Nick Nastrini tosses six solid innings in Great Lakes shutout

Thursday night around the Dodgers minors saw some good pitching and a couple of double-digit scores, one on either side of the win and loss column.

Player of the day

Nick Nastrini was great for the Loons, shutting down the Peoria (Cardinals) offense for six innings, leading the way to a 2-0 shutout for Great Lakes.

The right-hander didn’t allow a hit until the fifth inning when two singles put runners on first and second with one out. Nastrini struck out the next hitter and got out of the inning with a fly out. He finished with nine strikeouts to go with the two hits and two walks.

Going back to July 9, Nastrini has gone six innings in five of his six starts and didn’t allow a run in three of the six games. In the 35 innings of work, he has held opponents to seven runs (1.80 ERA) and struck out 43 batters against 10 walks.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

An eight-run inning for Round Rock (Rangers) put the game out of reach for Oklahoma City Thursday in a 12-1 loss in front of the home crowd. It was summarized best on the team’s social media accounts.

About the only good thing that happened for OKC was a triple from Drew Avans in the third to extend his on-base streak to 47 games. Michael Busch would bring Avans home on a sac fly. Outside of that, it was all Express.

Double-A Tulsa

Tulsa also enjoyed a good performance from the pitching staff as they beat Midland (Athletics) 3-1 in from of the home crowd.

Lael Lockhart went five strong, allowing just an unearned run while scattering three hits and three walks. Kyle Hurt followed right behind Lockhart with four dominant innings, striking out nine batters while walking one to lock down the game for Great Lakes.

Each team scored a run in the second inning thanks to an error. After Lockhart walked two hitters in the top half of the inning, a fly ball to left field got away from Justin Yurchak in left, allowing a run to come in and score. The Drillers took advantage of an error in the home half on a ground ball to first that wasn’t fielded cleanly, going Brandon Lewis the opportunity to score from second on the play.

The score would remain tied until the seventh when Kenneth Betancourt laced a two-out single to score the go-ahead run in his third game since being called up to the Drillers. Yurchak would extend the lead in the eighth with a solo shot to right field and Hurt locked it down in the ninth.

Andy Pages increased his on-base streak to ten games with his single in the fourth inning. During the streak, he has recorded 12 hits and scored 11 runs with a .316 batting average, a .435 OBP, a .763 SLG and a 1.198 OPS during the streak.

High-A Great Lakes

The Loons shutout the Chiefs 2-0 behind the solid work of Nastrini and three innings from the bullpen. Great Lakes even got some great defense from the mound.

Three of the first four batters of the game reached for the Loons as they took a 1-0 lead on a run-scoring single from Eddys Leonard. It would stay that way until the seventh inning when they loaded the bases with nobody out on two singles and a walk. The Loons only came up with one in the inning on a Jorbit Vivas Sac fly but it would be enough to get the job done.

Low-A Rancho Cucamonga

The Quakes got a team effort on offense Thursday, combining for 13 hits and 12 walks on their way to an 11-5 win over Lake Elsinore (Padres).

Rancho took an early 3-1 lead in the second when they loaded the bases with nobody out. A ground out, a Taylor Young single and a wild pitch brought those runners home.

After the Storm tied it in the fourth, the Quakes offense kept at it with two in the fifth before breaking through for five runs in the sixth.

Kyle Nevin took advantage of one of the many time Rancho had the bases loaded, smashing a double to bring all three runners home. Young later singled Nevin home and Jake Vogel followed with a double to make it 10-3, allowing the Quakes to cruise to the win.

Nevin finished 1-for-3 with three walks, catcher Dalton Rushing reached base three times (all walks) and Nick Biddison was 3-for-4 with a triple and two singles to go with two walks. All three were drafted by the Dodgers this June.

Transactions

Double-A: Tulsa Drillers placed RHP Keegan Curtis on the 7-day injured list.

Thursday scores

• Round Rock 12, Oklahoma City 1
• Tulsa 3, Midland 1
• Great Lakes 2, Peoria 0
• Rancho Cucamonga 11, Lake Elsinore 5

Friday schedule

• 4:05 p.m. PT: Great Lakes (Carlos Duran) vs. Peoria (Austin Love)
• 5:05 p.m.: Oklahoma City (Andre Jackson) vs. Round Rock (Cole Winn)
• 5:05 p.m.: Tulsa (Gavin Stone) vs. Midland (Jack Cushing)
• 6:05 p.m.: Rancho Cucamonga (Peter Heubeck) at Lake Elsinore (Matt Boswell)