Drillers Drop Third Straight to Cards
SPRINGFIELD, MO- The Tulsa Drillers could not keep an early lead against the Springfield Cardinals on Thursday night. The Cardinals came from behind twice in the first two innings and eventually defeated the Drillers by a score of 13-5 at Hammons Field. Tulsa has now lost three straight games. BOXSCORE
SPRINGFIELD, MO- The Tulsa Drillers could not keep an early lead against the Springfield Cardinals on Thursday night. The Cardinals came from behind twice in the first two innings and eventually defeated the Drillers by a score of 13-5 at Hammons Field. Tulsa has now lost three straight games.
Jonny DeLuca did not waste any time getting the Drillers on the board, hitting a leadoff home run on the fifth pitch of the ballgame to give Tulsa a 1-0 lead.
Springfield fought right back to take the lead in the bottom half of the first. An RBI single from Masyn Winn and an RBI groundout from Chase Pinder put the Cardinals up 2-1.
Deuces were wild in the second frame, as a pair of homers gave Tulsa a four-run inning. Devin Mann hit Tulsa's second straight leadoff dinger to knot it up at two, and DeLuca went deep for the second time in as many innings, this one a three-run bomb to make the score 5-2.
The Cardinals roared back with four runs of their own in the bottom of the second. A single, a hit by a pitch, and a walk loaded the bases for Winn, who doubled in two runs. Jordan Walker followed with a two-run single to put Springfield back on top 6-5.
Mike Antico added on to Springfield's lead in the bottom of the fourth with a homer. A throwing error by first baseman Justin Yurchak allowed another run to score to extend the Cardinal's lead to 8-5.
Julio Rodriguez and Jonah Davis went deep back-to-back to open the bottom of the sixth, chasing Tulsa piggy-backer John Rooney after 4.0 innings. Malcolm Nunez's RBI single put the Cardinals up 11-5.
The eighth inning began with a leadoff home run from Walker, Springfield's second leadoff homer of the game. Then, Rodriguez hit a sacrifice fly to bring in the Cardinals’ 13th run of the evening.
HIGHLIGHTS AND HAPPENINGS:
*DeLuca went 2-for-5 with four RBIs, including two home runs, his third multi-homer game of the season and first with Tulsa since being promoted from Single-A Great Lakes on July 4.
*Yurchak extended his hitting streak to nine straight games and his on-base streak to 12 games with two hits. Andy Pages' 12-game on-base streak was broken with an 0-for-4 night.
*The Drillers three homers put them back on top of the Double-A home run leaderboard with 121 on the season. Tulsa is tied for the sixth most homers in all of Minor League Baseball. Ryan Ward is currently third in the Texas League with 20 home runs.
*The Drillers have now hit a Texas League best 28 home runs against the Cardinals.
*Four of the game's combined seven home runs led off an inning. Tulsa hit leadoff homers in the first and second innings and Springfield did it in the sixth and eighth inning.
*After five runs on six hits in the first two innings, Springfield held Tulsa's offense scoreless with just three hits for the remainder of the game.
*Nine of ten Cardinal hitters hit safely, while five of Tulsa's nine batters recorded a hit.
*With three stolen bases allowed tonight, Tulsa has now allowed 137 stolen bases, which is the most allowed in Double-A.
UP NEXT:
The Drillers will face the Cardinals again on Friday night in the fourth game of their six-game series. Starting time at Hammons Field is set for 7:05 p.m. The starting pitchers are scheduled to be:
Tulsa - RHP Clayton Beeter (0-3, 4.70 ERA)
Springfield – RHP Connor Lunn (2-4, 6.09 ERA)