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Dodgers minors: Will Gagnon’s 10 K’s headline Ontario’s win

SB Nation · Jul 22, 2026 14:25 · 3 min read

Dodgers minors: Will Gagnon’s 10 K’s headline Ontario’s win

The Giants had no answer for Will Gagnon’s work on the mound, as the Tower Buzzers won the game 6-2

Without loads of individual brilliance, the player of the day pick was clear with a dominating outing in Single-A.

Player of the day

Will Gagnon was nearly untouchable for the Tower Buzzers, delivering his finest performance to this point, holding the Giants to just three hits on his way to winning the game with a season-high 10 punchouts.

Striking people out was never an issue for Gagnon this season, but limiting the opposition to no free passes came as a surprise, something he had not done since the middle of May.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

Waiting until the eighth inning to score all three runs they would in this game certainly didn’t help; nevertheless, the burden of remaining winless this season still falls on the shoulders of Jackson Ferris himself, allowing five runs, four of them earned, in a 7-3 defeat for the Comets.

It is not your day when your leadoff hitter, in this case Alek Thomas, strikes out three times. All the Comets’ scoring came from the bat of Ryan Ward with a three-run shot in the eighth inning.

The River Cats quickly answered with two in the bottom of that frame to keep the last frame drama-free.

Double-A Tulsa

Scoring nine runs, the Drillers’ offense gave the pitching staff a far bigger margin for error than they needed in a 9-2 win, holding the Travelers to a mere three hits the whole game. If Ferris remains winless in Triple-A, Roque Gutierrez knows no other result than a win, earning his seventh with 5.1 scoreless frames, punching out five and walking two.

Producing five hits in nine at-bats with a runner in scoring position, the Drillers offense didn’t even need many extra-base hits for this offensive explosion. Mike Sirota capitalized on the benefits of hitting in front of Kendall George and Josue De Paula with a 2-for-4 performance, driving in a third of his team’s runs.

High-A Great Lakes

Outhitting your opponent 12 to 7 doesn’t matter much when you allow a seven-run rally—this is what happened as the Loons were beaten by a score of 9 to 6 by the Lugnuts. A couple of ninth-inning home runs from Charles Davalan and Logan Wagner kept the final score close even if the Loons were not really in it.

Relievers Nicolas Cruz and Justin Chambers were the responsible parties for this seven-run sixth inning that took the Loons out of the game. Starter Sean Patick had a reasonably productive outing, allowing just a pair of runs in five innings of work.

Single-A Ontario

Will Gagnon struck out 10 in six scoreless innings and did so averaging fewer than 12 pitches per frame. With that level of production from its starting pitcher, the Tower Buzzers had to follow through and win this game over the Giants by a final score of 6-2.

There was never anyone on to make these more than solo shots, but leaving the yard three times, the Tower Buzzers scored in five different half-innings. Third baseman Easton Shelton is now one homer away from 30 on the season, responsible for one of those three long balls. One Ontario hitter who didn’t have a good time was Ching-Hsien Ko, striking out four times.

Transactions

Right-handed pitcher Landon Knack was optioned to the Comets, also activating recently acquired reliever Seth Halvorsen. Right-hander Brady Smith was assigned to the Tower Buzzers, while Aidan Foeller was assigned to the Loons.