Drillers Clobber Springfield in 9-4 Win
August 5, 2015 - Texas League (TL1)
Tulsa Drillers News Release
One night after combining for 13 runs on 6 home runs in a 7-6 Springfield victory on Monday, the Drillers and Cardinals again put 13 runs on the scoreboard. But this time, the runs came courtesy of 24 total hits with no home runs as Tulsa walked away with a 9-4 win Tuesday night in Springfield.
Although Yadir Drake did not play in the game until entering as a pinch hitter in the sixth inning for Tulsa starter Eric Stults, the Cuban outfielder finished his night 2-2 with 2 RBI. Ronald Torreyes and Lars Anderson also had two-hit performances while shortstop Erisbel Arruebarrena led all Tulsa batters with a 3-5 performance with two runs scored.
In his first start back with Tulsa since returning from Oklahoma City, Stults turned in a solid outing. The veteran lefthander tossed five innings while allowing two runs to pick up his second Double-A win this season.
The Drillers scored first Tuesday courtesy of a wild streak from Springfield starter Alex Reyes. The number one overall St. Louis Cardinals prospect according to MLB.com, struggled with his command in the third inning. Flashing an upper 90s fastball, the hard-throwing Reyes walked Stults and then advanced him to second with a wild pitch. He then walked Torreyes and threw another wild pitch to move both runners up a base before Peter Lavin brought both of them home with a 2-RBI single.
Reyes lasted just 3.1 innings, walking three Drillers while surrendering three hits although he did strike out six Tulsa batters in a losing effort.
Anderson and Kyle Farmer teamed up to extend the Drillers lead in the top of the fifth inning as they hit back-to-back doubles off reliever Corey Baker to make the score 3-0 in favor of Tulsa.
Springfield responded in the home half of the fifth inning thanks to some two-out hitting. With runners on first and third with two outs, Anthony Garcia and Jonathan Rodriguez each delivered RBI singles to bring the Cardinals to within one run of knotting things up.
Tulsa wasted little time getting one of those runs back as speedster Robbie Garvey came off the bench to make his presence felt after replacing Adam Law following Law's one-out single. Garvey predictably swiped second for his seventh stolen base of the season before sprinting home on an RBI knock by Torreyes into center to put the Drillers back up 4-2.
Drake and Anderson put the game out of reach of Springfield in the eighth inning against reliever Joey Donofrio. Drake brought two of his teammates across the plate with an RBI knock before Anderson delivered a sharply hit single to right later in the inning to plate Torreyes, putting the Drillers up 7-2.
The Drillers piled it on in the ninth as pinch-hitting Deck McGuire got an RBI groundout followed by another RBI base hit by Drake to put Tulsa up comfortably 9-2.
The extra runs proved beneficial as the Cardinals did not go quietly in their half of the ninth inning.
With runners on the corners, Mike O'Neill plated Breyvic Valera with a sac fly before Garcia followed with another run-scoring hit as he doubled home Charlie Tilson to make the score 9-4. Tulsa reliever Ryan Dennick was able to stop the bleeding there however, as he got Rodriguez to fly out to center field to end the ballgame.
Thanks to his RBI double in the fifth inning, Farmer also extended his hitting streak to 9 games.
With Tulsa looking for a series win Wednesday, Jeremy Kehrt (6-8, 3.61 ERA) is expected to be available to pitch although he is currently on the inactive list. He will be opposed by Arturo Reyes (7-6, 2.63 ERA) for Springfield with first pitch scheduled for 7:10PM.
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