Bellinger's Big Night Leads Drillers Past Cards
August 29, 2016 - Texas League (TL1)
Tulsa Drillers News Release
Cody Bellinger had four hits, including two homers, and six RBI in Tulsa's win Monday night in Springfield. (Rich Crimi)
Cody Bellinger has had a big season for the Tulsa Drillers, but he picked a good time Monday night to have his biggest game of the year. Bellinger finished a perfect 4-4 with two home runs and six runs batted in to lead the Drillers to 7-3 victory over the Springfield Cardinals at Hammons Field.
The victory was important for the Drillers as it moved them to within 1.5 games of first-place Arkansas in the North Division standings of the Texas League with only seven games remaining in the regular season.
Tulsa starting pitcher Chase De Jong was the beneficiary of Bellinger's production. De Jong allowed only four hits in six shutout innings to record his Texas League leading 14th win of the season.
Bellinger's first homer opened the game's scoring in the top of the fourth inning. Alex Verdugo led off the fourth with a base hit, and Kyle Garlick was hit by a pitch, bringing Bellinger to the plate. The first baseman went the other way with a pitch from Johnny Walter and deposited the offering over the left-center field fence for a three-run homer.
Bellinger struck again in the sixth. His second homer of the night and his 22nd of the season, a solo shot, upped the Tulsa lead to 4-0.
The son of former New York Yankees outfielder Clay Bellinger capped his big night with a two-run single in the seventh that made it a six-run game.
The only run from Tulsa that did not come from the bat of Bellinger came courtesy of Tim Locastro in the top of the ninth. Locastro hit his first Double-A homer to increase the Drillers lead to 7-0.
The only offense from the Cardinals came in the bottom of the ninth when they scored three times against reliever Yaisel Sierra.
It was a nice bounce-back performance from De Jong who had his roughest outing of the season in his last start, lasting less than two innings against Arkansas at ONEOK Field. In Monday's shutout performance, he walked only two batters while striking out eight and lowered his TL-leading ERA to 2.86.
The Drillers will now continue their road trip in Northwest Arkansas, opening a four-game series against the Naturals Tuesday night. The pitching matchup in the opener will feature Isaac Anderson (0-2, 5.40 ERA) for Tulsa against Yender Caramo (4-7, 3.57 ERA) for the Naturals. First pitch at Arvest Ballpark is scheduled for 7:05pm.
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