Dodgers Can't Contain Express in 5-2 Loss

Round Rock Express – 5

Oklahoma City Dodgers – 2

Saturday, June 4, 2022 – Dell Diamond – Round Rock, Texas

Game Summary: The Round Rock Express scored in five of their final six trips to the plate and held the Oklahoma City Dodgers to a pair of solo home runs, as Round Rock prevailed, 5-2, Saturday night at Dell Diamond. The Express (31-22) started the scoring the bottom of the third inning with a bloop RBI single by Zach Reks. After Round Rock scored another two-out run in the fourth inning, Andy Burns connected on a solo home run to bring the Dodgers (31-22) within 2-1. The Express scored again with two outs in the sixth inning to make it 3-1 before Drew Avans belted a solo homer in the seventh inning. Round Rock extended the lead after a missed pop up with two outs in the bottom of the seventh allowed their fourth run to score, and the Express plated their final run in the eighth inning.

Of Note:

-By beating the Dodgers, the Express pulled into a tie with OKC at the top of the Pacific Coast League’s East Division at 31-22. The Dodgers have won three of the first five games of the series and are now 9-4 in their last 13 road games and 7-3 in the last 10 games at Dell Diamond.

-Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Andrew Heaney made the start on rehab assignment. He retired nine of the 11 batters he faced across three innings and allowed one run on two hits, with no walks and five strikeouts. Heaney retired the first seven batters before a one-out double in the third inning. Following a strikeout, former OKC/LA Dodger Zach Reks hit a bloop RBI single to bring in a run. Heaney threw 39 pitches with 29 strikes and all nine outs were groundouts or strikeouts. He left the game with the Dodgers trailing, 1-0, and was charged with a losing decision.

-Los Angeles Dodgers infielder Max Muncy also began a rehab assignment and played the full game at third base. At the plate, he went 0-for-3 with a walk. Muncy saw a total of 23 pitches in his four plate appearances, hitting into two groundouts and reaching on a fielder’s choice.

-Drew Avans tallied a game-high and season-high three hits, going 3-for-4. He singled in the third and fifth innings before hitting his third home run of the season in the seventh inning. Avans has hit safely in eight of his last nine games, going 11-for-28 (.393) with a home run and three doubles.

-Andy Burns hit his seventh home run of the season, surpassing his 2021 season total. Against Round Rock this season, Burns is 10-for-30 with three home runs, two doubles and nine RBI.

-For the just the second time in the last nine games, the Dodgers allowed more than four runs and allowed more than seven hits, with Round Rock notching 10 hits Saturday. The Dodgers had allowed runs in just six of the first 37 innings of the series before Round Rock scored in five of the final six innings Saturday. After Round Rock started the game 0-for-7, the Express finished 10-for-24 with five extra-base hits. They went 4-for-10 with runners in scoring position Saturday after going 4-for-27 through the first four games of the series. Round Rock was 5-for-13 with two outs, including 4-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

-In the Dodgers’ three wins in the current series, they have scored 24 runs on 35 hits. During their two losses, they’ve scored two runs on 12 hits. One day after the Dodgers went 8-for-16 with two outs and scored eight runs, they went 1-for-9 with no runs with two outs.

What’s Next: The Dodgers finish their series in Round Rock Sunday at 1:05 p.m., looking to win the series. 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.

Video Highlights: Video highlights of today’s game are available at the Pacific Coast League FTP site, pclhighlights.exavault.com, in the Round Rock folder. The proper files will reflect today’s date, and are accompanied by a text file containing a brief description of the content available.