Dodgers minors: Daniel Hudson, Jimmy Nelson, Landon Knack

A recap of Saturday in the Dodgers minor leagues includes two major league pitchers on rehab assignments.

Player of the day

Landon Knack struck out eight and walked none in his 7⅔ innings on Saturday for Double-A Tulsa, the first starter in the Dodgers organization — majors and minors — to pitch into the eighth inning in 2023.

Knack allowed two runs on four hits, with both runs scoring on a two-run home run in the fifth inning.

The right-hander, who also had start of seven scoreless innings on May 24, leads all Dodgers minor league pitchers with 57⅓ innings pitched, and has a 2.20 ERA to go with 61 strikeouts against 12 walks.

Per a report from Josh Thomas at Dodgers Digest, both Knack and Emmet Sheehan earned promotions to Triple-A Oklahoma City after incredible starts with Tulsa.

Minor league rehab

Daniel Hudson made his second appearance for the Dodgers’ Arizona Complex League, starting on Saturday afternoon, after beginning his rehab assignment on Tuesday.

He pitched a scoreless inning with one strikeout, but that only tells half the story. Hudson allowed a single to the first batter, who was thrown out trying to steal second base by catcher Simon Reid, the Dodgers’ 10th-round pick last year out of Westmont College. After a walk and a strikeout, Reid picked off the other baserunner at first base to end the frame.

Jimmy Nelson followed Hudson on the mound, pitching a scoreless second inning with a walk and a strikeout. This is a new rehab assignment for Nelson, who pitched for Triple-A Oklahoma City once, on April 25, but was shut down soon afterward.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

Devin Mann hit his fourth home run in four games, highlighting Oklahoma City’s win over the El Paso Chihuahuas (Padres). Mann in eight games in June has four home runs and three doubles.

Left-hander Alec Gamboa, the Dodgers’ ninth-round draft pick in 2019, made his Triple-A debut with three scoreless innings in relief, with three strikeouts. Gamboa allowed only two hits, one of them a double by Nelson Cruz, who is on a minor league rehab assignment.

Starter Mike Montgomery made his Dodgers organization debut by allowing a run in three innings with two strikeouts, after signing with Los Angeles earlier in the week.

Michael Busch drove in two runs with a double and sacrifice fly.

Justin Bruihl worked around a hit and a walk to pitch a scoreless ninth, earning his first save of the season.

Double-A Tulsa

The Drillers backed Knack with a strong offensive effort to beat the Arkansas Travelers (Mariners), their closest competitors in the Texas League North Division. Tulsa leads Arkansas by two games with 13 games left in the first half, including one more game in this series on Sunday.

Jose Ramos and Diego Cartaya each homered and had two hits. Ramos’ homer was a three-run shot, while Cartaya’s was a solo blast though the catcher drove in two runs in the game.

Austin Gauthier and Yusniel Díaz each had three hits. Gauther also walked, and is 9-for-22 (.409) with eight runs scored and three extra-base hits during the first five games of his series.

High-A Great Lakes

Orlando Ortiz-Mayr continues to impress on the mound, helping the Loons to a comeback win over the Lake County Captains (Guardians).

The 25-year-old right-hander entered the game in the fourth inning down 5-3, but held Lake County at bat while the Loons bats played catchup. Ortiz-Mayr, a non-drafted free agent signed by the Dodgers in 2021 out of Troy, pitched his second straight scoreless game, covering four innings on Saturday. On the season, Ortiz-Mayr has allowed more than two runs only once in 11 games, and owns a 2.29 ERA with 33 strikeouts and 13 walks in 39⅓ innings.

Seven Great Lakes hitters had multi-hit games, led by Damon Keith with a home run, double, and single. Alex Freeland also homered, just before Keith.

Maddux Bruns saw his string of three scoreless starts snapped, allowing three runs while recording four outs, with four walks and three strikeouts.

Also, Saturday was Star Wars night at Dow Diamond in Midland.

Low-A Rancho Cucamonga

Thirteen walks undid the Quakes on Saturday, including three walks to start the ninth inning before a two-run single gave the Modesto Nuts (Mariners) a come-from-behind walk-off winner.

Clinging to a one-run lead, Joel Ibarra allowed a leadoff double in the eighth inning, just the fifth hit against him all season, in 83 at-bats (a .060 batting average). The 20-year-old also walked a pair with two outs to load the bases, but got out of the jam with a groundout.

In the ninth, Ibarra walked the first two batters and was pulled in favor of Madison Jeffrey, who immediately threw a wild pitch to start a four-pitch walk to his first batter, loading the bases with nobody out. He got ahead 0-2 to the next batter, but Cole Young singled to right field to bring home two runs for the game-winner.

Ibarra this season saw his ERA rise to 2.00 in 27 innings, with a 29.7-percent strikeout rate and 22.5-percent walk rate. A literally wild season.

Quakes starter Chris Campos threw only 12 strikes in his 28 pitches, recording only two outs in the first inning. He walked three and allowed a single, but did not allow a run as the first of those walks was erased by a caught stealing.

Despite all those walks, Rancho Cucamonga still came close to winning, thanks in part to a go-ahead RBI double in the seventh inning by Thayron Liranzo. The double was Liranzo’s 22nd extra-base hit of the season, a total which also includes his 14 home runs. The Quakes catcher leads the California League in home runs and slugging percentage (.548).

Transactions

Triple-A: Pitcher Andre Jackson was recalled to the Dodgers, and then picked up another three-inning save. Pitcher Alec Gamboa was promoted from Tulsa after a 2.79 ERA over 29 innings in 12 bulk relief appearances in Double-A. Outfielder Steven Duggar was placed on the injured list retroactive to Friday, playing only twice after missing 13 games on previous IL stint with a back injury.

Arizona Complex League: Pitcher Jimmy Nelson started a rehab assignment.

Saturday scores

• Oklahoma City 4, El Paso 1
• Tulsa 11, Arkansas 2
• Great Lakes 10, Lake County 5
• Modesto 4, Rancho Cucamonga 3

Sunday schedule

• 10:05 a.m. PT: Great Lakes (Hyun-il Choi) vs. Lake County (Reid Johnston)
• 11:05 a.m.: Tulsa (Nick Frasso) vs. Arkansas (Emerson Hancock)
• 2:05 p.m.: Rancho Cucamonga (Peter Heubeck) at Modesto (Riley Davis)
• 5:05 p.m.: Oklahoma City (Matt Andriese) at El Paso (Angel Sánchez)