts game against Arkansas back in August. Yesterday, White repeated the seven scoreless innings while striking out five.

The Drillers relievers were a little shaky but Layne Somsen got the last out to record the save.

Gavin Lux went 3-for-4 with a double, home run and three runs driven in. Keibert Ruiz had two hits, DJ Peters also had two hits with a home run and two runs driven in. Eric Peterson scored twice and had two hits.

Class-A Rancho Cucamonga

The Quakes had an off-day as they get ready to play the Visalia Rawhide (Diamondbacks) in the California League Championship series. The Quakes will travel tonight to Visalia for Games 1 and 2 of the Best-of-5 series.

Rookie Pioneer League Ogden

The Raptors were a worthy defending Pioneer League champion. They sprinted out to win this season’s first-half title and played winning baseball in the second half.

However, their lost lead on Friday turned out to be too much to comeback from and the Grand Junction Rockies were able to hang on to a 6-5 win on Sunday. The Rockies will move on to the Championship Series.

Brett de Geus made the start for Ogden and he did not have a good game. He gave up six runs in 1⅓ innings pitched. Now, the pitchers that followed were able to keep the Rockies from scoring but the six-run deficit proved to big to overcome.

Not that Ogden didn’t try to rally. Moises Perez and Ronny Brito each homered. Marcus Chiu had two hits.

But it wasn’t enough and the Raptors ended their season one series short of an opportunity to repeat.

Transactions

There were no transactions reported on Sunday September 9th.

Sunday’s scores

Memphis 4, Oklahoma City 3 (10)

Tulsa 5, Arkansas 3

Grand Junction 6, Ogden 5

Monday’s schedule

There are no games scheduled for Monday.