Blake Treinen strikes out three in scoreless inning for Oklahoma City

The minor league affiliates of the Dodgers weren’t a good place to look if you wanted to find a win Sunday. But even though all four affiliates lost, let’s look at some of the positives.

Blake Treinen is well on his way to making a strong return to the big club as he continued his rehab assignment with another scoreless inning for Oklahoma City. The big right-hander struck out three and hit one in an 18-pitch sixth inning.

Manager Dave Roberts provided an update on several pitchers Sunday morning, saying the target for Treinen is September 2, Danny Duffy is throwing in Arizona and Tommy Kahnle could go on a rehab soon.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

More than half the runs scored in this game came in extra innings, with Oklahoma City taking a lead and ultimately losing it in walk-off fashion to Sugar Land (Astros).

After Miguel Vargas doubled in a run in the eighth to tie the game, the Dodgers scored two in the top of the 10th. Devin Mann started the inning with a double to drive in Jacob Amaya who started the inning at second base. A Michael Busch groundout moved Mann to third and he would score two batters later when Edwin Ríos grounded out to second.

A two-run lead is a pretty nice advantage in extra innings but it doesn’t always work out.

Lewis Brinson started Oklahoma City’s demise with a double of his own to put runners at second and third to open the home half of the 10th. A groundout brought the Space Cowboys within a run and Marty Costes doubled in Brinson to tie the game.

With only one out and Costes at third on a wild pitch by Carson Fulmer, the Dodgers intentionally walked the next hitter to setup a double play. That never happened and Alex De Goti got the squeeze bunt down to score the winning run from third.

Vargas finished 2-for-4 on the night to extend his hitting streak to eight games. The 22-year-old is 12-for-30 (.400) over the streak and 16-for-48 (.333) in the 12 games since returning from his brief stint in the major leagues.

Overshadowed by the late-game activity, Jon Duplantier made his best start of the season for OKC. The right-hander held Sugar Land without a run for five innings, striking out nine with three walks and two hits.

Double-A Tulsa

Continuing the theme of this week’s series with Wichita (Twins), the Drillers got behind early and couldn’t score enough to catch up. Tulsa dropped this one 7-4 and lost five of the six in the series.

The Drillers were already down 4-0 when Brandon Lewis got Tulsa on the scoreboard with his 17th homer of the year, a solo shot to left. But the Wind Surge would pull away again with a 6-1 lead after the sixth.

As a team, Tulsa had 13 hits and three walks to put multiple runners on base in five of the last six innings to attempt a comeback. Leonel Valera followed a Buddy Reed double in the seventh with a single to bring the run home. Valera would later score on a Justin Yurchak single to make it 6-3.

Carson Taylor made it a game with a solo home run in the top of the eighth to pull Tulsa within two but it wouldn’t matter in the end. Wichita would get another long ball from Aaron Sabato in the home half of the eighth, his third of the series after getting promoted to Double-A last week and 20th of the year.

Five different hitters had multiple hits or Tulsa, including a 3-for-5 day for Andy Pages and two hits each for Valera, Yurchak, Taylor and Buddy Reed.

High-A Great Lakes

One big inning and 14 hits wasn’t enough to keep pace with Lansing (Athletics) Sunday. The Loons were up 5-3 in the later innings, only to find themselves on the wrong end of eight runs over the final three frames to lose 11-7.

The Loons sent nine men to the plate in the second inning to take a 4-2 lead early on. With two outs and two on, Kekai Rios smacked an RBI-single to get Great lakes on the board. After a walk loaded the bases, Eddys Leonard drove in a run with a single and Jorbit Vivas ripped a single to center to score two more.

Aldrich De Jongh and Rios each ended their nights with three hits out of the seventh and eighth spot in the lineup and the Loons were 5-for-12 with runners in scoring position. They just couldn’t hang with the double-digit output for the Lugnuts.

First baseman Imanol Vargas was one of five hitters for Great Lakes to finish with more than one hit on the afternoon. Vargas was 2-for-5 with a solo blast in the ninth inning for his 17th home run of the year. The 24-year-old closed out the final four games of the series going 9-for-21 at the plate.

Low-A Rancho Cucamonga

Rancho had as many hits as they had errors Sunday and succumbed to an early onslaught of runs from Modesto (Mariners) to drop the series finale by the score of 7-2.

Being on hand to witness the game, my interest was in 2022 second-round pick (40th overall), Dalton Rushing. Playing first base Sunday, Rushing singled in a run in a two-run second for Rancho as they pulled within a run.

While the fourth at-bat was a pop up to center field, the first three times at the plate resulted in a hard hit ball. A line drive to center field (pictured above) was smoked but right at the center fielder. He came up with runners on the corners in the third and smashed a single through the right side of the infield and he lined out to shortstop in his third plate appearance.

I was impressed with what I saw out of his powerful swing. Rushing is 21-for-45 (.467) with five homers and 15 RBI in 13 games with the Quakes.

Sunday scores

• Sugar Land 5, Oklahoma City 4 (10 innings)
• Wichita 7, Tulsa 4
• Lansing 11, Great Lakes 7
• Modesto 7, Rancho Cucamonga 2

Tuesday schedule

• 4:05 p.m. PT: Great Lakes vs. Fort Wayne (Padres)
• 4:35 p.m.: Tulsa at Arkansas (Mariners)
• 5:05 p.m.: Oklahoma City vs. El Paso (Padres)
• 6:30 p.m.: Rancho Cucamonga at Visalia (Diamondbacks)

The top four affiliates are all off Monday.