Jackson Homers in Drillers Loss

August 18, 2018

The Tulsa Drillers came into Saturday night's game looking to make it three in-a-row against the San Antonio Missions. Mitchell White got the start on the mound for Tulsa, and was able to give his team seven quality innings, but the Drillers offense was only able to generate a solo home run, and fell to the Missions 4-1.
The Missions got the scoring started with a couple of home runs. In the top of the second, Michael Gettys homered to the berm in right to give San Antonio an early lead.
In the top of the fourth, Josh Naylor hit a ground ball up the middle that Gavin Lux mishandled, allowing Naylor to reach. A couple of batters later, Austin Allen homered to dead center to give the Missions a three-run advantage. With two outs, a single and a double by Matthew Batten advanced the San Antonio lead to 4-0.
It took until the bottom of the sixth for the Drillers to get a run on the board. With one out, Drew Jackson smashed a long home run onto the grass in left-center to cut the Drillers deficit to 4-1.
White exited the game after seven, and the Drillers bullpen did not allow a run in the final two innings. But, the final 11 Drillers batters were retired in order, and the Missions took home the 4-1 win.
WHAT YOU MISSED
Gavin Lux and Keibert Ruiz each extended their hitting streaks to seven games. They share the longest current streak on the team.
Despite picking up the loss, White had a quality start. After giving up only two earned runs in seven innings, his ERA dropped from 4.92 to 4.74.
*After the loss, the Drillers sit only 1.5 games ahead of the Travelers who won on Saturday night. Northwest Arkansas was rained out in Midland, and they are 5 games back.
UP NEXT
The Drillers will go for the series win in the series finale against the Missions on Sunday night in what will be the final time the two teams play each other. First pitch at ONEOK Field is scheduled for 7:05 PM, and the probable starting pitchers will be:
SA Luke Bachar (3-6, 4.50 ERA)
TUL Tony Gonsolin (4-0, 2.53 ERA)