Drillers Up Win Streak to Three Straight Games
Tulsa, OK – The Tulsa Drillers extended their season-best winning streak to three straight games with a win over the Wichita Wind Surge Thursday night. The Drillers never trailed following Aaron Bracho’s two-run homer in the fourth inning and held off the Wind Surge for a 5-3 victory at ONEOK
Tulsa, OK – The Tulsa Drillers extended their season-best winning streak to three straight games with a win over the Wichita Wind Surge Thursday night. The Drillers never trailed following Aaron Bracho’s two-run homer in the fourth inning and held off the Wind Surge for a 5-3 victory at ONEOK Field.
All three wins in the streak have come against Wichita, and the Drillers now hold a 3-0 lead in this year’s Coors Light Propeller Series between the two teams.
Bracho, who had three hits in Tulsa’s victory Wednesday afternoon, opened the game’s scoring with his fourth-inning blast. After Griffin Lockwood Powell’s one-out single, Bracho lined a drive into the right field bullpen for his second home run of the season.
The Drillers doubled their lead with two more runs in the fifth inning. Ezequiel Pagán singled home Chris Newell who had reached on an error. Pagán stole second base and came home himself on Damon Keith’s two-out single, upping Tulsa’s lead to 4-0.
Kyler Fedko’s three-run homer in the top of the sixth ended the Drillers shutout bid and quickly pulled the Wind Surge to within one run.
The Wind Surge would get no closer as Taylor Young helped to get one of the runs back in the bottom half of the seventh. After singling, Young stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by Wichita catcher Ricardo Olivar. When Pagán followed with slow roller towards the mound, Young’s head first slide beat the throw home to up the Drillers lead to two runs.
Kelvin Ramirez did not allow a hit in 2.1 scoreless relief innings before turning the ninth inning over to Lucas Wepf. Wepf walked the leadoff batter in the ninth on four pitches before getting a double-play grounder and another grounder to end the game.
INSIDE THE GAME
*Newell and John Rhodes both extended their hitting streaks with first-inning singles. Rhodes has now hit safely in eight straight games, while Newell has a seven-game streak.
*Fedko’s home run came against reliever Roque Gutierrez who had only arrived in Tulsa on Thursday following his promotion from High-A Great Lakes. Gutierrez replaced starter José Rodriguez and had and worked three scoreless innings before the three-run homer. He was eventually removed with two outs in the sixth and was credited with the win in his Double-A debut. His 3.2 innings were the longest outing by a Tulsa reliever this season.
*Jackson Ferris was scheduled to be Drillers starting pitcher, but the lefthander was placed on the Development List Thursday afternoon. Gutierrez filled Ferris’s spot in the rotation.
*Starter Rodriguez allowed two hits and one walk in his two-inning stint.
*The save for Wepf was his first this season. He had a combined 13 saves between Great Lakes and Tulsa last year.
*The Drillers have limited Wichita to just six runs in their three victories.
*Tulsa turned three double plays in Thursday’s win and has turned a total of eight in its winning streak
*Fedko, who performed a major bat flip following his ninth-inning, go-ahead homer in Wednesday afternoon’s game, accounted for three of Wichita’s five hits.
UP NEXT
On Friday, Tulsa will play the fourth game of its six-game series with the Wind Surge. First pitch is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. and the starting pitchers are expected to be:
Wichita – LHP Aaron Rozek (1-1, 4.82 ERA)
Tulsa – RHP Jared Karros (0-1, 9.72 ERA)