Sunday in the Dodgers minor leagues saw old reliable hit another home run in Triple-A, and a pair of pitching debuts at new levels.
Brady Smith pitched three hitless, scoreless innings for Rancho Cucamonga in his Low-A debut on Sunday, working around three walks. The right-hander induced seven swinging strikes among his 40 pitches, though only 19 of them were for strikes.
Ryan Ward hit one of three Comets home runs in a 9-5 win over the Albuquerque Isotopes (Rockies). Being stuck in the minors while several others have been called up to the Dodgers isn’t exactly what a way to make a living for Ward, but he’s made the most of it. His 29 home runs lead the Pacific Coast League and his 107 runs batted in lead all of the minor leagues and tied Jason Martin’s 2022 as the most RBI by an Oklahoma City player in their Bricktown era (dating back to 1998).
CJ Alexander and Kody Hoese each also hit home runs for Oklahoma City, and both drove in three runs.
The Drillers were two outs away from being no-hit, but settled for a lopsided loss to the San Antonio Missions (Padres). Zach Ehrhard singled with one out in the ninth inning to break up the combined no-no, then scored on a two-out triple by catcher Nelson Quiroz. But that just made Tulsa’s final deficit seven runs instead of eight.
The upset Sunday was that Kendall George did not steal a base, snapping a streak of six straight games swiping at least one base (not even his longest streak of the last six weeks). But George did have three hits, including the game-winning RBI triple in the eighth inning of the Loons’ win over the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (Brewers). George has a .429 on-base percentage since the beginning of July, with more walks (30) than strikeouts (20) in his last 38 games.
George also scored on a throwing error on his RBI triple, giving Great Lakes its final two-run advantage. That completed a comeback from down three runs in the first inning. Aidan Foeller was promoted this week from Rancho Cucamonga but only got two outs in his High-A debut, with three walks, a double, single, and three runs allowed.
Fellow 2024 Dodgers pitching draft pick Evan Shaw got seven outs in scoreless relief and stranded two runners inherited from Foeller to help set the stage for the Loons comeback, the first of six Great Lakes relievers who combined for 25 outs and no runs allowed.
Overall the Quakes pitching was strong but single runs in the fifth and sixth innings were enough to doom Rancho Cucamonga in a shutout loss to the Visalia Rawhide (D-backs).
Shortstop Emil Morales singled, walked, and stole a base in the loss.