Dodgers top prospect Diego Cartaya leaves game with apparent injury

Catcher Diego Cartaya, the Dodgers’ best prospect, left Sunday’s High-A Great Lakes game with some sort of injury.

Cartaya left the game in the top of the fifth inning, in the middle of an at-bat, walking off the field with a team trainer. Loons play-by-play announcer Brad Tunney said on the broadcast that Cartaya “left with an apparent hand or wrist injury.”

On Sunday, Cartaya singled, walked, and scored a run, extending his hitting streak to seven games. He hasn’t missed a beat since getting promoted to High-A on May 31, hitting .318/.444/.591 with five home runs and nine doubles in 23 games, and won’t turn 21 years old until September.

On the season, Cartaya is hitting .283/.421/.566 with 14 home runs and 18 doubles in 56 games between Low-A Rancho Cucamonga and High-A Great Lakes. Prior to the season, Cartaya was a consensus top-100 prospect in MLB, with an average ranking of 30th across Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, ESPN, FanGraphs, The Athletic, and MLB Pipeline.

Player of the day

High-A Great Lakes outfielder Aldrich De Jongh missed nearly four weeks on the injured list, and Sunday was just his second game played since getting activated earlier this week. Down a run in the ninth with two outs, De Jongh hit the first walk-off grand slam in Loons history.

De Jongh struggled before getting placed on the injured list, and though he walked and scored earlier in the game, the 17th-round draft pick in 2018 was in a 5-for-40 (.125) slump with 17 strikeouts since his last extra-base hit, a home run on May 1 at West Michigan. What a way to break out of a slump.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

When Oklahoma City resumed play on Sunday, they were tied in the fifth inning, completing Saturday’s game that was suspended by rain. But the downpour came fast and furious for the El Paso Chihuahuas (Padres), with two blowout wins on Sunday.

El Paso put up six big innings in the two games on Sunday, spreading the love around:

• Yadier Alvarez: 5-run fifth in Game 1 (he allowed four runs in 16⅔ innings over his first 12 appearances with OKC this year)
• Jose Adames: 3-run seventh in Game 1
• Aaron Ochsenbein: 5 runs in the 6-run eighth of Game 1 (Bobby Wahl relieved him and allowed one more run)
• Robbie Erlin: 4-run first and 4-run third inning of his Game 2 start, including three homers
• Dakota Chalmers: 3 runs in a 4-run fifth inning in Game 2, thanks mostly to five walks. Chalmers also allowed a run bequeathed by Dellin Betances, who struck out three of his six batters faced.

Miguel Vargas had three hits, including a home run, in the game that started on Saturday. He didn’t get a hit in Game 2, snapping his hitting streak, but not for lack of trying:

Jason Martin homered in Game 2. Oklahoma City was outscored 26-3 in eleven innings on Sunday.

Double-A Tulsa

Bobby Miller could have easily won player of the day across the Dodgers minors on Sunday, but instead you have to read about his exploits slightly lower down the page. The horror! Miller struck out 10 in his six scoreless innings, but so much happened after he left, with the Drillers getting blown out by the Arkansas Travelers (Mariners).

Miller allowed two hits and three walks in six scoreless frames in his first July start, after a 5.33 ERA in five June outings. He threw 93 pitches Sunday, his fifth straight start of at least 90 pitches, getting stretched out as the season goes on. His 10 strikeouts are a career best.

Arkansas broke a tie with three runs in the seventh, then poured it on with eleven runs in the eighth. Cameron Gibbens, the 6’8 right-hander from Australia, has struggled mightily this season, including failing to retire any of his six batters faced on Sunday. Gibbens walked three, hit two batters, and allowed a single. All six runs scored. Gibbens began the season on the injured list, but since joining the Drillers two weeks ago it’s been a tale of two series.

In two games against Midland, he pitched two scoreless innings with two walks and three strikeouts. In two games against Arkansas, Gibbens walked eight, hit three batters, allowed one hit and 10 runs, while recording one out, a strikeout.

High-A Great Lakes

The Loons’ comeback win over the Dayton Dragons (Reds) wasn’t just improbable because De Jongh was in such a long slump before his walk-off grand slam. It’s that Great Lakes trailed 7-0 after the top of the third inning.

They chipped away thanks largely to Jonny DeLuca and Jorbit Vivas, who drive in all the runs to set up De Jongh’s heroics in the ninth. DeLuca had four hits, including three doubles, driving in five runs, and even stole a base, continuing his red-hot two-week stretch. Vivas had two hits, including a double, scored twice, and drove in two. Great Lakes scored six runs in the ninth.

Loons starter Nick Nastrini allowed six runs in the first two innings, which he could not complete, but the bullpen recorded the final 22 outs while allowing only a pair of runs. Cole Percival stood out with three strikeouts in two perfect innings, as did Ryan Sublette, who earned the win by recording the final four outs, including three strikeouts.

Low-A Rancho Cucamonga

Let the record that the Visalia Rawhide (D-backs) scored first on Sunday, thanks to a home run in the top of the inning. But Rancho Cucamonga unloaded in the bottom of the inning for 10 runs in a blowout win to close out the series.

Luis Diaz had two hits and drove in three runs in the inning, including a leadoff home run. Jake Vogel singled, walked, stole a base, and scored twice in the inning. In all, the Quakes sent 15 batters to the plate in the first inning, got nine hits and three walks in the frame.

Diaz ended with four hits, four RBI, and three runs scored. Every Quakes starter had at least one hit, reached base at least twice, and scored at least once.

Transactions

Triple-A: Eddy Alvarez was optioned to Oklahoma City by the Dodgers.

Sunday scores

• El Paso 18, Oklahoma City 5 (resumption of Saturday’s game)
• El Paso 12, Oklahoma City 2 (7 innings)
• Arkansas 14, Tulsa 4
• Great Lakes 11, Dayton 8
• Rancho Cucamonga 16, Visalia 4

Monday schedule

• 4:05 p.m. PT: Great Lakes (Lael Lockhart) at Lansing [A’s] (Mac Lardner)
• 4:35 p.m.: Tulsa (Clayton Beeter) at Northwest Arkansas [Royals] (TBA)
• 5:05 p.m.: Oklahoma City (TBA) vs. Las Vegas [A’s] (Adam Oller)
• 7:05 p.m.: Rancho Cucamonga (Peter Heubeck) at Inland Empire [Angels] (Jack Kochanowicz)

A rare Monday slate of games for the Dodgers’ top four minor league affiliates, with the July 4 holiday beckoning for baseball. Tulsa, Great Lakes, and Rancho Cucamonga will take their off days on Tuesday this week, with Oklahoma City getting two days in a row off next Sunday and Monday.