Dodgers minors: Great Lakes, Rancho Cucamonga shut out in playoff openers

Runs were hard to come by for the Dodgers minor league affiliates on Tuesday night, and there were a ton of pitchers on the move.

Player of the day

Left-hander Justin Wrobleski was the best pitcher for Great Lakes, and was fantastic in his first professional postseason game. He struck out eight batters in 5⅓ innings in Game 1 of the Midwest League playoffs.

Wrobleski allowed a single run on a pair of doubles in the fourth inning, and allowed only four hits in his outing. When he walked off the mound with one out in the sixth, Wrobleski was trailing 1-0 . His fourth hit allowed was on second base, and came around to score on a single off reliever Jack Dreyer.

High-A Great Lakes

Turns out there was a level of baseball this year in which both the Dodgers and Padres made the playoffs. In Game 1 of the best-of-3 Midwest League East Division Series on Tuesday night, the Fort Wayne TinCaps (Padres) shut out the Loons.

Fort Wayne center fielder Samuel Zavala broke open a close game in the seventh inning with a three-run home run off Benony Robles.

The Loons were held to four hits but also walked seven times, so they had their chances. Their lone hit in 12 at-bats with runners in scoring position was an infield single to shortstop in the fourth inning by Jake Vogel that didn’t score a run.

Great Lakes will need to win the next two games to advance to the Midwest League finals. Both games will be at home at Dow Diamond in Midland, Michigan, but the Loons need to win Thursday to force a Game 3 on Friday.

Low-A Rancho Cucamonga

The Quakes were blanked by the Inland Empire 66ers (Angels) in Game 1 of the best-of-3 California League South Division Series.

Christian Romero was excellent in his five innings, striking out five with no walks. The only run he allowed was unearned, when a pair of two-out singles in the third will followed by an error by Jake Gelof at third base. Romero got stuck with with the tough-luck loss.

Inland Empire starter Joel Hurtado pitched seven scoreless innings for the win, allowing just a single and a walk.

The Quakes managed only two hits, both singles by Gelof and designated hitter Jesus Galiz.

The final out of the game with a strikeout of Kendall George, with the final strike coming on a pitch-timer violation by George.

Rancho Cucamonga is in the same position as Great Lakes, in that they need to win the next two games to advance, and that both of those games, if necessary, will be at home.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City tied the game in the seventh and 10th innings, then won in the 11th over the Tacoma Rainiers (Mariners).

Miguel Vargas hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning for OKC’s first run of the game and, given the timing of the Tulsa and Great Lakes games was the first score of the night in the 25th inning of play for Dodgers affiliates on Tuesday.

Yonny Hernández singled twice, walked, scored on the Vargas home run and drove in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning.

Michael Busch came out after just four innings, for reasons unknown.

Ricky Vanasco, who spent a month on the Dodgers 40-man roster after he was acquired from Texas on June 1, made his Triple-A debut on Tuesday with a scoreless seventh inning, including a strikeout.

New rehab assignment

Outfielder Jake Marisnick, kind of the forgotten man after the Dodgers’ trande-deadline acquisitions, started a rehab assignment with Oklahoma City. He played five innings in left field and went hitless in two at-bats in his first game action in 56 days.

Marisnick has been sidelined since July 19 with a left hamstring strain, only five days after he signed with the Dodgers. Marisnick was moved to the 60-day IL on August 15 and isn’t eligible to be activated until Sunday at the earliest. But the question is if there is room for him on the Dodgers’ active roster.

Double-A Tulsa

The Drillers ran their losing streak to 10, getting drubbed by the Corpus Christi Hooks (Astros) by a dozen runs.

Tulsa did not score, managing only five hits and four walks. All the hits were singles, including two each by third baseman Kody Hoese and left fielder Ismael Alcantara.

The game turned into a laugher with a nine-run fourth inning for Corpus Christi. The first five runs in the inning were scored off starter Orlando Ortiz-Mayr, who allowed eight runs in total on Tuesday. Reinaldo De Paula allowed four runs in the frame, getting the final two outs.

Transactions

Triple-A: Right-hander Kyle Hurt was called up to the Dodgers to potentially make his major league debut. Victor González was optioned to Oklahoma City. Outfielder Jake Marisnick joined OKC on a rehab assignment. Pitchers River Ryan and RIcky Vanasco were promoted to Oklahoma City from Tulsa. Pitcher Robbie Erlin was activated from the temporary inactive list to start. Infielder Pat Valaika was placed on the development list.

Double-A: Right-hander Trevor Bettencourt came back to Tulsa from OKC. Sauryn Lao was promoted to Tulsa, the third level this season for the former infielder in his first year of pitching. Lao had a 3.48 ERA with 72 strikeouts (31.9-percent K rate) and only 11 walks in 54⅓ innings between both Class-A levels.

Tuesday scores

Playoffs

• Fort Wayne 5, Great Lakes 0 (Fort Wayne leads series 1-0)
• Inland Empire 3, Rancho Cucamonga 0 (Inland Empire leads series 1-0)

Regular season

• Oklahoma City 5, Tacoma 4 (11 innings)
• Corpus Christi 12, Tulsa 0

Wednesday schedule

• 10:05 a.m. PT: Oklahoma City (River Ryan) vs. Tacoma (Adam Oller)
• 10:05 a.m.: Tulsa (TBA) vs. Corpus Christi (A.J. Blubaugh)