Comets fall 2-1 in extra innings after late chances in Albuquerque

The Comets did enough pitching to win and still walked out of Albuquerque empty-handed. Oklahoma City lost 2-1 in 10 innings at Rio Grande Credit Union Field at Isotopes Park after loading the bases with one out in the 10th and failing to score, then watching Sterlin Thompson single home the winning run for the Isotopes.

Thompson set the tone early, driving in Albuquerque’s first run with a first-inning single. Oklahoma City answered in the fifth when Noah Miller ripped an RBI triple to tie it, one of the few clean offensive swings in a game that quickly tightened into a postseason-style duel. After that, the margin for error vanished. Albuquerque had a runner thrown out at the plate in the seventh, left another on third in the eighth, and saw a ninth-inning chance cut down between third and home. The Comets created their own pressure late, but never delivered the extra hit they needed.

That was the story in a game played in 92-degree heat under clear skies with a 9 mph wind blowing out to left field. The crowd of 7,976 saw Oklahoma City finish with five hits and one error, while Albuquerque had 10 hits and played clean defense. The Comets struck out 11 Isotopes hitters and limited the damage, but the lineup could not turn those pitching numbers into a win after Miller’s triple in the fifth.

Ryan Fitzgerald gave Oklahoma City an early spark with a first-pitch single and extended his hitting streak to a season-best seven games. He finished 1-for-4 and came in hitting .313 over that stretch, with 10 hits in 32 at-bats, two doubles, two homers and 10 RBI. Kiké Hernández, still on Major League rehab assignment, played six innings at third base and went 0-for-3, while Brusdar Graterol worked a scoreless fifth inning with one walk and two strikeouts in his fourth rehab appearance.

The loss dropped Oklahoma City to 20-19 and left the Comets 0-3 in extra-inning games this season and 1-3 in games tied after eight innings. It also snapped an eight-game run in which the Comets had scored at least six runs, and it was their first defeat of the season when allowing two runs or fewer. In a game decided by inches, the one pitch that mattered most came last.