Dodgers minors: Nick Frasso, Maddux Bruns put up more zeroes

Wednesday in the Dodgers minor leagues saw a pair of high-strikeout scoreless outings from two pitchers to watch, and a slew of infielder movement within levels after the Dodgers called up infielders Luke Williams and Yonny Hernández to the majors over the previous two days.

Player of the day

Nick Frasso struck out seven in four scoreless innings for Double-A Tulsa, continuing his impressive start to the season. Frasso walked two, hit a batter, and allowed four singles but kept Wichita off the scoreboard. Through three starts this season, Frasso has allowed two runs in 13 innings, with 18 strikeouts (a 33.3-percent strikeout rate) and three walks.

It’s an improvement on how the right-hander ended the 2022 season, with four starts in Tulsa.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

The worst slugfest doesn’t fully capture the atmosphere in certain Pacific Coast League parks, like when Oklahoma City beat the Albuquerque Isotopes (Rockies) in a game that featured 28 runs.

Oklahoma City led 11-0 in this one, and 15-9 entering the ninth, when Albuquerque scored four runs and loaded the bases with two outs, and nearly won in walk-off fashion on this final drive:

There have only been eight games in Albuquerque this season, but the average game there features 16.6 runs between the two teams. Oklahoma City and Albuquerque have blown past that in the first two games of this series, each scoring double digits in each game, including on a particularly windy Wednesday.

In many ways, it’s like trying to decipher stats from Rockies games at Coors Field in the 1990s, and figure out what’s real. Hunter Feduccia kept up his hot streak with a three-run home run as part of a three-hit night, one day after his five-hit affair. Drew Avans also hit a three-run shot.

Ryan Ward had four hits and drove in four runs. Devin Mann, who made his fifth professional start at shortstop (first this year), then doubled twice and scored three times.

Andre Jackson struck out his only batter faced, Tyler Scott struck out three of his six batters faced, allowing no runs while recording four outs, and Wander Suero cleaned up Nick Robertson’s ninth-inning mess by getting the final two outs, the last one in the video above.

Double-A Tulsa

Tulsa allowed only five hits in beating the Wichita Wind Surge (Twins), the Drillers’ second shutout win of the season.

After Frasso, Tanner Dodson allowed only a walk and no hits in three scoreless innings of relief to earn the win, strikeout two. Dodson, who was acquired from the Rays for Luke Raley in March 2022, has yet to allow a hit or a run in seven innings this season, with five strikeouts and four walks.

Jorbit Vivas drove in the first run for Tulsa in the third inning with an RBI single, and Andy Pages followed with a sacrifice fly. First baseman Imanol Vargas added a two-run home run in the eighth.

John Rooney has also been impressive on the mound for the Drillers, including three strikeouts in two scoreless innings to earn the save on Wednesday. The left-hander, drafted in the third round in 2018, has allowed one run on four hits in 6⅓ innings this season, with nine strikeouts and no walks.

High-A Great Lakes

The Loons dropped a one-run game at home to the South Bend Cubs.

Ronan Kopp allowed an unearned run in his three innings to start the game, which was enough to tag him with the loss. He walked three, but also struck out six. Through three starts the left-hander has a 0.90 ERA with 17 strikeouts (44.7 percent) and five walks (13.2 percent) in 10 innings.

Dalton Rushing batted leadoff in this one going 1-for-4 with a sacrifice fly.

Low-A Rancho Cucamonga

The Quakes blanked the Fresno Grizzlies (Rockies), Rancho Cucamonga’s third shutout win this season.

Maddux Bruns definitely could have been player of the day, but we’ll discuss him here instead. The left-hander struck out six in four scoreless, hitless innings, retiring 12 of his 14 batters faced, allowing one one walk and another batter reached on an error.

The Dodgers’ first-round pick from 2021 has yet to allow a run in 11⅓ innings this season, with 19 strikeouts and a 43.2-percent strikeout rate.

Chris Campos followed with 3⅔ scoreless innings of his own, with four strikeouts to earn the win.

Transactions

Triple-A: With Yonny Hernández called up to the majors, shortstop Bryson Brigman was promoted to Oklahoma City after a 7-for-12 (.583) start for Tulsa.

Double-A: Pitcher Braydon Fisher was promoted to Tulsa after striking out eight of his 13 hitters faced in four scoreless innings with Great Lakes. Infielder Kenneth Betancourt also was promoted from Rancho Cucamonga to Tulsa.

High-A: Left-hander Franklin De La Paz joined the Loons from extended spring training, having missed the entire 2022 season after Tommy John surgery. Back in January, Eric Longenhagen at FanGraphs said of De La Paz, “When healthy, he’ll show you 92-93 mph with a plus-plus slider.”

Low-A: Infielder Jeral Perez was promoted to the Quakes from extended spring training.

Wednesday scores

• Oklahoma City 15, Albuquerque 13
• Tulsa 4, Wichita 0
• South Bend 4, Great Lakes 3
• Rancho Cucamonga 2, Fresno 0

Thursday schedule

• 10:05 a.m. PT: Oklahoma City (Tony Gonsolin) at Albuquerque (Peter Lambert)
• 3:05 p.m.: Great Lakes (Ben Casparius) vs. South Bend (Luke Little)
• 5:05 p.m.: Tulsa (Kyle Hurt) vs. Wichita (Travis Adams)
• 6:30 p.m.: Rancho Cucamonga (Peter Heubeck) vs. Fresno (Michael Prosecky)

The first of two planned minor league rehab starts for Gonsolin.