Drillers Record Second Straight Shutout Victory with 5-0 Win over the Cardinals

The Tulsa Drillers got another dominant pitching performance Saturday night and recorded their second straight shutout victory, defeating Springfield 5-0 at ONEOK Field. With the win, the Drillers improved their first-place lead to 3.5 games over Arkansas and to 4.5 games over Northwest Arkansas with 10 games remaining in the regular season. Tulsa's magic number to clinch the second-half was reduced to six with the result.  
Pitchers dominated the first half of Saturday's game, with Tulsa missing a golden opportunity to open the scoring in the bottom of the fourth. The Drillers loaded the bases with no outs, but Wes Darvill struck out. Mike Ahmed followed with a deep drive to left field that looked as if it might be a grand slam homer, but Victor Roache caught the drive just in front of the left field wall. Keibert Ruiz tagged from third and appeared to score on what would have been a sacrifice fly, but Roache threw to third and Zach Reks was tagged out attempting to also advance. Umpires ruled Reks was retired before Ruiz crossed the plate, keeping the game scoreless.
The Drillers did take the lead in the fifth. Logan Landon drew a lead-off walk before Gavin Lux drilled a full-count pitch from Anthony Shew over the right field wall for his fourth Double-A home run to put Tulsa in front 2-0.
The lead swelled to 5-0 in the sixth when the first four batters of the inning reached safely. Reks drew a leadoff walk, and Drew Jackson and Darvill reached on an infield single and a bunt single to load the bases. Up again with the bases loaded, Ahmed dropped a single into left field, plating both Reks and Jackson to make it 4-0. They added a fifth run later in the inning when D.J. Peters was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, forcing in the third run of the frame and the final run of the night.
It was more than enough offense as Tulsa starting pitcher Tony Gonsolin delivered another solid outing. Gonsolin allowed only one hit in five shutout outings.
Andrew Istler followed Gonsolin to the mound and worked three scoreless relief innings before Jason Richman closed out the shutout victory with a 1-2-3 ninth.
WHAT YOU MISSED
Tulsa pitchers have now combined for 18 straight scoreless innings, with two consecutive shutouts.
Gonsolin improved his Double-A record to a perfect 6-0 with the win and lowered his ERA to 1.93.  
Keibert Ruiz was held without a hit for just the second time in his past 12 games.   
Lux and Jackson led Tulsa with two hits each.
*The game was one of the quickest of the season, taking only 2 hours and 10 minutes.
UP NEXT
The Drillers and Cardinals will continue their series Sunday night with the second game of a three-game set. First pitch at ONEOK Field is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. The starting pitchers will be:
SPR      Matt Pearce (0-6, 5.18 ERA)
TUL      Ben Holmes (1-2, 3.24 ERA)