Drillers Blast Four Homers to Help Snap Skid
Midland, TX – The recent offensive struggles for the Tulsa Drillers ended in an impressive way on Wednesday night. The Drillers hit four home runs to help produce five of their eight runs, and the bullpen staved off a comeback attempt from the Midland RockHounds in an 8-4 win at
Midland, TX – The recent offensive struggles for the Tulsa Drillers ended in an impressive way on Wednesday night. The Drillers hit four home runs to help produce five of their eight runs, and the bullpen staved off a comeback attempt from the Midland RockHounds in an 8-4 win at Momentum Bank Ballpark, ending Tulsa’s four-game losing streak.
The result evened the six-game series at one win each in Tulsa’s only regular-season matchup with the RockHounds. The win also brought the Drillers record back to a .500 winning percentage in August, as they now have an 11-11 record for the month.
Tulsa gained the opening lead in the second inning when Chris Newell and Logan Wagner drew impressive walks, as each hitter battled back from 0-2 counts with Wagner earning his walk after 11 pitches. Frank Rodriguez followed with a single that scored Newell to put the Drillers in front.
Joe Vetrano doubled Tulsa’s lead in the third inning by hitting a solo home run, his tenth of the season. Kole Myers reached base next by drawing a walk, and Josue De Paula smashed a home run to right field that gave the Drillers a 4-0 lead.
Logan Wagner blasted his second Double-A home run in the fourth to increase Tulsa’s lead to 5-0.
A sixth run scored for the Drillers when Jake Gelof hit the Drillers fourth home run in the fifth inning.
Tulsa’s offense was backed by a strong start from Aidan Foeller, who pitched in his sixth game since joining the Drillers. The Memphis native worked around four walks to hold Midland scoreless through the first four innings. Foeller allowed just one hit and struck out three.
Christian Suarez took over for Foeller in the fifth inning, and the RockHounds cut Tulsa’s lead in half. Midland took advantage of two walks, before a double and two wild pitches followed to help score three runs and reduce Tulsa’s lead to 6-3.
A fourth run came across for the Hounds in the fifth after they loaded the bases on two walks and a single. CJ Rodriguez then chopped a single that stopped on the third-base foul line, just 45 feet in front of home plate. The swinging bunt scored Clark Elliott to bring the score to 6-4.
In the eighth, Tulsa widened its lead by scoring the final two runs of the night. Newell began the inning with a double, and after Wagner drew a walk, Vetrano drove in both baserunners with a double to left, upping the lead to 8-4.
Jacob Kmatz pitched the final inning for the Drillers and he struck out the side to end the game. Kmatz has held opponents scoreless in seven of his eight outings since joining Tulsa.
GAME NOTES
*De Paula’s homer gave him 26 for the season. He moved up in the Tulsa record book, increasing his RBI total to 98 and his runs scored to 97. Carlos Pena is the only Drillers player to ever finish a season with at least 100 RBI and 100 runs, doing it in 2000. A Tulsa player has not recorded a 100-RBI season since 2006, when Joe Koshansky finished with 109. The last Drillers player to score 100 runs was Tim Wheeler in 2011 when he scored 105 times. Both totals are also the most RBI and runs scored in a single season in Drillers franchise history.
*Kelvin Ramirez was rewarded with the win in an official scorer decision. Ramirez pitched two scoreless innings with four strikeouts. The victory improved his record to 7-3.
*The bottom three of the Drillers lineup were responsible for 6 of their 11 hits and drove in 5 of the 8 runs. Vetrano led the team with three RBI.
*With the Drillers four home runs, they now lead Double A with 175 for the season.
*Gelof’s home run was his 27th of the season, the most on the Drillers and the third most in the Texas League. Gelof is now just six home runs away from matching Tim Wheeler’s single-season home run record of 33 set in 2011.
*With his home run, Vetrano is now the eighth Tulsa hitter to record double-digit home runs this season.
*Myers seven-game hitting streak ended as he finished 0-3 with two walks.
*The two wild pitches from Suarez gave him 17 on the season, matching the most ever thrown by a Drillers pitcher in one season. Derrick Cook in 1999 and Christian Friedrich in 2011 also threw 17 wild pitches each.
UP NEXT
The Drillers will play the third game of their six-game series with the RockHounds on Thursday night. Starting time is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. and the pitching matchup is slated to be:
Tulsa – TBA
Midland – RHP Steven Echavarria (0-0, 11.42 ERA)