Landon Knack tosses six innings, strikes out 10 for Tulsa

Sunday in the Dodgers minors saw a mixed bag of results with some good pitching on display and a homer from a two top prospects.

Player of the day

Tulsa starting pitcher Landon Knack struck out a career-high 10 batters with no walks in six solid innings for the Drillers Sunday afternoon. The right-hander scattered nine hits and allowed just two runs to have his team in the lead when his day was done.

Knack was drafted in the second round (60th overall) by the Dodgers in 2020 out of East Tennessee State and is 9-5 with a 3.39 ERA in 25 career games (20 starts).

The 24-year-old has a brother-in-law named Will Craig who was drafted by the Pirates in the first round back in 2016. Craig is the first baseman in this play from last year with Javier Báez.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

Miguel Vargas hit his fifth homer of June (12th of the season) to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead that six different pitchers made stand up in a win to close out the series with Round Rock (Rangers).

It was an exciting finish after the Express put runners on first and second with two outs. A ground ball up the middle was fielded by shortstop Jake Amaya and he stepped on second for the force.

The umpire called safe as the runner reached at the same time but instead of bases loaded, the runner was sent from third on the play. Amaya fired it home to record the out and end the game.

Ryan Noda drove in the other run on a single for OKC that tied the game in the second inning at the time. The 26-year-old third baseman finished the game 3-for-4 and went 7-for-19 overall in the series against Round Rock.

Double-A Tulsa

A three-run eighth for Midland (Athletics) erased an outstanding effort from Knack, sending Tulsa to a 5-3 loss to close out the final game of the series and the first half.

The Drillers led 3-2 after Knack’s day was done heading into the seventh inning. Tulsa had a one-run advantage thanks to a solo home run for Andy Pages in the fourth and a two-run blast for James Outman in the sixth. It was number 12 on the season for Pages and number 16 for Outman.

Reliever Nick Robertson needed to get four outs in a scoreless seventh after his second strikeout of the inning reached on a wild pitch. The eighth inning wouldn’t go as smoothly for the right-hander.

Brett Harris tied the game for the RockHounds with a solo homer and two batters later, William Simoneit launched a two-run homer to put Midland on top for good.

High-A Great Lakes

The Loons stayed hot Sunday with 15 hits and 11 runs to win their 15th game in the last 17 games, defeating Fort Wayne (Padres) 11-3 in the series finale. Great Lakes has pounded out at least 12 hits in three straight games, 41 in total, as they finished off the six-game series with five wins.

Six of the nine hitters in the lineup had at least two hits for the Loons Sunday and only one batter failed to record one.

Already on top 1-0 heading to the fourth, Great Lakes strung three straight RBI-doubles together from Jose Ramos, Imanol Vargas and Jonny DeLuca to complete one of the three innings with at least three runs scored.

Eddys Leonard doubled in a run in the eighth and came home on a Ramos two-run homer to lengthen the lead to 7-1. The four runs Great Lakes scored in the top of the ninth made the three runs the TinCaps scored in the final three innings a footnote.

Ramos finished the game 2-for-5 with four RBI and his third homer in the last four games, going 6-for-17 with 10 RBI to pace the offense.

Low-A Rancho Cucamonga

A five-run inning proved to be the undoing for Rancho on Sunday as they dropped the fourth game of the six-game set to Lake Elsinore (Padres) by the score of 8-7.

The two clubs traded two-run homers in the first inning off the bat of Luis Diaz and James Wood and the Quakes had a 3-2 lead in the second on a Yunior Garcia solo shot.

Lake Elsinore doubled four times in the bottom of the third to hang a five spot on the scoreboard and take control of the game. Rancho pulled within one with a two-run triple from Austin Gauthier and a RBI-groundout in the fifth but they wouldn’t get any closer to taking the lead back.

Each team would score one more before it was all said and done, with Rancho having the opportunity to take the lead in the ninth. Two walks and a single loaded the bases with one out in the top of the ninth for the Quakes but the final two hitters of the game struck out to end the threat.

Transactions

Triple-A: OKC placed pitcher Robbie Erlin on the 7-day injured list retroactive to June 25, 2022. Pitcher Kevin Malisheski assigned to Oklahoma City Dodgers from Great Lakes Loons. Pitcher Jose Adames assigned to Oklahoma City Dodgers from Tulsa Drillers.

Sunday scores

• Oklahoma City 2, Round Rock 1
• Midland 5, Tulsa 3
• Great Lakes 11, Fort Wayne 3
• Lake Elsinore 8, Rancho Cucamonga 7

Tuesday schedule

• 4:05 p.m. PT: Great Lakes vs. Dayton [Reds]
• 5:05 p.m.: Tulsa vs. Arkansas [Mariners]
• 5:35 p.m.: Oklahoma City at El Paso [Padres]
• 6:30 p.m.: Rancho Cucamonga vs. Visalia [Diamondbacks]

The top four affiliates are off Monday.