OKC Tosses One-Hit Shutout; Pages Homers Versus El Paso

Oklahoma City Baseball Club — 1

El Paso Chihuahuas — 0

Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024 – Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark – Oklahoma City, Okla.

Game Summary: Andy Pages broke a scoreless tie with a solo home run in the eighth inning and pitchers Alec Gamboa and Ben Casparius combined to throw a one-hit shutout in the Oklahoma City Baseball Club’s 1-0 win Saturday night against the El Paso Chihuahuas. OKC starting pitcher Gamboa threw five hitless and scoreless innings, allowing three walks with four strikeouts. Casparius (4-3) followed with four shutout innings for OKC (25-25/65-60), allowing one hit — a single in the sixth inning — and one walk with three strikeouts to earn the win. Both teams remained in a scoreless tie through seven innings before Pages hit a line drive just over the left field fence for a solo home run to put OKC in front, 1-0. Casparius then retired all three Chihuahuas batters he faced in the ninth inning to secure the shutout win as El Paso fell to 16-34 in the second half and 47-78 overall.

Of Note:

-Oklahoma City took a 4-1 lead in the six-game series against the Chihuahuas to clinch a series victory with one game remaining…OKC has now won seven of the last eight games, 10 of the last 12 games and is now 13-5 in the last 18 games.

-OKC’s shutout win was the team’s third of the season, third during the second half of the season and second in the month of August as OKC shut out Round Rock Aug. 11 in OKC, 3-0.

-OKC held El Paso to one hit for OKC’s first one-hit shutout in a nine-inning game overall since Aug. 9, 2016 at Iowa and for the first time at home since May 4, 2016 against New Orleans.

-Dalton Rushing went 2-for-3 with a walk to extend his current team-best on-base streak to 17 games as he has now reached base in each of his first 17 Triple-A games since joining OKC in early August from Double-A Tulsa. He has hit safely in nine of his last 10 games, going 14-for-37 (.378) with five extra-base hits, five multi-hit games, eight RBI, seven walks and 10 runs scored.

-Andy Pages hit his seventh home run of the season with Oklahoma City and his second in four games since being optioned by the Los Angeles Dodgers Aug. 19. It was his 16th homer of the season overall, including his time with the Dodgers.

-OKC has hit 21 home runs over the last 12 games and has hit at least one homer in 11 of the 12 games during the stretch that started Aug. 11.

-Saturday marked Alex Gamboa’s third scoreless outing of the season of at least five innings. He also pitched 5.2 scoreless innings against El Paso July 11 and six scoreless innings against Las Vegas July 4 in OKC.

-Saturday was Ben Casparius’ second straight scoreless outing with OKC. Aug. 11 against Round Rock in OKC, he tossed six scoreless innings, matching his longest outing of the season with OKC May 15 in Sacramento.

-Prior to Saturday’s game, the 2024 class of the Oklahoma City Baseball Triple-A Hall of Fame was inducted during a pregame ceremony, including three members from the franchise’s 89ers era from 1983-97 — first baseman Steve Balboni, infielder/outfielder Nick Capra and 89ers co-owner, president and general manager Patty Cox Hampton. Balboni spent the 1991-93 seasons in OKC and is the 89ers career home run leader (86). Capra played parts of seven seasons with the 89ers, appearing in a total of 762 games, while amassing 736 hits, 428 runs and 182 stolen bases. Cox served as the 89ers’ co-owner, president and general manager from 1977-89. Along with her late husband, Bing, Cox is widely acknowledged for saving Oklahoma City’s Triple-A baseball franchise, with a complete turnaround of business operations and promotions.

Next Up: Oklahoma City and El Paso wrap up their series at 6:05 p.m. Sunday at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark on a City Celebration Sunday. Select Oklahoma City players will be available to sign autographs for fans prior to first pitch, and following the game, kids can take the field to run the bases. Tickets for all remaining 2024 OKC Baseball Club home games are available at okcbaseball.com/tickets. Sunday home games will be broadcast live on KOCB-TV in Oklahoma City (channel 34 on digital antennas and DirecTV; channel 11 on Cox cable). Live radio coverage of each OKC Baseball Club game begins 15 minutes before first pitch on AM 1340 "The Game," 1340thegame.com and through the free iHeartRadio or MiLB First Pitch apps.