Aces Travel to Oklahoma City for Six-Game Road Trip Against Dodgers

After a six-game homestand against the Las Vegas Aviators, the Reno Aces will hit the road and take on the Oklahoma City Dodgers (26-16), Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers, starting Tuesday, May 24.

The Aces are coming off a six-game homestand against the Las Vegas Aviators, where Reno took four out of the six games.

SCOUTING OKLAHOMA CITY

Last week, the Dodgers recently finished up a pair of three-game bouts with the El Paso Chihuahuas and Sugar Land Space Cowboys. Oklahoma City went 2-1 against the Chihuahuas and 2-1 against the Space Cowboys.

Miguel Vargas leads the Pacific Coast League in hits (50), runs (42) and ranks seventh in batting average (.311). According to MLB Pipeline, the third baseman is Los Angeles’ No. 5 prospect.

Including Vargas (5), Oklahoma City’s roster contains five top-30 prospects: Michael Busch (3), Ryan Pepiot (6), Andre Johnson (11) and Michael Grove (23).

Shortstop Zack McKinstry leads the PCL in batting average (.364) and on-base percentage (.450) in 31 games played. The infielder is hitting .423 (11-for-26) against southpaws this season with a homer and four runs batted in.

The power duo of Jake Lamb and Kevin Pillar have combined for 19 homers and 63 runs batted in for Oklahoma City.

Yefry Ramirez leads Oklahoma City’s rotation on the mound with a 2-1 record in six starts and sports a 3.75 ERA, the sixth best in the PCL.

ACES HIGH

In his first six games with the Reno Aces last week, Seth Beer was a significant power source and hit .318 (7-for-22) with two homers and eight RBI.

Stone Garrett played in all six games and hit .238 (5-for-21) against the Aviators and bashed his tenth homer of the year with seven RBI throughout the series. The outfielder currently ranks second in the PCL in slugging (.629), third in homers (10) and RBI (37).

Buddy Kennedy’s bat stays hot as he hit .350 (6-for-18) with four runs batted in, five runs scored and a triple in five games played against Las Vegas. The Millville, New Jersey native is hitting .321 in May with one homer, 11 RBI and 10 runs scored in 15 games with Reno.

On the mound, Tyler Gilbert fell into a groove Sunday with six innings of one-run ball, allowed four hits and struck out two for his second win of the season.

Last Tuesday, Ryne Nelson earned his second-straight win with 5.2 innings pitched, allowed six runs (three earned) on five hits, and struck out four batters. The righty is tied for third in the league with eight games started and ranks tenth with 39 strikeouts.

Out of the bullpen, Taylor Widener was nails against the Aviators with four shutout innings of work, allowed three hits and struck out eight batters in two relief appearances.

As a team, the Aces lead the PCL with a .987 fielding percentage and the fewest errors (20). On the offensive side, Reno is second in doubles (74), stolen bases (57), slugging percentage (.456) and OPS (.811).