Friday night in the Dodgers minors included a few multiple home run games and a dominant pitching outing for someone freshly back from the injured list.
Player of the day
Peter Heubeck retired nine of his 10 batters faced in three scoreless innings, with six strikeouts on Friday night for Double-A Tulsa. He allowed only a two-out single in the second inning, shortly after the right-hander struck out his first four batters of the game.
Heubeck returned from the injured list last Saturday, making his first start for Tulsa since suffering a shoulder injury last July. He’s struck out nine of his 19 batters faced in five innings thus far.
Triple-A Oklahoma City
The Comets homered four times to beat the Sugar Land Space Cowboys (Astros). Ryan Fitzgerald hit the first two of those homers, solo shots in the second and seventh innings.
Oklahoma City broke things open with four runs in the eighth, including home runs by Tyler Fitzgerald and James Tibbs III. Tibbs has been limited to designated hitter and pinch-hitting duties for three weeks, last playing the field on May 7. He’s dealing with a forearm issue, per Fabian Ardaya at The Athletic.
Logan Allen allowed a run in five innings for the win, and Carlos Duran struck out three in two scoreless innings of relief.
Chayce McDermott began the eighth inning in relief but only faced one batter, as he was struck on the right knee on an infield single, and had to exit the game. He walked off under his own power.
Rehab update
After playing five innings at second base in each of his first two games, Tommy Edman was the designated hitter on Friday, playing on back-to-back days for the first time. He had an infield single in three at-bats on Friday and has four hits in nine at-bats with a walk thus far for the Comets.
Double-A Tulsa
The Drillers swept the Northwest Arkansas Naturals (Royals) in a doubleheader, walking them off in the first game and allowing just one hit in a shutout win in the second game.
Griffin Lockwood-Powell homered twice in the opener, and also delivered the walk-off double in the seventh inning.
Elijah Hainline homered in the opener, and had two hits in the nightcap. Josue De Paula doubled and scored in Game 2.
After Heubeck on the mound in the nightcap, Carson Hobbs and Kelvin Ramirez each pitched two scoreless innings.
High-A Great Lakes
Five runs in the second inning set the tone for the Loons’ road win over the Dayton Dragons (Reds). Emil Morales hit a three-run double in the big frame.
Eduardo Quintero reached base four times with two singles and two walks, and stole two bases, giving him 21 steals on the season. Jose Meza homered in the sixth inning for Great Lakes.
Christian Zazueta gave up three runs in the third inning, including a home run, but nothing else in his 4 1/3 innings. His two strikeouts were three fewer than the next-fewest of his other seven starts this season. After a 41.4-percent strikeout rate in April, Zazueta had a 25.9-percent strikeout rate in May. On the season he’s at 50 strikeouts against only nine walks in 37 1/3 innings.
Alex Makarewich (five outs), Nicolas Cruz (two innings), and Matt Lanzendorfer (one innings) closed out the game in scoreless fashion, combining for eight strikeouts and no walks.
Class-A Ontario
The Tower Buzzers lost a wild, back-and-forth game to the Visalia Oaks (D-backs) in 10 innings.
Jecsua Liborious had an outing befitting his name on Friday. He pitched a scoreless eighth inning, but allowed the tying run in the ninth inning by hitting the leadoff batter, who advanced to third base on two outs before Liborius wild-pitched him home. In the 10th inning, Liborius started the frame with a wild pitch and a balk to score the free runner for the go-ahead run. With one out in the 10th inning, Liborius walked a batter, then was removed after 2 1/3 hitless, yet wild innings. Then Seamus Barrett came in and allowed a two-run home run that padded Visalia’s lead, plus another run of his own after a pair of errors.
The Ontario outfielders made their mark in this one.
Right fielder Jaron Elkins hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning, giving Ontario a lead after trailing 8-2 just two frames earlier. Elkins also walked, was hit by a pitch, and scored three runs. Center fielder Landyn Vidourek doubled, walked twice, drove in a pair, and scored a run. Right fielder Ching-Hsien Ko singled, walked twice, drove in two, and scored two. All three outfielders each stole a base as well, and the trio combined to reach base nine times, with six runs scored and six RBI.
Transactions
Triple-A: Ryan Ward was called up to the Dodgers to time share in left field. Hyeseong Kim was optioned.
Friday scores
Saturday schedule
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4:05 p.m. PT: Great Lakes (Brooks Auger) at Dayton (Julian Aguiar)
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5 p.m.: Tulsa (Patrick Copen) vs. NW Arkansas (Frank Mozzicato)
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6:05 p.m.: Ontario (TBA) vs. Visalia (Daury Vasquez)
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