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Diego Cartaya homers off Blake Snell

Dodgers minor league catcher Diego Cartaya hits a home run for Low-A Rancho Cucamonga off Padres right-hander Blake Snell, with Lake Elsinore on a rehab assignment on May 4, 2022.
Dodgers minor league catcher Diego Cartaya hits a home run for Low-A Rancho Cucamonga off Padres right-hander Blake Snell, with Lake Elsinore on a rehab assignment on May 4, 2022.
From MLB Pipeline

Rain across the midwest wreaked havoc on Dodgers minor league schedules this week. Both Double-A Tulsa and High-A Great Lakes had games postponed on Tuesday, and on Wednesday it was Tulsa and Triple-A Oklahoma City wiped out.

Two games on Wednesday were played, however, and included the Dodgers top prospect, Diego Cartaya, hitting a home run off major league pitcher Blake Snell.

Player of the day

Nick Nastrini walked three in his three innings for Great Lakes, but allowed no runs and just one hit while striking out five. The Dodgers’ fourth-round draft pick last year out of UCLA has a 3.09 ERA through five starts for the Loons with a 39.3-percent strikeout rate.

The walk rate is high (17.9 percent) so there are still things to work on, but he’s worth keeping an eye on.

High-A Great Lakes

Nastrini gave up the only hit for the Loons, and that batter didn’t even score. But Great Lakes still lost 1-0 at home to the Beloit Sky Carp (Marlins).

The only run came in the seventh inning, when Ryan Sublette walked Beloit left fielder J.D. Orr, who promptly stole second base on the next pitch. One pitch later, Orr stole third and scored on catcher Ryan January’s throwing error. Ballgame.

Relatedly, in J.J. Cooper’s latest mailbag at Baseball America, he noted, “This year, [minor league] teams are averaging 1.45 stolen base attempts per game. That is the most since 2000 and is a 33% increase since 2018.”

Low-A Rancho Cucamonga

The Quakes rallied to tie with two runs in the ninth, then scored three runs in the 10th to beat the Lake Elsinore Storm (Padres) on the road.

But this is also a time to remind you that “player of the day” here isn’t always the absolute best performance every single day. Sometimes it’s just someone we want to write about, for any number of reasons. Because otherwise, we’d end up just having Diego Cartaya in the top spot on most days.

Then again, hitting a home run off rehabbing Padres pitcher Blake Snell is pretty notable.

Cartaya also doubled him two runs in the decisive 10th-inning rally. He had three hits, driving in four runs in the game.

Outfielder Damon Keith, who was named California League player of the month for April, was 1-for-5 with a walk, and drove in a run as part of the tying rally in the ninth.

Wednesday scores

Thursday schedule

  • 2:05 p.m. PT: Great Lakes (Gavin Stone) vs. Beloit (Patrick Monteverde)
  • 2:45 p.m.: Oklahoma City (Andre Jackson) vs. Albuquerque (Frank Duncan)
  • 4:05 p.m.: Tulsa (Gus Varland) at Wichita (Louie Varland)
  • Game 2: Great Lakes (Lael Lockhart) vs. Beloit (Hunter Perdue)
  • Game 2: Oklahoma City (Yefry Ramirez) vs. Albuquerque (Zach Neal)
  • Game 2: Tulsa (Clayton Beeter) at Wichita (TBA)
  • 7:05 p.m.: Rancho Cucamonga (Michel Baez) at Lake Elsinore (Edgardo Henriquez)