Craig powers Cards past Drillers

In a little more than a year, Springfield's Allen Craig has ascended from Class A Short-Season to Double-A. The reason why was apparent in his first playoff game.

Craig's two-run homer enabled the Cardinals to rally past visiting Tulsa, 4-3, on Wednesday in Game 1 of the best-of-3 first-round playoff series.

Maury Cazana Marti started the sixth inning with a single and Craig followed with a two-run homer to tie the game.

"It was my third at-bat, and in my previous two, I was way out in front," Craig said. "I was hitting everything off the end of the bat, so as I went up there for the third time, I told myself to stay back and try and go to right field. Instead, I got a fastball and it drifted back over the plate. I was able to pull it."

An eighth-round pick for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2006 draft, Craig had a strong season with Class A Advanced Palm Beach of the Florida State League, batting .312 with a team-leading 21 homers and 77 RBIs in 112 games before his promotion to Springfield. In seven games in Double-A, he hit .292 with three roundtrippers and three RBIs.

"It was a thrill and exciting to be called up to Double-A," Craig said. "It makes it even more special that I've been able contribute to the team. There are a bunch of great guys on this club. I'm just happy that I could put my two cents in and contribute to a victory."

The 23-year-old's performance is not a surprise to Cardinals manager Ron "Pop" Warner.

"He [Craig] is a threat every time he steps to the plate," Warner said. "He's got great power to all fields and he swings at strikes, which is a lethal combination. Allen hasn't missed a beat since he was promoted."

Springfield (1-0) took the lead in the sixth. Reid Gorecki walked and moved to third on a two-out single by Mark Hamilton. Gorecki raced home with the decisive run on a wild pitch by reliever Gerardo Casadiego.

Cardinals starter Mitchell Boggs (1-0) allowed three runs -- one earned -- on five hits with three strikeouts over six innings. The 23-year-old right-hander was 3-1 with a 1.23 ERA in five starts against Tulsa in the regular season.

"Boggs was good," said Warner. "Early on, our defense gave them [Tulsa] some extra outs, and if you do that, it will come back to get you. But he was able to limit the damage and keep us in the game. Of course, once we took the lead, we felt pretty good about our chances with the guys we have in the bullpen."

Kyle McClellan and Jason Motte fired two scoreless innings in relief before handing the ball off to Luke Gregerson, who worked around a hit and a walk in the ninth to notch the save.

Christian Colonel went 3-for-4 with an RBI single for the Drillers (0-1). Matt Miller stroked a run-scoring single in the fourth, and Tomas Duenas scored on a wild pitch in the fifth.

Tulsa starter Sean Thompson (0-1) surrendered four runs on seven hits and three walks with four strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings.