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51s fall in extras to Oklahoma City

With the swing of Cody Decker’s bat in the bottom of the eighth inning Saturday, the Dodgers saw their lead — one they had been holding onto the entire game — vanish as three runners crossed the plate to tie the game up.

No matter.

They came back to win anyways — it just took them an extra inning.

Trayce Thompson’s RBI double off Kevin McGowan in the 10th inning propelled Oklahoma City to a 6-5 victory over Las Vegas on Saturday night at Cashman Field.

“McGowan’s pitched well this year in that spot. (Pitching coach) Frank (Viola) wanted to get him into that situation again,” said hitting coach Jack Voigt, who was acting as manager after Pedro Lopez was ejected in the first inning.

McGowan had come in the 10th with one runner, Max Muncy, on. Muncy subsequently stole second base before Thompson drove in the game-winning run.

The Dodgers (59-52), prior to extras, had been winning most of the game, jumping out to a lead in the first inning on an Adrian Gonzalez sacrifice fly off of Las Vegas starter Donovan Hand.

In the third, Rob Segedin drove in Jack Murphy for the Dodgers’ second run of the night and in the fourth, Thompson scored on a safety squeeze.

The 51s (43-70) struck back to cut the lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the fourth with a run scoring on a wild pitch. After two more Dodgers runs, a Victor Cruzado home run sliced the lead to three before Decker tied the game up an inning later.

“I just went up there with the mindset of attacking the baseball,” Decker said. “We were in a position where I knew two guys were on base. A big hit could put us right back in the ball game and ultimately best case scenario, a home run ties it up so it was just a matter of going up there ready to attack the baseball and be ready to do damage.”

The 51s had a runner on in the bottom of the ninth when Victor Cruzado walked with one out but Dominic Smith lined into a double play to end the inning.

They had a runner on again in the 10th, this time with two outs, before dropping the second game of the four-game set.

“It was a good game. Cody gets a big hit and then their guy gets a big hit. That’s who wins this game,” Voigt said. “The team that makes the least mistakes is probably going to win and the team that makes the most mistakes probably is going to lose but that doesn’t mean we made a lot of mistakes. It just means they capitalize when they could. We took the opportunity there by tying the game anyway.”

Up next

Who: Oklahoma City Dodgers at Las Vegas 51s

When: 7:05 p.m. Sunday

Where: Cashman Field

Starters: Luke Farrell (7-4, 4.07 ERA) vs. Wilfredo Boscan (4-11, 5.59 ERA)

Next five

Monday: Reno at Las Vegas, 7:05 p.m.

Tuesday: Reno at Las Vegas, 7:05 p.m.

Wednesday: Reno at Las Vegas, 7:05 p.m.

Thursday: Reno at Las Vegas, 7:05 p.m.

Friday: Las Vegas at El Paso, 6:05 p.m. PT

Update

The 51s conclude their series with Oklahoma City on Sunday with right-hander Wilfredo Boscan on the mound. Boscan will be looking for his first win since July 16. He gave up five runs in 5 1/3 innings in his last outing.

Contact Betsy Helfand at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BetsyHelfand on Twitter.

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