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Tulsa Drillers

Kouzmanoff's Slam Beats Chacin, Drillers

August 2, 2012 - Texas League (TL1)
Tulsa Drillers News Release


Thursday night's Double A game between the Tulsa Drillers and Northwest Arkansas Naturals at ONEOK Field was decided by a matchup of major leaguers. The Naturals' Kevin Kouzmanoff, a six-year major league veteran, hit a third-inning grand slam off rehabbing Colorado Rockies pitcher Jhoulys Chacin, leading Northwest Arkansas to a 6-3 win over Tulsa.

It was the final game of a seven-game homestand for the Drillers. They finished the stand with a 2-5 record, winning one of the three games with the Naturals.

Tulsa took an early lead in the finale, scoring the game's first run for only the second time in the homestand on a run-scoring double to the base of the centerfield wall from Nolan Arenado.

Jhoulys Chacin took the mound in a rehab assignment Thursday night at ONEOK Field.

Chacin, who is recovering from a nerve issue in his pectoral muscle, breezed through the first two innings, only allowing a two-out double to Mario Lisson in the second. He ran into trouble in the third when Rey Navarro and Alex McClure led off with back-to-back singles, and Paulo Orlando drew a walk to load the bases.

Chacin nearly escaped the jam as Arenado barehanded a slow roller from Christian Colon and threw home for a force out. He got his second out of the inning by striking out Brian Fletcher on a called strike with a 94 m.p.h fastball.

The strikeout set up the meeting between Chacin and Kouzmanoff. After a called strike on the first pitch, Kouzmanoff deposited the next offering onto the grass berm in left field for his first home run since joining the Naturals in mid-July. The grand slam gave the Naturals a 4-1 lead.

The Drillers would eventually cut their deficit to a single run. In the fourth inning, Ben Paulsen doubled and scored on a sacrifice fly from Mike Zuanich.

A solo home run from Jimmy Cesario in the eighth pulled Tulsa to within 4-3. For Cesario, it was his second home run of the season.

Tulsa would get no closer as the Naturals put the game away with a pair of unearned runs off Josh Sullivan in the top of the ninth.

Ryan Dennick worked a scoreless bottom of the ninth to close out the game for Northwest Arkansas and collect his fourth save of the year.

The grand slam surrendered to Kouzmanoff was the only damaging mistake for Chacin in his four innings. He threw a total of 62 pitches, 45 for strikes. The right-hander allowed the four runs on five hits while walking two batters and striking out two.

After the big inning, Chacin recovered to pitch around a one-out walk in the fourth by getting four groundball outs.

Northwest Arkansas starter Michael Mariot pitched seven innings to pick up the win. He surrendered only two runs on seven hits and one walk. He struck out two batters while improving his record to 5-3.

Catcher Lars Davis accounted for three of Tulsa's nine hits in the game, raising his average over .300 for the first time since May 1.

Nina added two hits for the Drillers.

Tulsa now hits the road and will begin a four-game series in Springfield Friday night. Dan Houston (8-9, 3.49 ERA) will pitch the opener for the Drillers against Carlos Martinez (2-3, 2.64 ERA) of the Cardinals. Starting time at Hammons Field is scheduled for 7:08PM.

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Texas League Stories from August 2, 2012


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