Bees Walk-Off with 4-3 Win

Salt Lake Bees – 4

Oklahoma City Dodgers – 3

Saturday, August 6, 2022 – Smith’s Ballpark – Salt Lake City, Utah

Game Summary: In a tie game with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Jake Gatewood hit a walk-off home run to send the Salt Lake Bees to a 4-3 win over the Oklahoma City Dodgers Saturday night at Smith’s Ballpark. The Bees (50-54) erased three separate deficits throughout the game and hit three home runs, the first two each tying the game. The Dodgers (62-42) took a lead in the first inning on an error, but Matt Thaiss homered on the first pitch of the bottom of the second inning to make it 1-1. In the third inning, Drew Avans tripled and scored on a sac fly by Edwin Ríos before Kyle Kasser hit a game-tying homer in the bottom of the inning. Ryan Noda launched a homer in the fourth inning to regain the lead at 3-2. Dillon Thomas tied the game with a RBI double in the sixth inning, and the score stayed 3-3 until Gatewood’s game-winning home run.

Of Note:

-The Dodgers fell to 10-4 since the All-Star Break and have lost two of the last three games in Salt Lake, both by one-run margins. Three of the five games in the current series have been decided by one run, as have four of the Dodgers’ last six games and five of the Dodgers’ last eight games. Saturday marked the third time a Dodgers opponent won in walk-off fashion, and it was the second walk-off home run against OKC this season.

-Drew Avans reached base three times in four plate appearances, going 2-for-3 with a triple, walk and two runs scored. Avans extended his on-base streak to 43 games, continuing the the longest on-base streak by an Oklahoma City player during the team’s affiliation with the Los Angeles Dodgers (2015-present) and the longest active on-base streak in the Minors. Avans has now reached base in 57 of his last 58 games and hit safely in 26 of the last 30 games. Avans’ triple was his eighth of the season, pulling him into a tie for the league lead.

-Ryan Noda went 1-for-2 with a home run and two walks, giving him five homers in his last 11 games and six homers in 14 games since the All-Star Break. Noda has seven RBI over the last three games and eight RBI during his four-game RBI streak.

-Starting pitcher Michael Grove tied his season high with 5.0 innings in a no decision. Although Grove retired 15 of the 17 batters he faced, the two batters he did not retire hit home runs. Grove did not allow a walk and set a season high with seven strikeouts.

-The OKC pitching staff notched 12 strikeouts for a fifth straight double-digit strikeout game. The team did not allow a walk for only the third time this season and first time since June 18 at Reno.

-Saturday’s game was completed in 2 hours, 12 minutes, marking the team’s quickest game of the season. The start of the game was delayed by 43 minutes due to necessarily field maintenance following heavy rain during the afternoon.

What’s Next: The Dodgers finish their series in Salt Lake City at 2:05 p.m. CT Sunday afternoon at Smith’s Ballpark. 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.