Dodgers Split The Twinbill

Scott Baker's near perfect game highlighted a doubleheader between the Oklahoma City Dodgers and the Iowa Cubs Monday afternoon at Principal Park. The Dodgers won the first game, 8-0, behind Baker's shutout before Iowa walked-off with a 4-3 victory in extra innings in the second game.

Baker (1-1) was one pitch away from the team's first-ever perfect game since joining the PCL in 1998, and the first perfect game by an Oklahoma City pitcher since Rick Helling did it on Aug. 13, 1996 for the Oklahoma City 89ers against the Nashville Sounds.

He retired the first 20 batters he faced and was ahead of Iowa second baseman Addison Russell in the count at 0-2 with two outs in the seventh inning. On the next pitch, Russell singled up the middle, breaking up Baker's bid for a perfect game and no-hitter.

Mike Baxter followed with a double, but Baker regrouped and got Chris Valaika to ground out and end game, as Baker completed a two-hit shutout.

It was the second consecutive shutout by the Dodgers and Baker's sixth overall career shutout, and his fourth in the Minors. His previous shutout was Aug. 14, 2009 was also a two-hitter while pitching for the Minnesota Twins in an 11-0 blanking of the Cleveland Indians.

The Dodgers started off the first game with an early power surge, hitting two home runs during a five-run first inning. With two on and two out, Chris Heisey hit a deep line drive that cleared the fence in left field to give OKC a 3-0 lead.

After Kiké Hernandez drew a walk, Buck Britton crushed the first pitch he saw past the seats in right field for his first homer of the season, making it a 5-0 game.

The Dodgers added three more run in the top of the fifth, despite collecting just one hit in the frame. The first run scored on a fielding error by Iowa third baseman Christian Villanueva, and Kyle Jensen drove in a pair with a two-run double to deep center field.

OKC ended up scoring eight runs in the game, but only tallied four hits. They took advantage of five walks by Iowa starting pitcher Carlos Pimentel, converted three of those free passes into runs. Pimentel (0-2) ended up allowing all eight runs (seven earned) and four hits with three strikeouts over four-plus innings.

Iowa struck first in game two, taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning, courtesy of a RBI double by Russell. It was the first time Iowa led in the series, and snapped a streak of 13 consecutive scoreless innings by the Dodgers pitching staff.

It didn't take long for the Dodgers to tie things up. Leading off the second inning, Jensen connected on his second homer of the season out to straightaway center field to pull OKC even.

Britton put the Dodgers back in front when he led off the fourth inning with his second homer of the day. In the bottom of the fifth, Russell came through with another big hit, notching his second RBI double of the game to tie things up.

Taylor Davis led off the bottom of the sixth with his first home run of the season to put Iowa in the lead at 3-2. It was the first home run allowed in 61 innings by the Dodgers, and the first home run allowed by Jorge De Leon in his Triple-A career (65.1 IP)

Just as the I-Cubs came up with a big hit down to their final strike in the first game, the Dodgers returned the favor in game two. Scott Schebler turned on a two-out, two-strike pitch from Joseph Ortiz in the seventh inning, hitting his first home run of the season to keep the game alive.

The game headed to extra innings and remained deadlocked in the bottom of the ninth. With one out, Baxter walked. He then stole second and advanced to third base on the play after a throwing error by Dodgers catcher Brian Ward.

Two batters later with runners at second and third and still only one out, Junior Lake hit sacrifice fly to right field to win the game for Iowa (5-6).

I-Cubs reliever James Russell (1-0) earned his first win of the season after retiring all six batters he faced over two scoreless innings. Freddy Garcia (0-1) took the loss for OKC, although the run he allowed in the ninth inning was unearned.

The loss snapped a five-game winning streak by the Dodgers. OKC is now 9-3, matching the team's best start through 12 games since joining the PCL in 1998.