Traveler Baseball Weekly Notebook
Published on July 16, 2009 under Texas League (TL1)
Arkansas Travelers News Release
A week after losing five of six games to the Midland RockHounds and Frisco RoughRiders at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock, Ark., the Arkansas Travelers traveled to Midland and Frisco to face the same teams they've struggled against so much this season. Arkansas started the road trip with a promising three-game sweep of the RockHounds, outscoring Midland 26-9, but Frisco was not near as kind to the Travs, taking all three games, punctuated by a walkoff grand slam in the series finale.
Arkansas (6-12, 34-54) finished its season series with Midland and Frisco on the road trip, splitting 12 games evenly with Midland but losing 10-of-12 to the RoughRiders. Frisco took the last eight games from the Travs and scored 7.7 runs per game against Arkansas in six games in July.
The Travs pitching staff, which carried the club with a sub-4.00 ERA in each of the first three months of the season, has struggled in July to the tune of a 5.82 ERA. The Arkansas offense, on the other hand, has picked up the pace with a .296 batting average in a dozen July games after batting .250, .246 and .275 as a team across the first three months of the season. The Travs are also slugging .418 in July, 45 points higher than any other month, thanks to 19 doubles, six triples and seven home runs in their last 12 games.
Hank Conger has been the biggest producer for the Travelers this month, sporting a .364 batting average while driving in 12 runs in 12 games. He's hit two home runs and legged out a pair of triples, slugging .614 in that span. Five Arkansas starters are batting over .300, including Chris Gutierrez's .367 average in nine games since joining the club and Mark Trumbo's .340 mark and six extra-base hits.
Arkansas resumes North Division play when they host a four-game set with the Tulsa Drillers (8-9, 46-41) beginning Thursday. The Travs have not fared well against the Drillers so far this year, with Tulsa holding an 11-5 advantage thanks to dominant starting pitching. The Drillers have held Arkansas to a .227 batting average against and 3.4 runs per game. The Travelers will play 12 of their next 19 games against Tulsa, including their next eight home games at Dickey-Stephens Park, split up by a four-game road trip to Northwest Arkansas.
The Travs are 6.5 games behind the first-place Northwest Arkansas Naturals (12-5, 48-39). The first-half winners, Springfield, sit at 10-8 (48-40), while Tulsa is four games back.
Texas League Stories from July 16, 2009
- Frisco Loses Late in Corpus Christi - Frisco RoughRiders
- Einertson Caps Wild Finish - Corpus Christi Hooks
- Cards Edge Naturals in Series-Opener - Springfield Cardinals
- Drillers Postponed - Tulsa Drillers
- Rain Postpones Travs-Drillers Opener - Arkansas Travelers
- Traveler Baseball Weekly Notebook - Arkansas Travelers
- Mount Activated from Disabled List - Arkansas Travelers
- Missions Place RHP Rolando Valdez on Seven-Day Disabled List - San Antonio Missions
- Drillers Back Home Monday - Tulsa Drillers
- Khalil Greene to Springfield - Springfield Cardinals
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