Gavin Stone strikes out 5 in Oklahoma City’s 4th straight win

After winning three straight games by a single run, Oklahoma City put some distance between themselves and their opponent on Wednesday, the last day OKC had the Dodgers minor league stage to themselves.

Player of the day

After a rough season debut last Friday, Gavin Stone got back on the beam on Wednesday, with five strong innings against the Las Vegas Aviators (A’s).

Stone allowed only three singles, two of which opened the second inning. One out later, with runners on the corners, Las Vegas pulled off a double steal, including a swipe of home for the only run against Stone, who retired his final 12 batters faced.

Stone struck out five, all finished off by the changeup, his best pitch. He threw the changeup for half of his 76 pitches, and got 11 swinging strikes on that pitch alone.

Since getting promoted to Triple-A last August, Stone has allowed zero or one run in five of his seven starts with Oklahoma City (this does not count Stone’s other start last year, in which he faced one batter before the game was delayed by rain).

Triple-A Oklahoma City

Ryan Ward and Devin Mann provided the extra-base power, driving in five of Oklahoma City’s first six runs in a road win over Las Vegas, the fourth straight win for OKC.

Ward tripled home a run in the second, and doubled home another in the fourth. He was one of the three on base when Mann doubled to clear the bases later in the frame. Ward, Mann, and Steven Duggar each had two hits.

Victor González struck out one in a scoreless sixth inning in relief.

It’s worth noting that Yonny Hernández, who is on the 40-man roster and who played third base, shortstop, and second base this spring, did not play on Wednesday night. We’ll find out Thursday afternoon whether that was related to one or both of Miguel Rojas’ groin injury or Miguel Vargas’ thumb injury after both missed Tuesday’s game against the Rockies. Rojas last played on Sunday.

Double-A Tulsa

The Drillers open their season on Thursday night, but if you wanted to put some faces to names for players on their roster, here are a few.

• Top tweet (clockwise, from top left): Infielder Brandon Lewis, pitchers Jordan Leasure, Trevor Bettencourt, Cole Percival
• Bottom tweet (clockwise, from left): Pitchers John Rooney, Alex Gamboa, Lael Lockhart

Wednesday score

Oklahoma City 8, Las Vegas 1

Thursday schedule

• 5:05 p.m. PT: Tulsa (Landon Knack) vs. San Antonio [Padres] (Efrain Contreras)
• 6:30 p.m.: Rancho Cucamonga (Maddux Bruns) vs. Inland Empire [Angels] (TBD)
• 7:05 p.m.: Oklahoma City (Matt Andriese) at Las Vegas (Colin Peluse)

Opening day in Double-A and Low-A, with home games for Tulsa and Rancho Cucamonga.