Devin Mann homers twice for third consecutive game

There were 38 runs scored by the opposition Saturday and that was just in the three games the organization lost. The fourth game was a shutout win for the OKC Dodgers.

Player of the Day

It’s fairly reasonable that Devin Mann was going to continue his multi-homer run until he ended up in this section of the minor league report. All it took was a third night in a row with two long balls.

Prior to September 5, Mann only had six homers for the entire season. The infielder now has 13 thanks to six in the last three days.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

The Dodgers took a different approach than every other team in the organization Saturday. OKC poured it on late on their way to an 8-0 win over Salt Lake (Angels).

Aaron Wilkerson and Austin Bibens-Dirkx did the heavy lifting for the pitching staff, combining for seven scoreless to get the Dodgers into the eighth with a 2-0 advantage. The offense took it from there with a six-run outburst in the top of the eighth to put the game out of reach.

Six straight Dodgers reached with one out, including a two-run homer for Cristian Santana and a three-run double for Drew Avans.

While Santana hasn’t hit for much power this season with only seven homers, the 24-year-old has been a consistent threat at the plate. Saturday was the 24th multi-hit game for Santana this season and he is 203-for-669 (.303) in 177 games since the start of the 2019 season.

Santana did hit 24 home runs in High-A in 2018 but has only 17 combined in his last two seasons.

Double-A Tulsa

When a team scores 12 runs in baseball, there is a good chance that they’ll come away with a victory. That wasn’t the case Saturday night in Tulsa as the Drillers came out on the wrong end of a 20-12 home run derby.

The two clubs combined for nine homers total and most of those were before the fourth inning. Ryan Noda hit his 28th for the Drillers and Mann chipped in his two mentioned above. The rest belonged to Amarillo (Diamondbacks).

Highlights usually consist of the Dodger-related affiliate doing something good but this was something that doesn’t happen often in baseball. It’s also only a week away from the Dodgers doing this at the major league level.

The Sod Poodles hit four home runs in a row to break the game wide open in just the third inning.

Amarillo had scored 15 of the 20 runs after three innings, including a seven-run third. They gave the offense the rest of the night off after they were up 20-8 after five.

High-A Great Lakes

The Loons got behind early and couldn’t quite make it all the way back, taking a 6-4 loss at the hands of West Michigan (Tigers).

Carlos Duran allowed six runs (five earned) on six hits and two walks in three innings. It was the 20-year-old’s second start in High-A after being assigned to Great Lakes September 1.

Andy Pages went deep for the second consecutive night, slugging a solo shot for his 28th home run of the season to lead all of High-A. The 20-year-old has been hot at the plate in September, going 14-for-37 (.378) in 10 games.

Infielder Jorbit Vivas had three more hits and a walk in five plate appearances Saturday. Promoted to High-A in late August, Vivas is 19-for-49 (.388) in his last 12 games and has six multi-hit efforts in that span.

Jonny Deluca was 2-for-4 with his seventh homer of the season.

Low-A Rancho Cucamonga

While they did have a lead early in the game, Rancho pitching struggled mightily to keep Inland Empire (Angels) off the board. A six-run third for the 66ers was enough to bury the Quakes as they eventually fell to a 12-5 loss.

Rancho had eight hits and a 4-3 lead as they headed to the bottom of the third. That’s when Inland Empire took advantage of some baserunners and plated six runs to take a commanding 9-4 lead.

The bright spot for the Quakes came in the form of Jose Ramos and his third time in the last six games with three hits. It was the 10th time in 2021 that Ramos — the No. 16 prospect in the Dodger system — had at least three hits.

Transactions

Triple-A: Carlos Asuaje was activated from the 60-day injured list. Juan Zabala was transferred to the development list. Neftali Feliz was sent outright to OKC by the Dodgers.

High-A: Kevin Malisheski was placed on the 7-day injured list.

Saturday Scores

• Oklahoma City 8, Salt Lake 0
• Amarillo 20, Tulsa 12
• West Michigan 6, Great Lakes 4
• Inland Empire 12, Rancho Cucamonga 5

Sunday’s Schedule

• 11:00 a.m. PT: Great Lakes (Gavin Stone) at West Michigan (Zac Shepherd)
• 11:05 a.m.: Tulsa (Landon Knack) at Amarillo (Ryne Nelson)
• 12:05 p.m.: Oklahoma City (Ryan Pepiot) at Salt Lake (Thomas Pannone)
• 5:35 p.m.: Rancho Cucamonga (Nick Nastrini) at Inland Empire (Connor Van Scoyoc)