Drillers Win 2nd Straight in Buehler's Debut

Springdale, AR - The much anticipated Double-A debut for Walker Buehler occurred Friday night, and it helped the Tulsa Drillers secure a second straight win over Northwest Arkansas. Buehler worked four innings, and Johan Mieses homered for the second straight game as the Drillers defeated the Naturals 9-4 at Springdale's Arvest Ballpark.
Buehler, a first-round draft choice of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2015 out of Vanderbilt University, opened the season with Class-A Rancho Cucamonga, striking out 27 batters in 16.1 innings for the Quakes. The right-hander is ranked as one of the Top 100 prospects in all of Minor League Baseball by MLB.com.
In his Drillers debut, Buehler threw 53 total pitches, 39 for strikes. He allowed six hits and two runs, walking one and striking out three. His four-inning outing was not long enough to claim the victory, but Tulsa held a 6-2 lead when he departed.
The Drillers took an initial lead in the third inning, and they never relinquished it. With two outs, they loaded the bases on a base hit by Tim Locastro and walks to Tyler Holt and Kyle Farmer. Edwin Ríos singled home two runs before a throwing error on the play allowed Farmer to also score to make it 3-0.
The damage against Buehler came in the bottom of the third. Ruben Sosa drew a walk and scored on a double by Donald Dewees. Alfredo Escalera made it 3-2 when he followed with a run-scoring hit. Buehler escaped a third run when Escalera was thrown out at the plate on a base hit by Elier Hernandez to end the inning.
Mieses got one of the runs back with his third homer of the season, and his second in is many nights, with one out in the fourth. A two-run double from Locastro later in the inning put the Drillers in front 6-2.
Kyle Farmer doubled in a run in the sixth, then scored himself on another base hit from Rios. The RBI for Rios was his 29th of the season, tops in the Texas League.
Jacob Scavuzzo led off the eighth with his third hit of the game and eventually scored Tulsa's ninth run on Farmer's third hit of the night. It capped a perfect night for Farmer who finished 3-3 and reached base all five times he came to the plate. For Scavuzzo, it was his second straight three-hit game.
The Naturals closed out the scoring with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the eighth.
With the win, the Drillers moved to within one game of .500 with a 16-17 record, 2.5 games out of first place in the Texas League's North Division.
Tulsa will look to make it three straight wins Saturday night in the third game of the four-game set with Northwest Arkansas. Scott Barlow (1-2, 2.83 ERA) will take the mound for the Drillers against Corey Ray (3-1, 3.16 ERA) of the Naturals. Starting time in Springdale is scheduled for 6:05 p.m.