Drillers Run Win Streak to Five Straight before Seeing it End
TULSA, OK – The Tulsa Drillers extended their season high winning streak to five straight games on Friday, only to see the streak come to an end later in the evening. The Drillers split a doubleheader with Northwest Arkansas, winning game one 3-2 and dropping the second game 4-0 at
TULSA, OK – The Tulsa Drillers extended their season high winning streak to five straight games on Friday, only to see the streak come to an end later in the evening. The Drillers split a doubleheader with Northwest Arkansas, winning game one 3-2 and dropping the second game 4-0 at ONEOK Field.
With the split, the Drillers have now won 11 of their past 15 games and remain very much in the race for the Texas League’s, first-half North Division title, just 4.0 games behind Arkansas and Springfield who are in a first-place tie.
In Friday’s opener, two big swings of the bat from the Drillers determined the outcome.
The two swings came after Tulsa had fallen behind as it took the Naturals only three pitches to take an initial lead. Tyler Tolbert doubled on Orlando Ortiz-Mayr’s first pitch of the game. After taking a first pitch ball, Javier Vaz bounced a ground-rule double over the right field fence to score Tolbert and give the Naturals a quick lead.
The first big swing for the Drillers came courtesy of Austin Beck in the bottom of the second when his seventh home run of the season tied the score at 1-1.
The second one came in the fifth after Bubba Alleyne had led off the inning with a base hit. Alex Freeland followed Alleyne to the plate and hammered a low liner that just cleared the fence in front of the Drillers bullpen in right field for a two-run homer, giving the Drillers a 3-2 lead.
Gavin Cross pulled the Naturals to within one run when he greeted reliever Logan Boyer with a solo homer leading off the top of the sixth.
Northwest Arkansas would get no closer as Boyer retired the next six batters to close out Tulsa’s fifth straight win.
In game two, the Naturals again got off to a fast start, scoring in each of the first three innings to build a 4-0 lead. The Drillers never threatened and were limited to three hits in the loss and were shut out for the fourth time this season.
The winning streak was not the only streak that came to an end for the Drillers in the loss. Yeiner Fernandez walked and was hit by a pitch in the opener to extend his on-base streak to 36 consecutive games, but he finished 0-3 in the nightcap. It was the second longest on-base streak in Minor League Baseball this season.
INSIDE THE GAME
*After winning game one, the Drillers record improved to 24-24 marking the first time since May 1 that they were at .500.
*Ortiz-Mayr settled in after the rough start in the first game. He allowed just the first-inning run in four complete innings. He walked two batters and struck out one.
*Ben Harris relieved Ortiz-Mayr and worked a scoreless fifth inning to get the win, improving his record to 2-0. Boyer was credited with his third save.
*Tulsa’s bullpen was outstanding in the doubleheader. Five relievers combined to pitch 7.1 innings and allowed just 3 hits and 1 run while striking out 11.
*Offensively, the Drillers totaled only seven hits in the two games.
*The game two victory ended a seven-game losing streak for the Naturals.
UP NEXT:
The Drillers and the Naturals will play the sixth game of their seven-game series on Saturday night at ONEOK Field. Starting time is slated for 7:00 p.m. and the starting pitchers are expected to be:
NWA – LHP Tyson Guerrero (0-3, 6.51 ERA)
TUL – RHP Kendall Williams (2-5, 7.96 ERA)