Drillers Fall in Another Pitcher's Duel
TL Tulsa Drillers

Drillers Fall in Another Pitcher's Duel

July 26, 2025 - Texas League (TL)
Tulsa Drillers News Release


Tulsa, OK - The series trend of strong pitching continued in Saturday night's matchup between Tulsa and Springfield, but the Drillers were slightly outpitched by the Cardinals in a 4-1 loss at ONEOK Field. Four hurlers for the Cards combined to hold the Drillers to just four hits in the defeat, with the fourth inning being Tulsa's downfall. In that pivotal fourth, Springfield produced five hits and scored three of its runs.

The loss by the Drillers gave the Cardinals their second win in the six-game series. Tulsa is now 4-13 against Springfield this season, but could claim a series victory with a win in Sunday's series finale.

The Cardinals started quickly with the game's first two batters reaching on a single and a ground-rule double. It set up the first run of the game on Joshua Baez's sacrifice fly.

Tulsa responded in the second inning with its only run of the night when Chris Newell's 12th home run of the season tied the game at 1-1.

All of the runs in the big fourth inning scored with two outs, thanks to three straight singles, as Springfield jumped ahead 4-1.

Ixan Henderson was the first of the four pitchers for the Redbirds, and he picked up his seventh win. Henderson's only blemish in his 5.2 innings was Newell's solo blast, as he surrendered just three hits while striking out six.

Nick Raquet, Osvaldo Berrios, and Ricardo Velez combined to pitch the final three and one-third innings, keeping the Drillers scoreless in the process. Velez retired the Drillers in the ninth and picked up his second save.

INSIDE THE GAME

*Tulsa starting pitcher Chris Campos recovered from the four runs allowed to retire the final seven hitters he faced in six innings of work. He also matched his season high with eight strikeouts, but Campos was charged with the loss, evening his record to 5-5.

*After Campos' six innings, Brandon Neeck and Kelvin Ramirez each had perfect outings over the final three innings.

*Newell finished with a perfect night at the plate by earning three of Tulsa's four hits, increasing his on-base streak to 12 straight games. During the streak, the University of Virginia product has reached base safely 21 times. Newell also finished a triple shy of the cycle.

*For just the second time this season, the Drillers did not issue a walk in the game. The only other occurrence was on April 8 against the Arkansas Travelers.

*Ezequiel Pagan's 11-game on-base streak and eight-game hitting streaks were both snapped as he finished 0-3.

UP NEXT

The series between the two teams will wrap up on Sunday afternoon with the final game of a nine-game home stand for the Drillers. First pitch is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. at ONEOK Field, and the starting pitchers are slated to be:

Springfield - LHP Brycen Mautz (3-2, 3.54 ERA)

Tulsa - RHP Patrick Copen (0-2, 2.29 ERA)

Check out the Tulsa Drillers Statistics



Texas League Stories from July 26, 2025


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