Bobby Miller wins battle of top prospects, Andy Pages breaks out of slump for Tulsa

Three of the four affiliates won for the Dodgers quite easily Saturday night, outscoring their opponents 24 to 4. A pair of top prospects show up among top performers in the system for the night.

Hitter of the day

Andy Pages has struggled at the plate over the last two weeks and if you go back to April 24, his slash line has dropped from .316/.435/.509 all the way to .216/.336/.343 entering Friday.

The 21-year-old had been 1-for-26 (.038) in 31 plate appearances until going 1-for-4 with his first homer since April 24 Friday night. Pages would follow that by reaching base four times Saturday.

Pages ripped a two-run double in the first and drove in another with his second double in the fourth. The 24-year-old would also walk twice and come around to score in the seventh when the Drillers were well on their way to a blowout.

Pitcher of the Day

Saturday’s matchup between Bobby Miller (2020) and Jack Leiter (2021) was billed as a battle of first-round pitchers. Miller was pretty good for five shutout innings while Tulsa would have no problem knocking Leiter from the game before the end of the second.

Miller allowed three singles and a walk in his five innings of work but no runner ever advanced past first and he didn’t allow multiple runners in any inning. The right-hander struck out five in his first scoreless appearance since his first start back on April 12.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City scored three times in the first inning and rode that lead all the way to the finish line Saturday. The bullpen combined for six scoreless innings to secure the 5-1 win over Round Rock (Rangers)

Four of the first four hitters of the game reached base for the Dodgers. Three singles and a double led to a 3-0 lead before the Express had a chance to hit. Kevin Pillar singled in his 31st RBI of the season, Ryan Noda grounded out to bring in another and Eddy Alvarez drove in the third run of the inning on a double.

Pillar would later score his 32nd run of the year on an Alvarez bunt in the sixth inning. OKC has the top three in runs scored in the Triple-A West, with Miguel Vargas staying one ahead of Pillar at 33. Jason Martin didn’t play Saturday but remains in third with 27.

Alvarez was 3-for-3 on the night with two doubles and a bunt single to go with getting hit by a pitch to reach every time up at the plate. The middle infielder is hitting .290 this year with a .922 OPS and has now reached base in eight of his last nine plate appearances.

OKC is now 22-13 on the season and owns the top spot in the Pacific Coast League.

Double-A Tulsa

The Drillers scored three in each of the first two innings off Leiter, chasing the top-20 prospect five outs into the game. Tulsa was on cruise control from there, adding several insurance runs on their way to an 11-1 win over Frisco (Rangers).

Just like in Triple-A, four of the first six hitters would reach base by three singles and a double. Pages doubled in two runs and Justin Yurchak singled in a third.

Two more singles and a hit batter set up a bases loaded situation for Tulsa to lean on Leiter a bit more. James Outman grounded into a force at second to bring in another run and Pages walked to load the bases again. Leiter was given one more chance to get out of the inning and Ryan Ward made sure it didn’t happen by smacking a two-run single to chase the right-hander from the game.

The rout was on from there a Tulsa scored a run in each of the fourth and fifth before giving up an unearned run in the seventh inning. Hunter Feduccia made sure to get that run back and then some on a two-run blast in the seventh, his fifth of the year and third in the last four games.

Tulsa is now 19-12 after winning six of their last seven.

High-A Great Lakes

The Loons belted five home runs Friday and had scored seven runs before the close of the fourth inning on their way to an 8-2 win over Lake County (Guardians).

Ryan January (solo) and Jonny DeLuca (two-run) went seep in the second to give Great Lakes an early 3-0 advantage. Jorbit Vivad would crush a solo shot in the fourth to get in on the action.

Great Lakes put the game away in the fourth when Eddys Leonard connected for a three-run shot and a 7-1 lead at the time. Leonel Valera put a bow on the game with his solo homer in the seventh.

A total of seven pitchers combined to hold the Captains to two runs. Starter Kendall Williams allowed one run in three innings, fighting command issues with three walks,

Low-A Rancho Cucamonga

A four-run inning would be the undoing for the Quakes Saturday as Stockton (Athletics) jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the fifth. The deficit proved too hard to overcome as Rancho fell 6-4 in front of the home crowd.

The Quakes had baserunners on all night and finished with 12 hits, twice as many as the Ports.

Rancho finally broke through in the fifth on a Damon Keith triple that scored Alex De Jesus and Keith would come in on a fielding error. Keith singled in another run in the seventh and the lead was cut to one when Rancho scored on a Yeiner Fernandez groundout.

That would be as close as they came because Stockton scored an insurance run in the ninth and shut the door in the home half to secure the win.

Interestingly enough, shortstop Max Muncy was a key contributor for the Ports with a two-run single in the fifth. The A’s took Muncy in the first round in 2021.

Transactions

Triple-A: pitchers Adolfo Ramirez and Dakota Chalmers assigned to Oklahoma City from ACL Dodgers

Saturday’s scores

• Oklahoma City 5, Round Rock 1
• Tulsa 11, Frisco 1
• Great Lakes 8, Lake County 2
• Stockton 6, Rancho Cucamonga 4

Sunday’s schedule

• 10:00 a.m. PT: Great Lakes (Nick Nastrini) at Lake County (Tommy Mace)
• 11:05 a.m.: Oklahoma City (Andre Jackson) at Round Rock (Spencer Howard)
• 11:05 a.m.: Tulsa (TBD) vs Frisco (Cole Ragans)
• 2:00 p.m. Rancho Cucamonga (Maddux Bruns) vs Stockton (Blake Beers)