It was a good day for me. Both the Dodgers and the Trojans won. So for this post, I decided to stick with a team that has been a Dodger affiliate for the last 15 years, but their tenure has come to an end…Rancho Cucamonga Quakes.
Lost in their loss in the California League Southern Division Playoffs, the LAD affiliate ended their reign as the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes since 2011. Since that 2011 season, the Quakes have six division titles and two league titles (2014 and 2018).
When te Dodgers California League affiliate became The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, the stadium was known as the City of Rancho Cucamonga Epicenter Entertainment & Sports Complex, or The Rancho Cucamonga Epicenter for short.
In April 2013, The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes announced they had entered into a long-term partnership agreement with Southern California-based company, LoanMart, giving the Stadium a new name.
In their final playoffs in Rancho Cucamonga, the Inland Empire 66ers (LAA) swept the two-game series. In their final home game at LoanMart field, 20 year old RHP Brady Smith offered up a 2-run HR in the 1st inning, and they never relinquished the lead. Smith was drafted in the 3rd round of the 2023 draft, but this year marked his first professional IP. He finished with 21 IP in the regular season, and 2.2 IP in the playoffs.
Trailing 4-0 in the fifth, Landyn Vidourek tripled home Mairo Martinus to get Rancho on the board at 4-1. Ching-Hsien Ko hit a HR in the 6th cutting the lead to 4-2. But a seven-run seventh by the 66ers put the game seemingly out of reach, 11-2.
In the bottom of the 7th, RC put up 3. Jose Meza singled, moved to 2nd on a WP, and to 3rd on a ground out. Brendan Tunink hit a run scoring PH single. With 2 outs, Emil Morales hit a 2-run HR to complete the scoring.
19 year old LH hitting OF, Brendan Tunink, finally joined Ching-Hsien Ko, Emil Morales, and Chase Harlan as position players promoted from ACL. In his one appearance with Rancho, he went 1-2 on the final game on Thursday night.
Now that the Dodgers’ contract at LoanMart Field in Rancho Cucamonga comes to an end, they are poised for a relocation to a neighboring city in Ontario, California. Beginning construction in October of 2024, the Ontario Sports Empire is set to make its debut in the spring of 2026. This 199-acre complex will not only house the future Single-A affiliate of the Dodgers that holds over 6,000 fans, but it will also add eight baseball fields, four multi-use football fields, and eight soccer fields.
Sports fans around the Inland Empire are excited and eager for the Ontario Sports Empire to open. The Ontario Professional Baseball Instagram account already has 14,500 followers without a single game being played. As the team reveal gets closer, and the start of the new season, this number will only grow substantially.
Final LAD Rancho Cucamonga…
Box Score
Good day. Trojans and Dodger win and Dodgers put up football numbers. Finally. Trojans should go 4-0 next week and then we’ll see what there made of. Now can the bats go on a sustained run?
I would’ve been more than happy if we took 2-3 in SF, as they had been playing well.
Well, we can do it now. And as much as I cannot pronounce our new catcher’s name, this guy has been fantastic! He seems to call a great game, and let’s hope he can get Glasnow to throw another one today. Take 2-3 and let’s go!!
Watford, do my stupid United have any chance this morning vs City???
No!!!!
Pronounced RORTVET. Don’t know why they put the D in there. with Chuckie Robinson as his backup for the next few days, our catchers are hitting below .200.
This game was a macrocosmic representation of what is right and what is wrong with this team. 17 hits and 7 earned runs. The only thing missing was an unearned run or two.
Sorry Bobby. City by a goal. That or a tie. This is after all a soccer game. Or is it football?
Oh well. 2-0 and I can’t see Man U scoring 2 in 30 min.
Luckily the Rams are on at 10 (as will be the Bears on my laptop)
Rortvedt may have loosened Dodgers reluctance to trade Rushing.
The Dodgers are loaded with pitchers in Stone, Sheehan, Wrobleski, Sasaki, plus the big contract guys, Snell, Yams, Glasnow, Ohtani.
They have had a bigger look at Freeland and Kim.
We might have an interesting off-season.
Maybe, but Rortvedt is 3 years older, without Rushings power numbers. Defensively he has been very good. I still think they will not trade Rushing.
I agree with you on Rortvedt. He, like Austin Barnes, is the definition of backup catcher. I think Rushing gets traded this winter. He is more valuable to LAD as a trade candidate than as a backup catcher.
If they trade him, they better get a load in return. I think he’s going to be a star.
He will not be a star for the Dodgers. His value is as a starting catcher, and that will not be in a LAD uni. He would not be a huge star as a OF or 1B. So yes, I think they get a huge return. And packaged with one of starting pitching, the return could be huge.
I like this line of thinking…. but who should the Dodgers be targeting in a trade?
Depends on who would want him. DC? LA won’t trade him to any of their chief rivals. Now all of the Red Sox catchers are older guys. Could do a package deal and trade Teo’s contract and Rushing. Not sure who we might want, but they could be looking to upgrade at catcher.
The AA affiliate of the Dodgers, the Tulsa Drillers, has a magic number of 1 in their quest to reach the AA playoffs. If the Drillers win today vs Arkansas Travelers (Seattle), or the Wichita Wind Surge (Minnesota) lose against Corpus Christi (Houston), they will clinch a playoff spot. They reached their magic number with a come from behind victory in yesterday’s game. Down 8-7, James Tibbs III hit a two-out, three-run homer in the eighth inning as the Tulsa Drillers came back and defeated the Arkansas Travelers (Mariners) 10-8. Kole Myers and Sean McLain singled before the JTIII HR. JTIII also had a double and 3 RBI.
Another new Tulsa player had a big night as well. Recently promoted Zyhir Hope went 3-4 with a double and 4 RBI.
Adam Serwinowski made his AA debut, and he struggled a bit. He made 6 starts for Great Lakes and pitched well to a 1.83 ERA. In this game he completed 3.0 innings allowing 5 runs (3 earned), 6 hits, and 2 BB. He did register 4 K.
Carson Hobbs closed out the game with two perfect innings to preserve the win. Hobbs was brilliant in 30 innings at Great Lakes and followed that up with another 23 sterling IP with Tulsa. For the year he has a 3:1 K:BB ratio. He is a name to follow next year.
Robbie’s Raydar is faulty!!
OK.6-1. Three more runs and I feel good about the bullpen closing this one out.
Cassidy, you are such a comedian. They had this one in the bag. Even Yates got 3 outs.
Very nice start by Glasnow, despite having odd control early.
I”m beginning to get really excited about the starting pitching going into Oct.
He hung in there with a quality outing. He really scares u when he can’t find the strike zone. I think he had given up 2 hits in his last 13 innings before the 7th. He has no hit stuff if he doesn’t walk himself out of the game.
Conforto—BA .200
Good for him. Let’s hope he has 6 good weeks in him left.
Good series win for the Dodgers beating Webb and Ray. Glasnow struggled but held on. I was just going to say I hope the Dodgers get Brock Stewart back and performing. I c him as the nearest thing to Evan Phillips that we have. He dominates righties and is good against lefties. We need that righty that can come into the seventh and get outs. I don’t think kopech or Yates can get it done and Henrique is too inconsistent.
Wild card is Roki Sasaki.
A few weeks to go to see if Kopech and/or Treinen get it together
Been to games at Rancho many times, it was a nice ballpark with easy access and parking.