Danny Duffy moves rehab to Oklahoma City

After a brief stop with Low-A Rancho Cucamonga last week, Danny Duffy moved his rehab assignment to Triple-A Oklahoma City Wednesday as he is attempting to be ready in some capacity for the Dodgers in the last month of the season.

Duffy pitched a perfect sixth inning, striking out all three batters on 14 pitches. The left-hander had a flexor tendon injury that required surgery in October and hasn’t appeared in a major league game since July 16 of last season as a member of the Royals.

Now let’s take a look at the rest of the action, including three close losses and a wild win in 10 innings.

Player of the day

The Dodgers’ 2022 fourth-round pick (135 overall) Nick Biddison had the best night of his brief career to this point, driving in four runs on five hits to help Rancho to win in extra innings.

Playing both the outfield and infield Wednesday, Biddison was 5-for-6 with two doubles and a triple. The 22-year-old brought in a run on a sac fly in the first, a two-run triple in the fifth and drove in the game’s final run with a single in the 10th.

In 22 games since being added to the Quakes Roster at the beginning of August, Biddison is 27-for-87 (.310) with two homers, two triple and six RBI, good for a .913 OPS.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City twice had a lead Wednesday but two runs in the eighth for Round Rock (Rangers) proved to be the difference, sending the Dodgers to a 7-6 loss on the road in Texas.

After a strikeout and a walk, reliever Carson Fulmer came on to protect the 6-5 lead for OKC. Fulmer struck out the first batter he faced but allowed a double and a single to give Round Rock the two crucial runs.

The Dodgers got five of their six runs by way of the long ball, with Jacob Amaya hitting a two-run homer in the top of the fifth to break a scoreless tie and Jason Martin smashing a three-run job in the sixth.

However, in between those big hits for OKC, the Express strung together four hits and five runs in the home half of the fifth.

Martin finished 2-for-4 with the home run and a double to give him a league-leading 30 homers and 102 RBI on the year. It was the third consecutive night with a long ball for Martin.

The Dodgers gained the lead in the sixth on a run-scoring groundout from James Outman, who disappointingly didn’t hit for another cycle.

Gavin Stone made his second start with OKC since being promoted August 16. The right-hander held Round Rock scoreless in 3 ¹⁄₃ innings, giving up two hits and three walks while striking out seven of the 15 batters he faced.

Double-A Tulsa

Tulsa scored three runs in the seventh to tie the game at five apiece but a solo home run in the ninth for Northwest Arkansas proved to be the final blow. The Drillers went in order in their half of the ninth to drop a 6-5 contest to the Naturals.

It was a battle of two players on offense, with Abiatal Avelino driving in three for the Drillers and Robbie Glendinning knocking in five for the Naturals.

Avelino singled in a run in the second to give Tulsa a 1-0 lead that was immediately erased by Glendinning’s three-run homer in the third. After Justin Yurchak singled in a run for the Drillers in the sixth, Glendinning extended the deficit with a two-run double.

Avelino hit a two-run homer in the seventh and Tulsa would later tie it in the inning when Leonel Valera stole third and came in to score on a wild throw by catcher Luca Tresh.

Tucker Bradley put the Naturals up for good with a solo shot in the ninth.

Avelino and catcher Carson Taylor finished 2-for-4 on the night.

High-A Great Lakes

Great Lakes had very little happening on offense Wednesday night. The Loons were limited to one hit and few baserunners on their way to a 2-0 loss at the hands of Lake County (Guardians).

After the Captains scored a run in the top of the first, the Loons put runners at first and second with two outs on a Jorbit Vivas single and Damon Keith walk. But a flyout ended the inning and Great Lakes would go without a hit the rest of the way. Keith would walk twice in four trips to the plate for the Loons.

The only other chance to get some kind of rally together happened in the fourth when Ismael Alcantara was hit by a pitch and ended up at third on a throwing error that allowed Imanol Vargas to reach. It came with two outs again and Luis Diaz struck out to end the threat.

Lake County retired 16 of the final 18 Loons to hit, completing the shutout.

Lost in the shuffle is the five solid innings turned in by Carlos Duran for Great Lakes. The right-hander struck out six and allowed just one run on four hits and two walks to keep the Loons in it.

Low-A Rancho Cucamonga

Rancho and Inland Empire combined for 32 hits and 30 runs in a game that needed 10 innings to be decided. The Quakes scored two runs in the top of the 10th to keep their playoff hopes alive with a 16-14 win.

Both teams scored in bunches all game but it was a seven-run fifth inning that saw 10 men come to the plate for Rancho that propelled the Quakes to stay in this contest and eventually come out on top. It amazingly all came after there were two outs in the inning.

With Rancho down 9-4 entering the frame, Kyle Froemke reached on a throwing error and the next two batters made out. Jake Vogel doubled, Yeiner Fernandez singled, Dalton Rushing reached on an error and Biddison tripled to put the tying run at third. Bubba Alleyne tied the game at nine with an RBI-single and Griffin Lockwood-Powell went deep to cap the inning by giving the Quakes a two-run advantage.

Rancho took a 14-12 lead into the bottom of the ninth but Adrian Placencia tied it on a two-run home run to force extra innings.

Vogel and Biddison kept their big nights going into the free baseball portion of the night, each singling home a run in the 10th to help close out the win.

See above for Biddison’s five-hit effort and Vogel finished the night 4-for-6 with a double, three singles, a walk and four RBI. Amazingly, only three other players had multiple hits in the game for the Quakes in a 19-hit outburst.

18-year-old Rayne Doncon went 2-for-5 with two RBI and a walk in his fifth game since joining Rancho last week. Doncon is 6-for-20 (.300) in the last four games after an 0-for-4 debut.

Transactions

Triple-A: Los Angeles Dodgers sent LHP Danny Duffy on a rehab assignment to Oklahoma City Dodgers.

Low-A: LHP Luis Valdez assigned to Rancho Cucamonga Quakes from ACL Dodgers.

Wednesday scores

• Round Rock 7, Oklahoma City 6
• Northwest Arkansas 6, Tulsa 5
• Lake County 2, Great Lakes 0
• Rancho Cucamonga 16, Inland Empire 14

Thursday Schedule

• 4:05 p.m. PT: Great Lakes (Adolfo Ramirez) vs. Lake County (Tommy Mace)
• 4:35 p.m.: Oklahoma City (Bobby Miller) at Round Rock (Tyson Miller)
• 5:05 p.m.: Tulsa (TBD) vs. Northwest Arkansas (Andrew Hoffmann)
• 7:05 p.m.: Rancho Cucamonga (Justin Wrobleski) at Inland Empire (Chase Chaney)