Jason Martin, Ryan Ward each homer twice in wins for OKC and Tulsa

Saturday night around the Dodgers minors saw the two upper-level teams hit long balls by the bunches, while the two Class-A teams couldn’t string hits together.

Player of the day

Jason Martin has been hitting the ball with authority over the last month for Oklahoma City, reaching by hit or walk in 32 of the last 35 games. Even if one of the homers on his ledger Saturday wasn’t entirely his doing, when you’re hot, you’re hot.

Including the two Saturday, Martin has now clubbed 15 home runs in those 35 games, going 41-for-136 (.301) to drive in 39 runs and score 34 with 23 extra-base hits overall during that stretch. The 26-year-old finished his night 2-for-4 for his 10th multi-hit game since June 5.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

The Dodgers got ahead early and pulled away late to secure the series victory with an 8-4 win over Sacramento (Giants) in front of the home crowd.

Drew Avans singled in the third to extend his on-base streak to 31 games and came around to score on a Miguel Vargas double to break the scoreless tie. Michael Busch followed with a two-run bomb to the deepest part of the park that cleared the wall by plenty.

Martin went back-to-back with his first homer of the night, a solo blast off the facing of the upper deck in right to give the Dodgers a 4-0 lead. After the River Cats scored three runs to make it a one-run game, Martin again provided some runs.

The Dodger outfielder lofted a fly ball in the gap between left and center that should've been caught, the ball landed in between fielders and Martin circled the bases to drive in two more. OKC would tack on two more in the eighth to provide plenty of insurance for the victory.

Michael Grove pitched the first three and two-thirds scoreless, allowing just two hits and no walks while striking out four.

Double-A Tulsa

The Drillers got behind early but scored eight runs on six homers in the last four innings on offense as they won 10-4 going away over Wichita (Twins).

Down 4-2 in the fourth, Ryan January hit a solo shot to cut the deficit to one before the floodgates opened with five runs in the fifth. Ward and Andy Pages opened the frame with back-to-back homers to take a 5-4 lead and Leonel Valera would later hit a three-run tater to stretch the lead to 8-4.

Ward added his second long ball of the night in the seventh and Brandon Lewis went deep to close out the scoring in the eighth. The two home runs for Ward give him 24 on the year to lead the Texas League.

Tulsa finished with 18 hits as a team, including seven different players with at least two.

Neither starting pitcher was very effective but Alec Gamboa tossed three scoreless innings in relief to settle things down for Tulsa and let the offense go to work.

High-A Great Lakes

Great Lakes scored a pair of runs late but they fell short of a comeback, dropping the middle game of the series 3-2 to West Michigan (Tigers).

Nick Nastrini had a solid outing on the mound for the Loons, allowing just three hits and a walk while striking out five. The right-hander allowed a solo homer in the fourth and a leadoff double came around to score on a ground out and wild pitch.

Down 3-0 in the seventh, Great Lakes loaded the bases with one out thanks to three free passes. They would only score one in the inning on a ball that landed just in front of the center fielder, allowing the run to come home while the force was made at second.

The Loons would leave the tying run on base in the ninth after back-to-back doubles from Jose Ramos and Imanol Vargas brought them within one. Vargas was left stranded when the final two hitters struck out to end the game.

Low-A Rancho Cucamonga

The Quakes had hardly anything in the tank offensively Saturday and were done in by three errors in one innings, falling to Visalia (Diamondbacks) 4-2 on the road.

Rancho had a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a Kenneth Betancourt RBI-single, one of the Quakes four hits for the night. But the wheels fell off a bit in the third.

The first batter of the inning reached on a throwing error by Austin Gauthier and the run would come across two batters later on a fielding error by outfielder Luis Rodriguez. Later in the inning after two walks loaded the bases, Gauthier made another throwing error to allow another run to come across. The next batter lined a two-run single to right to push the lead to 4-1.

Rancho finally scratched another run across in the eighth when they opened the inning with two walks. A pair of ground ball outs brought the run in but that would be all she wrote for scoring.

The tying run was at the plate in the ninth after Yeiner Fernandez was issued a leadoff walk. It didn’t mean much since the last three batters struck out to end the game to snap Rancho’s five-game winning streak.

Transactions

Triple-A: Oklahoma City Dodgers placed RHP Sam Gaviglio on the 7-day injured list retroactive to July 22, 2022.

Low-A: Rancho Cucamonga Quakes placed 3B Julio Carrion on the 7-day injured list. SS Kyle Froemke assigned to Rancho Cucamonga Quakes from ACL Dodgers.

Saturday Scores

• Oklahoma City 8, Sacramento 4
• Tulsa 10, Wichita 4
• West Michigan 3, Great Lakes 2
• Visalia 4, Rancho Cucamonga 2

Sunday schedule

• 10:05 a.m. PT: Great Lakes (Carlos Duran) vs. West Michigan (Jack O’Loughlin)
• 11:05 a.m.: Tulsa (Kyle Hurt) vs. Wichita (Daniel Gossett)
• 4:05 p.m.: Oklahoma City (TBD) vs. Sacramento (Sean Hjelle)
• 6:00 p.m.: Rancho Cucamonga (Peter Heubeck) at Visalia (Liam Norris)