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 Tulsa Drillers

Offense Breaks out Late in 6-3 Tulsa Win

August 29, 2015 - Texas League (TL1)
Tulsa Drillers News Release


Although there are 10 games remaining for Tulsa to play in the 2015 season, the Drillers knew that Friday night's contest against the Arkansas Travelers was a must-win game if they hoped to stay in the second-half playoff hunt. And win they did, as the Drillers offense broke out with a huge eighth inning outburst to go with another strong performance from their pitching staff as they defeated Arkansas 6-3 in Little Rock.

With the win, the Drillers earned a series split as they moved to within four games of the first-place Travs.

Deck McGuire was dominant for Tulsa despite it being his first start in almost a month. The big, right-hander set the tone as he tossed five strong innings, striking out six Arkansas batters, while allowing just a single run. That lone run came in the fourth inning as Raywilly Gomez hit his first homer of the year to give the Travs the 1-0 lead.

The Drillers knew coming into the game they would be up against a challenge facing Arkansas starter Albert Suarez. The midseason All-Star for the Travs was making his seventh start against the Drillers in 2015 and boasted a 3-0 record with a 1.82 ERA in those appearances.

Suarez stayed true to form as he allowed just a single run over his six innings of work before exiting the game after throwing 92 pitches.

The only Tulsa run against Suarez came in the fifth inning when Erisbel Arruebarrena, Daniel Mayora and Webster Rivas hit three straight singles. The final base knock by Rivas brought home Arruebarrena as the Drillers tied the game 1-1.

Grant Dayton relieved McGuire to begin the sixth and did his job as he set the Travs down in order. He would run into trouble in his second inning of work though.

The Travs mounted a serious scoring threat in the seventh as they loaded the bases off Dayton thanks to a single sandwiched between two walks with just one out. Ryan Dennick was summoned from the pen to put out the fire. The southpaw did just that, getting Drew Maggi to line out to second before striking out Cal Towey on a full count to leave everyone stranded.

Building off the momentum from Dennick's clutch relief performance, the Drillers responded by blowing the game open in the top of the eighth.

Brandon Trinkwon led off with a double and Yadir Drake reached safely on a perfectly placed push bunt to put runners on the corners with no one out. Lars Anderson followed and quickly found himself in a 0-2 hole against left-handed reliever Chris O'Grady. But Anderson calmly watched the next four pitches miss the strike zone to earn a walk and fill the bases with Driller baserunners. That would be all for O'Grady as Arkansas decided to bring in right-hander Geoff Broussard.

Broussard, who was making his Double-A debut, did not fare well. He uncorked a wild pitch to score Trinkwon from third, giving Tulsa the 2-1 lead before watching Kyle Farmer crush a ball into the left-center field gap to bring home two more runs. The Drillers weren't done though as Arruebarrena and Mayora came through with back-to-back RBI doubles of their own to put Tulsa in front 6-1.

For Arruebarrena, the run-scoring double highlighted his best offensive performance as a Driller. The Cuban infielder finished his night a perfect 4-4 with two doubles, two singles, two runs scored plus the eighth inning RBI to lead all Tulsa batters.

Farmer and Mayora also enjoyed strong nights at the plate as the entire Tulsa offense seemed to unload a week's worth of frustration in the eventful eighth.

Major Leaguer Joel Peralta threw a perfect bottom half of the frame for Tulsa to send the game into the ninth inning.

Daniel Tillman came on to pitch the ninth with a five-run cushion and he would need it. The Travs refused to go down without a fight as the leadoff batter worked a walk before Tillman surrendered a two-run home run to Brian Hernandez to cut the Driller lead to 6-3.

But Tillman settled down after that as he struck out the next two batters swinging before getting Maggi to fly out to right to close out the Tulsa victory.

Dennick deservedly earned the win with his 0.2 innings of timely relief while O'Grady was tagged with the loss for Arkansas.

The Drillers will return to Tulsa Saturday as they begin their final homestand of the 2015 season. Facing the Springfield Cardinals, Tulsa will look to Jose De Leon (2-6, 4.01 ERA) to keep their playoff hopes alive. Springfield will counter with the number one overall St. Louis Cardinals prospect in Alex Reyes (1-2, 3.70 ERA.) First pitch is set for 7:05PM.


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Texas League Stories from August 29, 2015


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