Oklahoma City Comets vs. Salt Lake Bees: Alek Thomas Delivers Late as Rehab Arms Add MLB Flavor to 10 Inning Thriller
Photo Credits: Carly Coombs
Sunday night's 6 to 5 Oklahoma City win over Salt Lake had a little bit of everything: an early mistake, a couple of loud swings, a blown ninth inning lead, and two big league lefties getting rehab work in the desert air.
The extra layer here was on the mound. Tyler Glasnow made the second start of his rehab assignment for Oklahoma City, while Yusei Kikuchi made his second rehab appearance for Salt Lake, giving this Triple A matchup a legit MLB cameo feel from the jump. Glasnow went 2.2 innings, allowing one run on one hit and one walk with two strikeouts, while Kikuchi punched out seven but gave up four runs on six hits.
Salt Lake struck first when Christian Moore singled off Glasnow, stole second, moved to third, and scored on a wild pitch in the first. But Oklahoma City answered quickly. In the second inning, Griffin Lockwood Powell ripped a two run double to put the Comets in front, then James Tibbs III added a two run opposite field homer in the third to stretch the lead and give Oklahoma City control.
The Bees stayed close thanks to a Jeimer Candelario solo homer in the fourth, and after both teams traded a run in the sixth, the game looked like it was headed toward a fairly standard Comets win.
Then the ninth inning showed up and chose chaos.
Salt Lake rallied with a Christian Moore RBI single, then tied the game 5 to 5 on a two out fielding error by Noah Miller. What had been a composed Oklahoma City night suddenly turned into a full stress test.
The Comets answered in the 10th. With two outs, Alek Thomas lined the go ahead RBI single that restored the lead, and Griff McGarry stranded two Bees in the bottom half to end it.
A few names mattered most here. Lockwood Powell drove in three runs and helped flip the game early. Tibbs delivered the biggest power swing of the night. Thomas got the decisive hit. And McGarry cleaned up the final mess.
For Salt Lake, the loss still had some fight in it. Moore reached three times, drove in a run, and helped spark the ninth inning comeback, while Candelario's homer kept the Bees within striking distance.
In the bigger picture, Oklahoma City improved to 22 to 16 in the second half and 63 to 49 overall, while Salt Lake fell to 11 to 28 and 50 to 63. But the most interesting wrinkle was the rehab assignment subplot. When you get Glasnow and Kikuchi sharing a Triple A box score, the game already has more juice than usual. Add the late inning chaos, and this one turned into a lot more than a routine Sunday night minor league game.
