Drillers' Friedrich fans 12 on birthday
The 2008 first-round pick of the Colorado Rockies allowed one run on five hits while setting a new career high in strikeouts over seven innings as the Drillers edged the Corpus Christi Hooks, 2-1.
After starting the season 0-4 with a 5.59 ERA, MLB.com's No. 23 prospect has gone 2-0 with a 2.08 ERA and 21 strikeouts in two starts this month.
Friedrich's previous career high was 11 strikeouts -- a feat he accomplished in back-to-back starts with Class A Advanced Modesto in July 2009.
The Hooks' Koby Clemens took the brunt of Friedrich's damage by striking out three times. Corpus Christi's first baseman became the first victim when he went down swinging to end the first inning.
Friedrich allowed David Cook and Jon Gaston to reach in the second, but picked off Gaston at first before Cook scored on an RBI single by Marcos Cabral. Friedrich struck out the final two batters to retire the side.
After fanning two batters in the third, fourth and fifth innings, Friedrich struck out one in the sixth. The southpaw got the final two batters he faced, Michael Affronti and Freddy Parejo, swinging in the seventh.
Friedrich is 2-5 with a 4.94 ERA through 71 innings and will travel to Los Angeles to represent the United States in the 2010 All-Star Futures Game on Sunday.
Rex Brothers struck out two in a scoreless eighth and Stuart Pomeranz fanned the 15th and 16th Corpus Christi hitters of the night for his seventh save.
Matt Repec homered for Tulsa (36-43) and Warren Schaeffer broke a 1-1 tie in the seventh with an RBI double.