Dodgers minor league news

Quakes offense explodes for 19 runs

They scored 18 runs in the first three innings

By Blake Harris@BlakeHarrisTBLA Sep 6, 2021, 5:46am PDT

Player of the day

Instead of giving the honor to a player, I’m giving it to the entire Rancho Cucamonga Quakes offense. They scored 19 runs on 20 hits. Get this.... they scored 18 runs in the first three innings! No, seriously. No I’m actually telling you the truth. Go read their recap to believe me.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

It was a quiet night for the offense in OKC, as the Dodgers fell to the ABQ Isotopes (Rockies) 4-1. The lone run of the game came off the bat of an Aldrich De Jongh double.

Gavin Lux played center field for the first time in his career, but went 0-for-4 at the plate. Victor Gonzalez threw a scoreless inning with a strikeout.

Double-A Tulsa

The Drillers took down the Springfield Cardinals, 9-4. It was the second inning in which Tulsa jumped out to a big lead. They scored four runs, as Kody Hoese, Michael Busch and Justin Yurchak all had RBI hits. Devin Mann hit a solo homer in the third to give the Drillers a 6-1 lead.

Tulsa tacked on three more runs in the sixth inning after a double from Busch, a sac fly from Miguel Vargas and a groundout from Yurchak.

Michael Grove was activated off the IL and had one of his best outings of the season. He allowed only one run in four innings on two hits. Grove also finished the game with four strikeouts and zero walks. Gus Varland followed with four innings, allowing three runs on four hits.

High-A Great Lakes

The Loons scored three runs in the first inning, as they took down the Fort Wayne TinCaps (Padres) 6-2. Carson Taylor, Jorbit Vivas and Jonny Deluca all brought in a run in the first inning. Brandon Lewis provided the rest of the offense, as he hit his 20th homer with the Loons in the sixth inning and then singled in a run in the seventh inning.

Carlos Duran allowed two runs in 4 ¹⁄₃ innings, striking out three and walking four. Michael Hobbs, LA’s 10th rounder in the 2021 draft, didn’t allow a hit in his 1 ¹⁄₃ innings of action.

Low-A Rancho Cucamonga

The Quakes had 18 runs in the first three innings. Yes, seriously. The offense cooled down after that, as they scored only one run over the final five innings in their 19-9 victory over the Lake Elsinore Storm (Padres).

I don’t even know how to recap that. I’m still trying to process how any team could score 18 runs in three innings. Even if you called me out of the stands I feel like I could get through three innings without allowing that many runs.

Okay so the Quakes scored five runs in the first inning. Sam McWilliams doubled in the first run. Sauryn Lao then doubled in two runs to give RC a 3-1 lead. Alex De Jesus crushed his 12th homer of the season, a two-run shot to put Rancho up 5-1. The Storm actually responded with a five run inning of their own, jumping ahead 6-5.

Jose Ramos, McWilliams and De Jesus all doubled in a run in the second inning, making the Quakes’ lead 8-6. It was the third inning in which all hell broke loose. The Quakes scored 10 runs in the third inning.

McWilliams, who had two doubles through the first two innings, hit a grand slam in the bottom of the inning, his 12th homer of the season. Imanol Vargas doubled in a run, De Jesus doubled in a run and Jose Ramos doubled in two runs. For the game, the Quakes had 11 (!!!!) doubles.

McWilliams finished the game with six runs driven in, with Ramos and De Jesus each finishing with five runs driven in.

The crazy part is that the Quakes were 11-for-21 with runners in scoring position. There were 10 at bats in which Rancho could have driven in even more runs. Insane.

Transactions

Tulsa Drillers released LHP Jordan Martinson
Tulsa Drillers activated RHP Michael Grove from the 7-day injured list
RHP Jerming Rosario assigned to Rancho Cucamonga Quakes from ACL Dodgers
Rancho Cucamonga Quakes placed RHP Braydon Fisher on the temporarily inactive list.

Sunday scores

Monday schedule

10:05 a.m. PT: Albuquerque (Jose Mujica) at Oklahoma City (Ryan Pepiot)