James Outman reaches four times for Tulsa, Damon Keith drives in three for Rancho

Let’s take a trip around the Dodgers’ minor league affiliates for Saturday, where the four teams split with two wins and two losses.

Player of the day

James Outman reached base four times Saturday with three singles and a walk from the top of Tulsa’s lineup. The outfielder would score three of the four times he reached. In his last 11 games, Outman is 15-for-41 (.366) with four extra-base hits and five walks.

Because picking just one player is always hard to do, Damon Keith will share the honors with Outman since both are heating up recently. Keith was 3-for-5 Saturday for Rancho and drove in three of the eight runs for his team. The 22-year-old is 10-for-21 with four extra-base hits and three walks over his last four games.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

A seven-run second inning for the Express was too much for Oklahoma City to overcome as they fell 8-3 to Round Rock (Rangers) in from of the home crowd.

The Express sent 10 men to the plate in the second inning, taking advantage of four free passes. Elier Hernandez started it off with a solo homer, which could’ve been worse if the Dodgers hadn’t caught the first batter stealing after a leadoff walk. Nash Knight tripled and would come in to score after OKC starter Beau Burrows walked three straight and was lifted from the game.

Aaron Ochsenbein entered the game in place of Burrows and immediately allowed a run-scoring single and a crushing three-run homer to cap the outburst.

Try as they may, OKC wasn’t able to put the kind of offense together needed for the comeback. Jason Martin hit a solo homer in the fourth and Michael Busch launched his seventh home run (18th overall in 2022) in the sixth to bookend three straight innings of one run for the Dodgers.

Round Rock would score just once more but the damage was done.

Double-A Tulsa

Tulsa scored four in the fifth inning and held Midland (Athletics) off the scoreboard after the first, cruising to a 6-1 win as they kept the momentum of their season going. The win is the 10th time in the last 12 games that the Drillers came out on top.

The RockHounds only run came on a balk in the first inning and it was all Tulsa from that point. Andy Pages doubled in Outman in the third to tie the game on the only hit of the game for Pages.

Leonel Valera doubled and Justin Yurchak singled to start the rally for the Drillers in the fifth. Outman walked two batters later to load the bases and Devin Mann forced in a run with a walk of his own.

Abiatal Avelino stroked a two-run single later in the inning and after a pitching change, Hunter Feduccia put the finishing touches on the scoring with an RBI-single to give Tulsa a 5-1 lead at the time.

Tulsa scored one more run in the seventh when Avelino singled again to bring home his third RBI of the game.

Lefty John Rooney made the start for the Drillers, allowing the one unearned run in four innings, striking out six with one walk and three hits.

High-A Great Lakes

The Loons banged out 14 hits Saturday and scored their runs in chunks as they defeated Fort Wayne (Padres) 7-5 on the road.

Jose Ramos hit a three-run homer to give Great Lakes a 3-0 advantage four batters into the game. But the Loons would have to come from behind in this contest after the TinCaps scored one in the first, one in the third and two in the fifth to take a 4-3 lead.

Great Lakes came right back with two in the sixth to regain the lead thanks to two doubles and a Fort Wayne fielding error mixed in. Imanol Vargas made sure to secure the win with a two-run blast in the top of the seventh.

Vargas was one of five hitters for Great Lakes with two hits on the night.

While Fort Wayne scored a run in the eighth on a wild pitch, reliever Julian Smith was able to record the final four outs to seal the win for the Loons.

Low-A Rancho Cucamonga

In a game with 18 runs scored between the two teams by the halfway point, it was a five-run sixth that put the game away for Lake Elsinore, sending Rancho to a 15-8 loss.

While each team had 11 hits by the end of the game, it was the nine walks issued by Quakes’ pitching and four errors on defense that led to their downfall.

It was a back-and-forth affair over the first four innings after the Quakes took a 1-0 lead on Keith’s double. A fielding error allowed the first hitter of the game on for the Storm and they cashed in on a run-scoring single and two-run homer to take a 3-1 lead after one.

Keith doubled in another run in the third and tied the game when he came around to score on a Griffin Lockwood-Powell single. Lake Elsinore used three walks and a hit batter to help them to three more runs in the bottom of the third to regain the lead, though it wouldn’t last long.

Five of the first six batters had hits for Rancho in the fourth as they scored four to take a 7-6 lead. Hector Martinez doubled in the first run and was followed by RBI-singles for Luis Diaz, Gaige Howard and Keith for his third RBI of the night.

Lockwood-Powell added a solo homer in the fifth but by then, the Storm had scored four in the fourth to once again capture the lead and put the game out of reach with five in the sixth.

Transactions

Triple-A: Los Angeles Dodgers recalled pitcher Mitch White from Oklahoma City Dodgers.

Saturday scores

• Round Rock 8, Oklahoma City 3
• Tulsa 6, Midland 1
• Great Lakes 7, Fort Wayne 5
• Lake Elsinore 15, Rancho Cucamonga 8

Sunday Schedule

• 10:05 a.m. PT: Great Lakes (Carlos Duran) at Fort Wayne (Dwayne Matos)
• 12:00 p.m.: Tulsa (Landon Knack) at Midland (TBD)
• 12:05 p.m.: Oklahoma City (Ryan Pepiot) vs Round Rock (A.J. Alexy)
• 4:05 p.m.: Rancho Cucamonga (Jerming Rosario) at Lake Elsinore (Jesus Gonzalez)