Dodgers minors: Ryan Pepiot takes perfect game into 7th inning for Oklahoma City

Right-hander Ryan Pepiot pitched the game of the year in the Dodgers minor leagues, taking a perfect game into the seventh inning on Sunday afternoon for Triple-A Oklahoma City in Tacoma.

Pepiot retired his first 18 batters faced before Tacoma shortstop Ryan Bliss singled to center field to open the seventh inning. Pepiot retired the next two batters before departing after 90 pitches, striking out 11 in 6⅔ scoreless innings.

Pepiot got 21 swinging strikes against Tacoma, 17 of which came on the fastball. His 11 strikeouts tied a career high, set previously on July 14, 2021 for Double-A Tulsa against Arkansas. In that game, Pepiot took a perfect game into the eighth inning before walking a batter.

Ninety pitches were his most in the six games Pepiot has pitched for Oklahoma City this year, topping the 80 pitches he threw in four innings one week prior. Pepiot missed the first three and a half months of the season with a strained left oblique, and his first four starts in Triple-A were on a rehab assignment before getting activated and optioned on August 2.

Pepiot in his six starts for Oklahoma City has a 3.97 ERA in 22 innings, with 26 strikeouts (and a 28-percent strikeout rate) against only five walks.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

Pepiot left with a 1-0 lead, but Oklahoma City lost in 10 innings to the Tacoma Rainiers (Mariners).

Bryan Hudson relieved Pepiot and got three strikeouts in his four outs. He nearly had another one, but upon a Tacoma challenge, a 3-2 pitch to Adam Engel that would have ended the eighth inning was first called a strike but changed to a ball. Three pitches later, Riley Unroe doubled Engel home to tie the game.

Oklahoma City scored the free runner in the top of the 10th, but the Rainiers scored two on a two-out singly by Bliss off Wander Suero for the walk-off win.

Michael Busch singled in his five at-bats, extending his on-base streak to 37 games.

Double-A Tulsa

The Drillers did no drilling on Sunday in a blowout loss to the Amarillo Sod Poodles (D-backs). Tulsa did not score until the seventh inning when they already trailed by seven runs, while Amarillo scored in six of the final seven innings.

Starter Orlando Ortiz-Mayr allowed three runs in his five innings. Amarillo blew the game open with a three-run sixth against Carlo Reyes.

Imanol Vargas had a two-run single in the ninth inning to give him 12 RBI in the six-game series.

High-A Great Lakes

The Loons dropped a low-scoring affair, losing by one run to the West Michigan Whitecaps (Tigers).

Great Lakes had six hits, including an RBI single by Jake Vogel and a run-scoring double by Griffin Lockwood-Powell.

Ronan Kopp made his first relief appearance of the season, pitching two scoreless innings and struck out four of his six batters faced. The left-hander walked a batter but promptly picked him off.

He started on Tuesday, so this was a way to get him another outing this week. It also wasn’t all that different from Kopp’s starts, as he’s been pushed more than three innings only five times in 21 starts, topping out at four innings.

Low-A Rancho Cucamonga

Thayron Liranzo was a triple shy of the cycle (Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register would call this a tri-shy-cle) and scored three runs in the Quakes high-scoring win over the Inland Empire 66ers (Angels).

Liranzo doubled, singled, and walked on Sunday, and his fifth-inning home run was the 19th of the season for the 20-year-old Quakes catcher, which leads the California League.

Second baseman Rayne Doncon hit a two-run home run in Rancho Cucamonga’s five-run first inning, and drove in three in the game. Third baseman Jake Gelof doubled twice, drove in two runs, walked, and scored three times.

Left fielder Luis Rodriguez doubled, singled, walked, and drove in three.

Sunday scores

• Tacoma 3, Oklahoma City 2 (10 innings)
• Amarillo 9, Tulsa 3
• West Michigan 3, Great Lakes 2
• Rancho Cucamonga 12, Inland Empire 8

The week ahead

• Oklahoma City at Salt Lake (Angels)
• Tulsa at Frisco (Rangers)
• Great Lakes at Lansing (A’s)
• Rancho Cucamonga at Visalia (D-backs)