Gavin Stone finishes fantastic month with six solid innings in tough-luck loss for Tulsa

As the month of May came to a close, only one of the four affiliates won on Tuesday for the Dodgers.

Player of the Day

Every time Gavin Stone has taken the ball in May and even before that, the right-hander has been dealing. In five starts this month, Stone gave up only two runs over 27 innings, striking out 33 hitters and walking only four.

Tuesday night matched a career and season-high with six innings for the 23-year-old, striking out nine without a walk and surrendering just four hits. The only blemish was two singles with a steal in between that netted San Antonio (Padres) a run in the second inning. That run happened to be the first and only run Stone has allowed in three starts in a Drillers’ uniform.

The No 18 prospect in the Dodgers’ system according to MLB Pipeline, Stone has been excellent all year. The former 2020 fifth-round draft pick is 2-2 with a 1.10 ERA, allowing just six runs (five earned) in nine total starts.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

Speaking of good pitching, Beau Burrows turned in a scoreless start for Oklahoma City and had plenty of support from the offense to take down Round Rock by a count of 8-0 on the road.

Burrows scattered four hits and two walks over 5 ²⁄₃ innings, striking out a season-high eight batters in the process. Tuesday was one of three starts this season the 25-year-old hasn’t surrendered at least three runs.

OKC smacked 11 hits in total and three of their four walks on the night turned into runs as the Dodgers kept the pressure on Round Rock all night.

Catcher Tomás Telis reached base three times, including an RBI-single in the second inning to get the scoring started. The Dodgers would add three more in the third on a Michael Busch run-scoring single, followed two pitches later by a two-run double for designated hitter Ryan Noda.

All four of the runs came with two outs as OKC jumped out to the 4-0 lead.

Miguel Vargas led off the fifth inning being hit by a pitch and would come around on an Eddy Alvarez double to make it 5-0. Noda would later single in Alvarez to extend the lead. The Dodgers would tack on two more in the sixth on a Vargas double to cap off the scoring.

Noda finished the night 4-for-5 with the pair of RBI for the second straight game, combining to go 6-for-8 in his last two games.

Zach McKinstry and Michael Busch each finished with two hits and two runs scored. It was McKinstry’s 18th multi-hit game of the season, tying Miguel Vargas for the team lead. For Busch, it was his first multi-hit game since his Triple-A debut back on May 17.

Double-A Tulsa

The Drillers had nothing going on offense to support another great outing from Stone, dropping the series opener by the score of 3-1 to the Missions.

Tulsa only managed four hits all night and didn’t have a runner reach scoring position until loading the bases in the top of the ninth. A Ryan Ward single, sandwiched by walks from James Outman and Andy Pages gave the Drillers their best shot of the night to make some noise.

Jacob Amaya grounded to the shortstop and beat out the double play to allow a run to score and take the goose egg off the scoreboard. With runners at first and third and two out, it took only two pitches for catcher Carson Taylor to ground out to the pitcher to end the game.

Already down 1-0 in the eighth inning, reliever Nick Robertson walked the bases full and gave up a two-run single that ultimately put San Antonio up for good.

High-A Great Lakes

It was almost all the way over before it really got started Tuesday for Great Lakes. The offense lacked any punch to come back from a big deficit early to drop a 9-1 game to Fort Wayne (Padres).

The Tin Caps hung a six on the scoreboard in the second inning and only needed three hits to do so. Loons’ starter Kyle Hurt didn’t record an out in the second, allowing a leadoff single and walking the next four batters before being pulled. Four of those five batters Hurt faced in the second would score.

After the two runs had come in on the four straight walks, Fort Wayne got four more on a ground out, two singles and a sacrifice fly, bringing 11 men to the plate in total. With another run in the fifth and a two-run homer in the seventh, the Tin Caps had run away with the game.

The only run for Great Lakes came in the bottom of the ninth when Alex De Jesus drilled a solo shot to finish his High-A debut. De Jesus was promoted from Low-A after the weekend, along with top prospect Diego Cartaya.

The Loons were held without a hit until the fifth inning by lefty Noel Vela, who made it through five scoreless despite walking five batters. Great Lakes only had three hits in total on the whole night.

Low-A Rancho Cucamonga

The Quakes had a 6-5 lead heading into the ninth inning Tuesday but gave up four runs to drop the series opener 9-6 to Lake Elsinore (Padres).

The Storm scored a run on the eighth on a Luis Yanel Diaz throwing error and tied the game in the ninth on an Albert Fabian solo home run. Three straight singles gave Lake Elsinore the lead and they would score two more times on a fielding error from Yanel Diaz and a Tyler Malone double.

Rancho brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth after an Austin Gauthier walk and Gaige Howard double put runners on second and third with two outs. But Damon Keith would strike out to end the game.

A three-run homer for third baseman Julio Carrion gave the Quakes a 3-0 lead in the first inning. The teams traded runs in the third and Rancho held the lead until they gave up two in the fifth and one in the sixth.

A Howard RBI-single in the seventh gave the Quakes the lead once again and Keith would double him in to make it 6-4. That would be it for the Quakes on offense as they closed out the month of May with a 13-13 record.

Six of the seven hits for Rancho came from the 4-6 hitters in the lineup, with Howard, Keith and Carrion each finishing 2-for-4. Howard and Keith each drove in a run while Carrion finished with four RBI on the strength of his first inning blast.

Transactions

Double-A: Tulsa placed infielder Kody Hoese on the 7-day injured list.

High-A: Catcher Diego Cartaya and Alex De Jesus were promoted from Low-A Rancho.

Tuesday’s scores

• Oklahoma City 8, Round Rock 0
• San Antonio 3, Tulsa 1
• Fort Wayne 9, Great Lakes 1
• Lake Elsinore 9, Rancho Cucamonga 6

Wednesday’s schedule

• 4:05 p.m. PT: Great Lakes (Kendall Williams) vs Fort Wayne (Efraín Contreras)
• 5:05 p.m.: Oklahoma City (Andre Jackson) at Round Rock (Spencer Howard)
• 5:05 p.m.: Tulsa (Clayton Beeter) at San Antonio (Thomas Eshelman)
• 6:30 p.m. Rancho Cucamonga (Ronan Kopp) vs Lake Elsinore (Bodi Rascon)