MiLB: After A Tough Year, Alek Thomas Delivers Three-Run Double in 10th And Comets Capture Triple-A Title

LAS VEGAS - Like a comet streaking across the night sky, Alek Thomas's 10th inning double gave fans at Las Vegas Ballpark a fleeting thrill Saturday night.

The bases-loaded double by Thomas in gave the Oklahoma City Comets a 5-2 lead, clearing the bases and all but ending the Triple-A National Championship Game, putting the Comets ahead for good as the Pacific Coast League champs took their first Triple-A title 5-3 from the Rochester Red Wings.

For Thomas, who became an everyday Major Leaguer with the Arizona Diamondbacks at age 22 and began the year by playing for Mexico in his second World Baseball Classic, it was a happy ending for a season that didn't start off as well as he would've hoped.

After just 28 games, Thomas was designated for assignment by the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Los Angeles Dodgers traded outfielder Jose Requena to get him - and then promptly sent him to the minors. After a couple of callups totaling seven games, Thomas was again designated for assignment, and when no one wanted to pick him up on waivers, he was outrighted to Oklahoma City.

"For me, honestly, like, I'm very proud of myself to go through all the things that I went through and, you know, to finish on a high note and the Dodgers helped me a lot with things I needed to work on," Thomas, now 26, said following the game. "And, you know, I'm very blessed to be with this team and go through the things I've been through this season."

It was a game the Comets weren't really in control of until the 10th inning, when Josue De Paula stood on second as the ghost runner and Rochester reliever Clayton Beeter issued walks to James Tibbs III and Mike Sirota to load the bases for Thomas.

Perhaps there were some jitters, some butterflies, maybe there was some anxiety for Jack Cebert, who was called up from Double-A Harrisburg to start the Triple-A National Championship Game for Rochester. It would explain the pitch he left over the plate that Zach Ehrhard hit for a single to lead off the game, and the four-pitch walk to Josue De Paula that followed.

But Cebert settled down, escaping the early jam by striking out Oklahoma City's Alek Thomas to end the inning, then retired the side 1-2-3 in the second.

And if the Red Wings batters were intimidated facing Emmet Sheehan, the lanky righty who had made 22 starts in the Major Leagues this year, they certainly didn't show it.

With two outs in the bottom of the first, Cayden Wallace drew a four-pitch walk, then moved to third when Riley Adams followed with a single. Another single from Leandro Pineda scored Wallace for a 1-0 Red Wings lead.

An inning later, Peguero teed off on a fastball that Sheehan left up in the zone, launching it 454 feet over the Las Vegas Ballpark sign and onto the roof of the hockey rink behind it to give Rochester a 2-0 lead.

"Honestly, I don't think I had a good approach the first couple innings. I think I should have probably slowed him down a little more, thrown a couple more curveballs, but yeah, it worked out. Ben called a great game, and we figured it out later," Sheehan said. Of the pitch to Peguero, he said, "it was top zone. I look back at it, and I mean, I'm not really mad about where it ended up. I think it's just getting him off the fastball would have been better."

After Cebert threw two innings, which had been the plan, Jarlin Susana came out of the bullpen and threw gas at the Comets, with his first two pitches over 103 mph and 17 of his 27 pitches topping 101 - all of them four-seam fastballs.

Joe Glassey allowed a walk to Oklahoma City's No. 9 hitter, Ben Rortvedt, in the fifth, but was otherwise unscathed, with Peguero masterfully handling a hot grounder off the bat of Josue De Paula, snaring it on the short hop and taking it to the bag himself to end the inning.

Max Kranick allowed an infield single in the sixth to Hyeseong Kim, but the Comets were never able to advance him past second.

It wasn't until the eighth inning, with Eddy Yean on the mound for the Red Wings, that the Comets were finally able to crack the scoreboard when Mike Sirota drove in James Tibbs III with an RBI single to right center. After a sacrifice bunt moved Sirota to second, Ryan Fitzgerald doubled off the wall in left center to score Sirota and tie the game at two apiece.

The Comets were back in it.

"This is a team that sticks together, and they're very fun and energetic. And one thing that we had going on was we had a lot of Bible studies together. And I feel like that really kept us close," Thomas said of the Comets. "And it was awesome just being in the clubhouse with those guys and playing cards and just getting our minds off baseball and focusing on other things as well. Not everything revolves around this game. And there's bigger things out there. But at the same time we're locked in, we're doing our stuff."

Cohesion in the clubhouse is something that can't be undervalued.

"We got down and we never panicked. We thought we could settle into the game a little bit. We thought we could score some runs," said Comets manager Scott Hennessey. "Emmett was really jacked up in the first inning, you know, pulling some pitches. We thought we knew he would settle in and he did. He gave us a great start, and then the bullpen was lights out like it has been for like two months. And then Thomas's double with the bases loaded was just huge."

Huge might be an understatement, but Alek Thomas and the Comets will be leaving Las Vegas with a memory that will last a lifetime.

"I was blessed to be with this team and go through the things I've been through this season," Thomas said. "I just got to push through, and that's what I did. Good things happen when you're having fun. So that's what we did."

Development Matters, But It's A Long Season - While there's been a one-off Triple-A National Championship Game for 20 years now, there have been, on and off, best-of-seven series played to decide a Triple-A champion, going back to 1904 until as recently as 1991, and then the best-of-five Triple-A World Series from 1998 to 2000.

In a one-off championship game, Scott Hennessey said his approach was, "All hands on deck. I mean, we told the pitchers, we told the position players, like, hey, be ready. We might have a shorter leash with you tonight."

In professional ice hockey, both the Double-A ECHL and Triple-A American Hockey League play four rounds of best-of-seven series to decide a playoff champion. Teams seem to value the development and grit that comes from a long, hard playoff run on the ice. Would that translate over to baseball?

"We don't make the rules. We just go by them and whatever they want to do. We know that going in. So it's a short series, two out of three, and then a one game take all. And you just deal with it and go with what they say to do," Hennessey said.

"We've had a long season. They might [get some more development out of it], but also you've got to risk injury playing this late in the year. And you still got [MLB] teams in the playoffs Guys need to get called up, get called down. So it's a hard question to answer, but we just play with what they say to do."

NOTEBOOK - When Leandro Pineda looked at a fastball over the heart of the plate for strike three to end the game in the bottom of the 10th, he tapped his helmet to challenge. Despite the Comets having poured out of the dugout, plate umpire Thomas Fornarola maintained control, and the ABS system showed the pitch was a strike, ending the game. ... The Comets win was their first overall Triple-A title in franchise history. They previously won PCL titles in 1963, 1965, and 2023, and American Association titles in 1992 and 1995. ... The win pushed the PCL to 12-8 at the Triple-A National Championship Game, and the PCL improved to 2-3 at Las Vegas Ballpark in the Late September Classic. ... Having hosted the Triple-A Championship five times, Las Vegas Ballpark is now tied with the Comets' home park, Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, as the most frequent host. Bricktown Ballpark hosted the first five games between 2006-10.