Z's edge Dodgers for 10th win in last 11

Jake Esch pitched seven strong innings, and the New Orleans Zephyrs defeated the Oklahoma City Dodgers, 3-2 on Saturday night in the opener of a four-game series.

The Zephyrs have won 10 of 11 games to return to the .500 mark for the first time since June 23. Nine of the victories have come by one or two runs.

Esch (2-0) notched his second quality start in as many outings this season at Zephyr Field. The right-hander limited Oklahoma City to two runs and four hits, struck out seven and walked one.

The Z's capitalized on two errors in the third inning to give Esch the lead. Dodgers shortstop Drew Maggi misplayed a potential double play grounder by Destin Hood for his first miscue of the inning. With the bases loaded and two outs, J.T. Riddle's grounder up the middle appeared to ricochet off the pitching rubber to Maggi, whose throw to first was in the dirt for another error, allowing a run to score and the inning to continue.

Logan Bawcom then walked Elliot Soto to force in another run, giving the Z's a 2-0 advantage.

Jack Murphy's sacrifice fly in the fifth cut the Dodgers' deficit in half, but the potential tying run was tagged out at the plate to end the inning as Corey Brown attempted to score on a wild pitch.

New Orleans responded an inning later with three consecutive two-out singles, capped by Matt Juengel's run-scoring knock to push the lead to 3-1.

The run proved crucial, as O'Koyea Dickson hammered his 15th home run of the year in the seventh to again bring Oklahoma City within a run. The inning could have been more damaging, but immediately preceding Dickson's homer, Charlie Culberson was doubled off second base on a fly out to shallow center by Will Venable.

Nefi Ogando worked a scoreless eighth inning, and in the ninth, Drew Steckenrider fanned pinch-hitter Yasiel Puig and then Dickson to end the game to record his sixth save in as many chances.

Bawcom (5-4) was the hard-luck loser, allowing two unearned runs in five innings. Dodgers pitchers combined to allow just one Zephyrs hit - Juengel's sixth-inning single - in 12 at-bats with runners in scoring position.

Telis had three hits and a walk and scored twice, and has now hit safely in nine of his last 11 contests.

The Z's and Dodgers continue the series on Sunday at 4 p.m.