One night after seeing their season-high, 8-game winning streak come to an end at the hands of the Arkansas Travelers, the Tulsa Drillers responded emphatically. After going down 1-0 early, the Drillers roared back with 2 runs in the fifth and 8 runs in the sixth before cruising to a
One night after seeing their season-high, 8-game winning streak come to an end at the hands of the Arkansas Travelers, the Tulsa Drillers responded emphatically. After going down 1-0 early, the Drillers roared back with 2 runs in the fifth and 8 runs in the sixth before cruising to a 13-1 victory over the Travs Saturday night at Dickey Stephens Park.
It was the third time this season that the Drillers have scored 8 runs in an inning and the second time they've done so against the Travs in the past month.
The Tulsa offense was led by Blake Gailen who finished 3-5 with 2 HRs and 6 RBI and Jacob Scavuzzo who went 4-5 with a homer, 2 runs scored and 2 stolen bases. Matt Beaty also finished with his sixth straight multi-hit game while extending his personnel hitting streak to 10 games.
The Travs took an early 1-0 lead in the second inning when Yadier Álvarez uncorked a wild pitch to score Ryan Casteel from third. But that would be all Arkansas would be able to muster against Alvarez as the Los Angeles Dodgers #3 overall prospect went on to strike out five of the final seven batters he faced before exiting after the fourth inning due to reaching his pitch count for the night.
The score held at 1-0 until the fifth when the Drillers pulled ahead.
Scavuzzo led off the top of the frame with a solo shot over the left field fence for his sixteenth homer of the season, knotting the game at 1-1. Three batters later, Garrett Kennedy singled with two outs before eventually scoring on an RBI hit by Errol Robinson to put Tulsa in front 2-1.
In the sixth, Erick Mejia singled to start the inning and Gailen followed with his first homer of the night to put the Drillers up 4-1. That would be all for Arkansas starter Justin DeFratus as Blake Perry entered the game. But he would not fare any better than DeFratus.
Scavuzzo singled and then watched Perry retire Yusniel Díaz and Johan Mieses before swiping second for his third stolen base of the season. That seemed to unnerve Perry as he walked Kennedy on four pitches, surrendered an RBI single to Drew Jackson and walked Robinson to load the bases. Beaty then cleared the bases with a 3-RBI double to right to put Tulsa firmly in front 8-1. Mejia then brought Beaty in with an RBI knock of his own to make it 9-1. One wild pitch later, Gailen stepped back up to the plate and knocked in Mejia for his third RBI of the inning, capping Tulsa's 8-run inning.
Following a scoreless seventh inning, Gailen finished off his big night with his second homer of the game, this one a three-run shot over the right field fence to bring the game to its final tally of 13-1.
Layne Somsen improved his record to 5-0 with two innings of relief work while Shea Spitzbarth earned his third save of the season with three innings of relief following Somsen. DeFratus took the loss for Arkansas.
The Drillers will look to claim the series when they play the finale of their four-game set against the Travs Sunday evening. Scheduled to start for Tulsa will be RHP Dennis Santana (1-0, 4.09 ERA) while RHP Nick Neidert (0-3, 6.14 ERA) will oppose him for Arkansas. First pitch is scheduled for 6:10 PM.
