Nuño Shines in First Start as Dodgers Win, 4-2

OKC Dodgers – 4

Round Rock – 2

Saturday, June 19, 2021 – Dell Diamond – Round Rock, Texas

Game Summary: Behind a strong effort from the pitching staff and two-run home runs by Luke Raley and Matt Davidson, the Oklahoma City Dodgers defeated the Round Rock Express, 4-2, Saturday night at Dell Diamond. The trio of Vidal Nuño, Markus Solbach and Kevin Quackenbush faced three over the minimum and allowed five hits and no walks. Raley staked the Dodgers (19-20) to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning with a two-run homer off the roof of the batter’s eye in center field. In the fourth inning, Davidson hit a high fly ball down the left field line that carried over the fence by a few feet for another two-run homer. Nuño faced the minimum over five scoreless innings and it was still 4-0 until Round Rock (23-16) strung three straight hits together with two outs in the seventh inning to trim OKC’s lead to two. After the third hit of the seventh inning, the Dodgers pitching staff retired six of the final seven batters while facing the minimum, including three strikeouts, and wrapped up the team’s fourth straight win.

Of Note:

-The Dodgers have tied their season high with four straight wins and have started a series 3-0 for the first time in 2021. The team is now 8-2 in the last 10 road games and 7-1 in the last eight road games. At 19-20, the Dodgers are only one game under .500 for the first time since they started the season 0-1.

-Making his first start with OKC, Vidal Nuño faced the minimum over five scoreless innings. The only hit he allowed was a single by Andy Ibáñez leading of the second inning, but Ibáñez was immediately erased on a double play. Nuño retired 14 of 15 batters faced overall, including the last 11 in a row. He only notched one strikeout, but completed his outing on 56 pitches (34 strikes) and retired the side on 11 or fewer pitches in four of five innings. Between Nuño and Markus Solbach, the duo combined to retire 16 consecutive Express batters between the second and seventh innings.

-Luke Raley blasted a two-run homer off the roof of the batter’s eye in the first inning for his seventh homer with OKC. He leads the team with 32 RBI despite playing in just 21 of the team’s 39 games. Over his last 15 starts with OKC, Raley is 21-for-54 (.389) with four doubles, two triples, five homers, 29 RBI and 18 runs scored.

-Matt Davidson connected on a two-run homer in the fourth inning to extend OKC’s lead to 4-0. It was Davidson’s third home run of the season and first since May 30 at El Paso. Davidson was the only Dodger to finish with a multi-hit game, going 2-for-4. He has now hit safely in six of his last seven games, going 8-for-24 with seven RBI.

-Although he was held to one hit for the first time in five games, Zach Reks reached base twice with a double and a walk. Over the last five games Reks is 9-for-23 with five extra-base hits, and through 15 games (14 starts) in June, Reks has collected 12 extra-base hits. Reks has reached base in 30 of his 31 starts this season, and the Dodgers are now 10-3 when he has batted in the leadoff spot.

-The Dodgers have now homered at least once in 11 of the last 12 games (18 HR total) and have hit 42 homers in their last 27 games, including 16 in the last 10 games.

-Kevin Quackenbush made his 13th consecutive scoreless appearance to start the season. He pitched a scoreless ninth inning with two strikeouts and is now 6-for-6 in save chances.

-Yoshi Tsutsugo played in the third game of his Major League Rehab Assignment and went 0-for-3 with a walk. He also played all nine innings at first base. Through three games, Tsutsugo is 0-for-9 with four walks and one RBI.

-Saturday’s game was completed in 2 hours, 16 minutes. It was the team’s shortest nine-inning game of the season by a whopping 32 minutes. The team’s average nine-inning game length entering Saturday was 3 hours, 21 minutes.

What’s Next: The Dodgers look to make it five straight wins when they meet the Express in Round Rock on Father’s Day at 6:05 p.m. Sunday. Live radio coverage of each OKC Dodgers game begins 15 minutes before first pitch on AM 1340 "The Game," 1340thegame.com and through the free iHeartRadio or MiLB First Pitch apps. All OKC Dodgers games are also available streamed live on MiLB.TV with a subscription.