Cron homers twice in Game 1 win

The good news for Arkansas is that C.J. Cron homered twice in its postseason opener on Wednesday night. The better news might be that these things tend to come in bunches for the Angels' No. 2 prospect.

Cron launched a three-run blast in the first inning and added a solo shot in the sixth to power the Travelers to an 8-3 triumph over Tulsa in the opener of the best-of-5 Texas League North Division Finals.

The multi-homer game was the fifth of Cron's career and first this year. He hit three homers for Rookie-level Orem on Aug. 2, 2011 and needed only three days to record his second career multi-homer game.

It took the University of Utah product more than a year to collect a third two-homer game. Ten days later, on Aug. 20, 2012, he did it again.

The 23-year-old first baseman acknowledged the pattern but said he wasn't sure why the homers seemed so grouped. Even without a second multi-homer game, Cron's streaky long ball tendency has shown through in the past two weeks -- five of his 16 homers this season have come in the last 11 games.

"I guess it was just fortunate for me to get a couple that actually got out," he said. "I really don't know. I was putting some good swings on the ball all year. Some were not going out earlier in the year, but it's nice to see some results lately."

Cron took Drillers starter Christian Bergman (0-1) yard in the first.

"It was top first, runner on third, less than two outs," he said. "I was just trying to get something elevated and get off to a good start. When I hit it, I didn't think I had gotten enough of it. I thought it would be a sac fly and it just kept carrying."

After flying to right in the third, Cron took Bergman deep again leading off the sixth to give Arkansas a 6-2 advantage.

The Travelers also got solo homers from Randal Grichuk, Los Angeles' fifth-ranked prospect, and Robbie Widlansky. Arkansas starter Michael Roth (1-0) earned the win by keeping Tulsa to two runs -- one earned -- on five hits with five strikeouts and a walk over seven innings.

In other action:

Corpus Christi 2, San Antonio 1 (11 innings)

With a pitching matchup between Astros No. 6 prospect Mike Foltynewicz and Padres No. 5 prospect Matt Wisler, runs figured to be at a premium. Foltynewicz limited the Missions to a run on five hits over seven innings and Wisler allowed a run on two hits in 6 1/3 frames.

Corpus Christi walked off with the series-opening win on a sacrifice fly by Matt Duffy, who drove in both runs for the Hooks. Gameday box score»