Bullpen Shines in Travs' 5-4 Win; Team Ends Four-Game Skid
Published on June 18, 2012 under Texas League (TL1)
Arkansas Travelers News Release
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Four innings of one-hit baseball from three Arkansas Traveler relievers highlighted the Travs' 5-4, come-from-behind, win over the Springfield Cardinals on Monday night at Dickey-Stephens Park to end their four-game losing streak.
Travs' starter and upcoming Texas League All-Star, Ariel Pena, was not as sharp on Monday night as he had been over his last several starts as he issued four walks and uncorked a season-high three wild pitches. The control issues would lead to the first two runs of the game for the Cardinals (35-34) and accounted for half of the runs charged against Pena.
The first walk issued by Pena came in the second inning when he walked St. Louis Cardinal, Matt Carpenter to lead off the inning. Carpenter was making his first rehab start with the Springfield Cardinals on Monday. Carpenter would eventually move to third following a single by Chris Swauger and a walk to Greg Garcia. With the bases loaded and one out in the inning, Pena quickly got to a 0-2 count on Travis Tartamella. The following pitch would run wild and reach the backstop, allowing Carpenter to score the game's first run. Pena would get out of the inning with no further damage as he struck out the side looking.
Pena's second wild pitch came in the third inning with Jermaine Curtis on second, who reached base via the walk, and Oscar Tavares at first base with a single. The wild pitch did not go far past Travs' catcher Carlos Ramirez, and Ramirez then tried to catch Tavares off the bag at first base, but Casey Haerther could not make the catch on the throw allowing Curtis to score and Tavares to advance to second base. Just as Pena minimized the damage in the second inning with the use of the strikeout, he did the same in the third inning, as he collected a pair of swinging strikeouts to end the frame.
The Cardinals would add two more runs against Pena in the fifth inning, highlighted by an impressive solo homerun off the left-handed bat of Tavares. His shot, the fourth run of the game for the Cardinals, was hit to one of the deepest parts of the ballpark as he parked it on a line into his team's bullpen in right-centerfield. Pena would then end his evening on the mound by inducing a groundout of Carpenter to end the fifth inning. Pena received the no-decision after working five complete innings, giving up five hits (one homerun), allowing four runs (one unearned), walking four, and striking out five.
The Travs (26-43), who scored a run in the third inning on a RBI groundout by Renny Osuna, platted two more runs in the bottom half of the fifth inning to cut the Cardinals' lead to 4-3. The Traveler fifth inning started with a leadoff walk to Angel Castillo. He would then advance to third base a batter later after Jean Segura singled to centerfield. A successful steal of second base by Segura, his second of the game and his 25th this season, put two men in scoring position for Osuna. Osuna would collect his second RBI of the game and reach base on a fielding error by the Cardinals' shortstop, G. Garcia that allowed Castillo to score from third and Segura to advance to third base. An errant pickoff attempt by starter Trevor Rosenthal allowed Segura to score from third base for the Travs' third run of the night. Rosenthal would pick up consecutive strikeouts of Roberto Lopez and Ryan Mount to escape the inning with the lead intact. Rosenthal, who also received a no-decision, worked five complete innings, allowed six hits, three runs (one unearned), walked one, and struck out four.
A no-doubt solo homerun by Ramirez in the sixth inning knotted the game at 4-all. The Ramirez blast came off of Cardinals' reliever, Kevin Thomas. Thomas would bounce back after giving up the game-tying homer by striking out Jimmy Swift and getting Castillo to groundout to him to end the inning and keep the score tied at four through six innings. In that situation, tied after six innings, the Travs had yet to pull out a win (0-7).
Another RBI from Osuna in the seventh inning scored Perez and gave the Travs a 5-4 lead. Christian Scholl was now in line for the win after he pitched a hitless sixth and seventh inning. Scholl would give way to left-hander Andrew Taylor in the eighth inning as the Cardinals first four hitters due up in the frame were left-handed. Taylor would work around a leadoff walk to Tavares by retiring the next three batters in order.
The lone hit surrendered by a Travs' reliever came in the ninth inning as Tantamella singled off of Kevin Johnson, who was on to collect the save. Adam Melker would pinch run for Tantamella, but was promptly retired on a 5-4 fielder's choice for the second out of the inning. A batter later, Johnson sealed his third save as a Traveler by getting Kolten Wong to ground out to Segura at shortstop.
These same two teams will back at it on Tuesday night at Dickey-Stephens as the first-half of the 2012 Texas League season comes to a close. Probable starters are: Mike Piazza (1-2, 3.00) for the Travs and Richard Castillo (4-1, 2.35) for the Cardinals. First pitch is set for 7:10 pm. Gates open at 6:10 pm.
Texas League Stories from June 18, 2012
- Bullpen Shines in Travs' 5-4 Win; Team Ends Four-Game Skid - Arkansas Travelers
- Tulsa Winning Streak Snapped - Tulsa Drillers
- Rodriguez Ropes in Win - Northwest Arkansas Naturals
- Cardinals Fall to Travs 5-4 - Springfield Cardinals
- RockHounds Extend 'Riders Losing Streak to Three - Frisco RoughRiders
- Missions Use Huge Third To Beat Corpus 10-1 - San Antonio Missions
- Hooks Split Series with Sunday Night Win - Frisco RoughRiders
- Tulsa Sweeps Arkansas - Tulsa Drillers
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