Diego Cartaya homers twice, Dustin May continues rehab assignment with OKC

There was plenty to be excited about in Thursday’s trip around the Dodgers minors, with several familiar names turning in performances worth mentioning. Plus, a pair of major leaguers made rehab appearances with Triple-A Oklahoma City.

Dustin May made his second start for OKC and was solid in his three innings of work. The right-hander worked his way around a leadoff triple on the second pitch of the game to get a line out and two strikeouts to strand the runner at third. May finished with six strikeouts and no walks while allowing a pair of hits on 46 pitches.

Joining May in OKC was Edwin Ríos who has been out since early June with a severe hamstring strain. Ríos played third base and had three plate appearances, getting hit by a pitch in the first, struck out in the third and walked in the fifth.

Player of the day

Top prospect Diego Cartaya hit a pair of two-run homers Thursday to pace the Great Lakes offense. The 20-year-old now has 17 homers this year and eight since his promotion to the Loons in High-A.

The first homer hit the back fence behind the berm in left field at Dow Diamond but the second completely cleared everything and got out of the stadium out onto the street below. Cartaya finished his night 2-for-4 with his second multi-homer game of the year and first with Great Lakes.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

The dividing line between positives and negatives in Thursday’s contest is directly in between the third and fourth innings. After three innings, the Dodgers had three solid innings from the rehabbing May and had scored six in the bottom of the third. They were outscored 12-1 the rest of the way by Sugar Land (Astros) to snap a five-game winning streak.

OKC scored all six of their runs with two outs after two walks put runners on first and second. Miguel Vargas brought them both home with a double and came around himself on a Michael Busch single. Ryan Ward came to the plate two batters later and smashed a three-run homer to give the Drillers a pretty secure lead, or so it would’ve seemed.

Sugar Land immediately cut the lead in half with a Jose Siri solo shot and a two-run job off the bat of Lewis Brinson in the fourth. A five-run fifth and four more in the seventh put the game out of reach for a Tulsa offense that could only muster one more run in the eight on a Busch solo home run.

Busch finished the night 3-for-4 with half of the Dodgers hit total for the whole night. Over the last six games, Busch is 11-for-21 with four extra-base hits and six walks, reaching base in 17 of 28 plate appearances.

Double-A Tulsa

Tulsa scored three runs in the first inning that held up as the Drillers took care of Arkansas (Mariners) 4-2 behind Bobby Miller’s stellar performance on the mound.

Miller struck out 11 batters in six innings with no walks and allowed just four hits on the night. The right-hander didn’t allow a baserunner until a one-out single in the fifth inning and he immediately gave up a two-run homer to let the Travelers back in the game.

Jonny DeLuca hit a solo homer in the eighth to double the lead to 4-2 and Guillermo Zuniga pitched a perfect ninth to ice the victory.

The Mariners top pitching prospect Emerson Hancock started opposite Miller and nearly got out of the first inning unscathed after striking out two of the first three hitters. But a Ryan Ward single allowed Brandon Lewis to come up and hit a two-run homer and give Tulsa the early lead.

Devin Mann followed with a walk and would score on a Leonel Valera double down the left field line. That would be all they got off Hancock as the right-hander went seven innings and allowed only one more hit the rest of the way while striking out nine.

High-A Great Lakes

The pairing of Eddys Leonard and Cartaya at the top of the lineup made the offense go for Great Lakes Thursday in a 7-2 win over Lansing (Athletics).

Leonard singled to lead off the bottom of the first and doubled to start the home half of the third. Cartaya drove him in both times with a two-run homer that would break a tie with each shot.

After the initial bomb in the first, the Lugnuts were able to take advantage of three walks and a hit batter in the top of the third. Two of the walks were issued with the bases loaded to force in a pair of runs. That would be as close as Lansing would be.

Cartaya connected for his second homer of the game and Luis Diaz would later triple in two more to stretch the lead to 6-2. Edwin Mateo added an RBI-double in the eighth for good measure.

Despite the five walks, Loons’ starter Emmet Sheehan limited Lansing to just two hits and the two runs while striking out four. Great Lakes got five innings of scoreless relief and cruised to the win.

Low-A Rancho Cucamonga

The Quakes may have been outhit by a margin of 10-3 Thursday but what mattered was they ended up with more runs, beating San Jose (Giants) 3-2 on the road up north.

Rancho took advantage of three key mistakes by the Giants that led to all three of their runs.

With the game all tied at two apiece after seven innings, Yunior Garcia started the eighth with a leadoff walk. The next two batters made out but not before a wild pitch moved Garcia to second. Hector Martinez followed with a single to bring Garcia around with what ended up being the winning run.

Rancho’s other runs came by way of errors as well in the fifth and seventh innings as each team traded a run. Kyle Froemke singled with one out and moved to second on a wild pitch. That’s when pitcher Trevor McDonald made the mental gaffe of throwing a live ball into the dugout, allowing Froemke to score when the umpires awarded him two bases.

With two outs and two on in the seventh, Yeiner Fernandez reached on an error by first baseman Garrett Frechette, allowing Javier Armas to score from second to give Rancho a 2-1 lead until San Jose tied it again in the home half.

It’s not often a team wins when the opposition has seven more hits in the boxscore but that's what happened.

Transactions

Triple-A: The Los Angeles Dodgers sent infielder Edwin Ríos on a rehab assignment to Oklahoma City.

Double-A: Tulsa placed infielder Justin Yurchak on the temporary inactive list. Catcher Buddy Reed assigned to the Drillers from ACL Dodgers.

Low-A: Rancho Cucamonga placed catcher Griffin Lockwood-Powell on the 7-day injured list. Shortstop Javier Armas was assigned to the Quakes from ACL Dodgers.

Thursday scores

• Sugar Land 12, Oklahoma City 7
• Tulsa 4, Arkansas 2
• Great Lakes 7, Lansing 2
• Rancho Cucamonga 3, San Jose 2

Friday schedule

• 4:05 p.m. PT: Great Lakes (Nick Nastrini) vs. Lansing (Kyle Virbitsky)
• 5:05 p.m.: Oklahoma City (Michael Grove) vs. Sugar Land (Hunter Brown)
• 5:05 p.m.: Tulsa (Alec Gamboa) vs. Arkansas (Stephen Kolek)
• 6:30 p.m. PT: Rancho Cucamonga (River Ryan) at San Jose (Manuel Mercedes)