Dodgers’ Andy Pages, Miguel Vargas have big offensive nights

Two of the Dodgers’ most prized hitting prospects showed their stuff on Friday night, in Double-A and Triple-A.

Player of the day

Andy Pages was integral in Double-A Tulsa’s win over the Wichita Wind Surge (Twins). The 21-year-old reached base four times, including an RBI double and a two-run single.

Pages, who played right field in the Drillers season opener, was listed on five national top-100 prospect lists this offseason, including ranked No. 68 by three different outlets — Baseball Prospectus, ESPN, and MLB Pipeline.

True Blue LA readers voted Pages the sixth-best prospect in the Dodgers system.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

Miguel Vargas hit his first home run in Triple-A, part of a win over the Albuquerque Isotopes (Rockies).

Vargas had one hit in seven at-bats in his first two games with Oklahoma City, after finishing out the Freeway Series in Los Angeles. He started with a first-inning single on Friday, then after a pair of groundouts blasted a two-run shot in the sixth inning to widen OKC’s advantage.

Also scoring on the Vargas home run was Zach McKinstry, who tripled to open the frame. McKinstry has an extra-base hit in three straight games and a .444 on-base percentage in the early going in Triple-A.

Beau Burrows, signed by the Dodgers to a minor league contract in November, struck out seven in his four innings, allowing only one unearned run on three singles and a walk in his start. Rightfielder Jason Martin reached base four times with a double, single, and two walks.

Double-A Tulsa

Gus Varland pitched scoreless ball into the fifth inning in the Drillers’ close win over Wichita. Varland allowed only a single and recorded 13 outs in his start. He walked four but struck out five. Shortly after Varland left, Pages helped widen Tulsa’s lead to 5-0, but Wichita rallied to within one, including a three-run homer allowed by Guillermo Zuniga.

Checking in on the 40-man players on Tulsa, shortstop Jacob Amaya doubled, singled, and scored a run. Leftfielder James Outman singled, walked, and scored twice from the leadoff spot.

High-A Great Lakes

Say this for the Loons, they were the team that scored first on Friday. But after a home run by centerfielder Ismael Alcantara in the second inning, Great Lakes had no offense to speak of in a loss to the West Michigan Whitecaps (Tigers).

Alcantara had two hits in the season opener, but the rest of the team had one hit in 26 at-bats.

Hyun-il Choi showed his typical control, with no walks in four strikeouts in his three innings. But he also allowed three doubles, two of them coming in a three-run fourth inning that was more than enough for West Michigan, pinning the loss on Choi.

Left-hander Julian Smith pitched two scoreless innings in relief, with two strikeouts. Most importantly, he walked none, like Choi. But the other three relievers — Jacob Cantleberry and 2021 draft picks Antonio Knowles and Michael Hobbs — combined to walk eight in four innings, with four strikeouts.

Low-A Rancho Cucamonga

Not to be outdone among the hitting prospects, outfielder Jose Ramos and catcher Diego Cartaya each homered, but those came after the Quakes already trailed 8-0 in a loss at the Visalia Rawhide (D-backs).

Starter Kendall Williams allowed the first five of those Visalia runs, including three home runs allowed in his 3⅓ innings.

Leftfielder Damon Keith, the Dodgers’ 18th-round draft pick last year out of Cal Baptist, also homered in the loss, his first home run for the Quakes.

Transactions

Triple-A: Phil Bickford joined Oklahoma City one day after getting optioned.

Friday scores

• Oklahoma City 8, Albuquerque 3
• Tulsa 5, Wichita 4
• West Michigan 5, Great Lakes 1
• Visalia 8, Rancho Cucamonga 4

Saturday schedule

• 10:05 a.m. PT: Great Lakes (Emmett Sheehan) vs. West Michigan (Dylan Smith)
• 4:05 p.m.: Tulsa (Clayton Beeter) at Wichita (Simeon Woods-Richardson)
• 5:05 p.m.: Oklahoma City (Yefry Ramirez) vs. Albuquerque (Zach Neal)
• 6:30 p.m.: Rancho Cucamonga (Ben Casparius) at Visalia (Liam Norris)