Dodgers minors: Nico Perez’s second two-homer game of the season

Los Angeles, CA October 29, 2025: A Dodgers player's hat and glove in the dugout during game five of the World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday, October 29, 2025 in Los Angeles, CA. (Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) Bobb

What is the story about?

Bobby Miller encountered some problems in his second appearance back from injury in Triple-A, and the Drillers overcame a blown save to beat the Travelers in walk-off fashion.

Player of the day

When the most impressive game is also the one with the biggest impact, the choice is easy, and such was the case for Nico Perez, who delivered one of his finest performances of the season. The Loons’ second baseman left the yard twice, both of them two-run shots in a 6-3 win.

What adds to the surprise of this game is that it’s not as if power has been a major part of Perez’s game. After all, he came into this game yesterday with just 13 long balls in 159 games across his minor league career.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

Other than Ronan Kopp—who had to maneuver his way through three baserunners to complete one scoreless frame—every other Comets pitcher that stepped on the mound allowed at least a run as the Comets wasted an early lead in a blowout loss 13-7.

One of those pitchers who had a tough time was Bobby Miller, allowing three runs and striking out one in a couple of innings of work. The loss, though, went to Ryder Ryan, allowing two more runs after Miller. Lastly, the worst performance that put this game to bed was from Griff McGarry, responsible for five runs without recording an out.

In most games, the Comets’ seven runs would’ve been enough with homers from Hyeseong Kim, Alex Freeland, and Zach Ehrhard, but not when the staff lets in 13. Having hit nine homers in June, Ehrhard had been dealing with a bit of a power drought, without leaving the yard in his last 17 games.

Double-A Tulsa

Outhomering the opposition three to zero, the Drillers still had to grind out a one-run win in a high-scoring game since all of their long balls were solo shots. Leadoff hitter Taylor Young, first baseman Joe Veltrano, and shortstop Eljah Hainline were the ones to leave the yard, which is somewhat surprising given that the trio combined has only 20 homers this season.

Following a four-run rally from the Travelers in the eighth, the game was tied at seven heading into extras. That’s when Hainline sent everyone home with a force-out walk-off on a bouncing ball down the third base line that allowed no attempt at a play at the plate.

High-A Great Lakes

Hitting cleanup for a second baseman isn’t a common occurrence. Nico Perez justified his spot there, accumulating four RBI to help the Loons erase an early three-run deficit to beat the Cubs at home in a battle of first-place teams.

Vastly improving on his success rate from a year ago, Eduardo Quintero stole a couple of bags in a 2-for-4 performance, now with 39 on the season, having been caught just six times. Recently promoted to High-A, Mairo Martinus was one of four Loons players with multiple hits, including an RBI.

Single-A Ontario

Starter Cam Leiter did his part with three scoreless frames, but the bullpen didn’t come close to matching that level of performance—homers allowed by Josehp Marte and Javier Bartolazzi were enough to surrender the game in a 5-1 defeat with little to no production from the offense to capitalize on three errors from the Quakes defense.

When Joendry Vargas was stranded at third in the first following a triple—his sixth of the season—it was a preview of the type of game the Tower Buzzers would have, whose only RBI came from the catcher Francisco Espinoza. The king of singles in Single-A, Espinoza has 22 hits in 20 games for Ontario, 19 of them singles.