Oklahoma City Edges Zephyrs Pushing Win Streak To Four

The Dodgers have won four straight games and have won each of their last five games in New Orleans. During the winning streak, the pitching staff has allowed two or fewer runs each game.

Friday, August 14th 2015, 11:04 am

By: News 9


The Oklahoma City Dodgers followed a familiar formula Thursday night, pairing key two-out hits with another tremendous effort by the pitching staff to edge the New Orleans Zephyrs, 2-1, at Zephyr Field.

The Dodgers (71-47) have won four straight games and have won each of their last five games in New Orleans. During the team’s current winning streak, the pitching staff has allowed two or fewer runs each game, for a total of four runs.

Dodgers starting pitcher Zach Lee cruised through six innings before running into trouble in the seventh. He picked up his team-leading ninth win, allowing one run and four hits over 6.1 innings. Lee (9-4) notched six strikeouts, marking his highest total since April 28 versus Omaha. However, he also issued four walks after allowing three walks in his previous eight starts with OKC combined. He held the Zephyrs 1-for-7 with runners on base and had only two runners reach scoring position through six innings.

Neither team could muster much offense during the first half of the game. The Dodgers appeared to be poised to break a scoreless tie in the third inning. Jose Tabata led off with a double, and the Dodgers had runners at the corners with one out. But Ronny Torreyes hit into a fielder’s choice with Tabata tagged out in between third base and home plate, and Corey Seager followed with an inning-ending groundout.

The game remained scoreless until the sixth inning. With a runner at third and two outs, the Zephyrs (51-68) summoned left-handed pitcher Patrick Urckftiz to face Scott Schebler, but Schebler broke the stalemate when he roped a RBI triple to right field. It was Schebler’s team-leading ninth triple of the season.

Darnell Sweeney added to the lead with two outs in the seventh inning when jumped on the first pitch from Urckfitz and sent it out of the park to left field for his ninth home run of the season.

After having not much going at the plate all night, the Zephyrs rallied in the seventh inning. Three straight batters reached base to load the bases with one out, when Lee gave way to Chin-Hui Tsao on the mound.

Tsao struck out Donovan Solano to get the second out and was ahead in the count 0-2 to Kila Ka’aihue, but each of Taso’s next four pitches were outside the strike zone, walking home a run. Tsao regrouped and struck out Vinny Rottino to end the inning and keep the Dodgers in the lead at 2-1.

OKC still led by one run in the bottom of the ninth. Brandon Bantz led off with a single and was replaced by pinch-runner Reid Brignac.

Dodgers closer Juan Gonzalez then struck out Austin Nola for the first out. Gonzalez followed that up by striking out Brady Shoemaker, but Brignac stole second base on strike three to put the tying run into scoring position. Solano came up next and lined out to right field to end the game, as Gonzalez picked up his eighth save.

For the second time in the past two weeks, Roff, Okla. product Blake Logan pitched well against the Dodgers, but ended up with the loss. Logan (0-2) was charged with one run and four hits over 5.2 innings. He struck out three and walked two.

The Dodgers and Zephyrs meet each other for the final time in 2015 at 7 p.m. Friday night, with the Dodgers looking to complete a four-game sweep. Live coverage begins at 6:35 p.m. on AM 1340 “The Game”, 1340thegame.com, or through the iHeartRadio mobile app.

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