Andy Pages, Ryan Ward lead Tulsa in offensive outburst

Thursday’s trip around the Dodgers minors includes a pair of one-run games, two teams pulling off late wins and an explosion of offense in Double-A.

Player of the day

See a Tulsa Drillers boxscore because several belong here.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

Two late runs weren’t enough for Oklahoma City to overcome an early deficit Thursday, falling 8-7 to Salt Lake (Angels).

The the dust had settled on the third inning, the two teams had traded the lead three times and 13 of the 15 total runs on the game had already been scored. OKC was down 8-5 until Ryan Noda connected for his 17th homer of the season in the seventh, a two-run shot to bring the Dodgers within one.

OKC had a baserunner in each of the last two innings but failed to push a run across.

Michael Busch started the scoring with a solo home run in the top of the first, giving him 13 with Oklahoma City and 24 overall in 2022. Dillon Thomas answered for Salt Lake with a two-run shot in the bottom of the first.

Salt Lake took a 4-1 advantage into the third when the Dodgers hung four runs to take the lead back. Noda doubled with the bases loaded to bring home two and would come in to score on a two-run single by Tomás Telis.

The Bees countered with four runs of their own in the bottom half of the third and it was enough to hold off the Dodgers.

Drew Avans once again extended his on-base streak with a single in the third inning. The streak has reached 41 games now and is the longest active on-base streak currently in the Minors. Alex Verdugo was the last player for OKC to achieve such a streak, also reaching base in 41 consecutive games June 4-July 25, 2017.

Avans has also reached base in 55 of his last 56 games and hit safely in 24 of the last 28 games.

Double-A Tulsa

The Drillers got the bats going early Thursday and they just kept hitting all game long to flatten Northwest Arkansas (Royals) 23-7 on the road.

Both teams had scored six runs through four innings but that’s where it stopped resembling a competitive game. Tulsa scored seven in the fifth, six in the seventh and four in the eighth to win going away.

Several Drillers had big nights at the plate, including Andy Pages who was 4-for-6 with an RBI-single in the fifth and two-run triple in the eighth. Pages would finish a home run shy of the cycle.

Outfielder Ryan Ward was 3-for-6 with a three-run homer and a run-scoring single. Ward has now hit 27 homers this season for the Drillers and has 39 more games to chase the franchise record of 33 homers in a season (Tim Wheeler, 2011).

Jonny DeLuca continued his outstanding 2022 campaign going 3-for-6 with a walk and four runs scored out of the leadoff spot. The 24-year-old outfielder tripled in a run in the second, hit a solo homer in the fourth and drove in another on a single in the eighth. He finished a double shy of the cycle.

DeLuca now has 25 homers this season between High-A (18) and Double-A (7) and is hitting .313/.369/.636 in 23 games for Tulsa this season.

Eight different players for Tulsa had at least two hits, including four that had at least three. Justin Yurchak and Abiatel Avelino each reached base five times and drove in two runs. Yurchak hit a solo homer in the third and would end up walking three times, while Avelino hit a two-run homer in the big fifth inning and walked twice.

Included in their 21 hits, the Drillers finished with five home runs Thursday, capped by Leonel Valera's two-run shot in the seventh.

High-A Great Lakes

The Loons scored three in the ninth to force extra innings and eventually outlasted Lake County with a 5-4 win in 11 innings.

Down by three in the ninth, Damon Keith lofted a two-out single to right field to keep the inning alive. Jose Ramos followed with a two-run homer to keep the line moving for Imanol Vargas to go back-to-back with a solo shot to tie the game. Both home runs were hit with two strikes and two outs.

Great Lakes was gifted the go-ahead run in the seventh when Eddys Leonard struck out. A bad throw when the placed runner Ismael Alcantara took off for third, allowed Alcantara to bring the run in to eventually win it for Great Lakes.

The Captains had the winning run in scoring position in each of their last three at-bats but weren't able to push it across. Reliever Ryan Sublette walked the bases loaded in the eleventh before striking out the final two batters to close it out. Sublette struck out four and didn't allow a hit over the final two frames to earn the win.

The Loons are the first team in the Midwest League to reach 60 wins this year and they now own the best record.

Low-A Rancho Cucamonga

The Quakes scored three runs in the seventh inning to take control Wednesday night, coming away with a 4-1 win over Inland Empire (Angels) in front of the home crowd.

Six different 2022 draft picks were in the lineup for Rancho and several contributed to the win, including the Dodgers top selection in the second round (40th overall), catcher Dalton Rushing.

After Tatę Kolwyck hit a solo homer for the 66ers in the top of the second, Rushing hit a 3-2 pitch over the wall in right center for his first professional hit in his first at-bat in Low-A to tie the score.

With the game still knotted at one, Rancho loaded the bases with nobody out in the seventh inning. Luis Rodriguez started the inning off with a single before Kyle Nevin (2022, 11th round) was hit by a pitch and Sean McLain (2022, 5th round) walked.

Nevin is the son of Angels manager Phil Nevin and McLain has a brother (Matt) that was drafted in the first round last year by the Reds, currently with Double-A Chattanooga.

Taylor Young (2022, 8th round) lined a double to left field to bring home two runs and McLain would come around to score two batters later on a Jake Vogel sacrifice fly.

Four different pitchers combined to hold Inland Empire to the one run, including 4 ²⁄₃ scoreless innings from Benony Robles.

Transactions

Triple-A: Oklahoma City Dodgers activated RHP Jose Adames from the temporarily inactive list. RHP Heath Hembree assigned to Oklahoma City Dodgers from ACL Dodgers.

Low-A: Rancho Cucamonga Quakes transferred C Marco Hernandez to the Development List and released SS Hector Martinez. OF Kyle Nevin, C Dalton Rushing, OF Nick Biddison and SS Sean McLain were assigned to Rancho Cucamonga Quakes from ACL Dodgers. SS Javier Armas and C Jorge Puerta were assigned to ACL Dodgers from Rancho Cucamonga Quakes.

Thursday scores

• Salt Lake 8, Oklahoma City 7
• Tulsa 23, NW Arkansas 7
• Great Lakes 5, Lake County 4 (11)
• Rancho Cucamonga 4, Inland Empire 1

Friday schedule

• 4:00 p.m. PT: Great Lakes (Carlos Duran) at Lake County (Doug Nikhazy)
• 5:05 p.m.: Tulsa (Kyle Hurt) at NW Arkansas (Anthony Veneziano)
• 5:35 p.m.: Oklahoma City (Michael Grove) at Salt Lake (Cristopher Molina)
• 6:30 p.m.: Rancho Cucamonga (Ronan Kopp) vs. Inland Empire (Jack Kochanowicz)