Fields Leads Naturals Over Drillers
August 29, 2010 - Texas League (TL1)
Tulsa Drillers News Release
One night after the Tulsa Drillers benefited from a strong outing from major league pitcher Aaron Cook, it was Northwest Arkansas who was aided by a rehabbing big leaguer Sunday night at ONEOK Field. Former OSU quarterback and current Kansas City Royals third baseman Josh Fields provided a go-ahead, two-run single in the sixth inning that helped lead the Naturals to a 3-1 victory in the second game of an important three-game series between the North Divisions rivals.
The defeat dropped the Drillers three-games behind the first-place Naturals in the North Division standings of the Texas League with only eight games remaining in the regular season.
Pitching dominated the early portion of the game before the Drillers finally broke through in the bottom of the fifth. Jason Van Kooten led off with a double against Northwest Arkansas starter Blake Johnson. The Tulsa second baseman eventually scored the game's first run on a groundball single to center by Scott Beerer.
The Drillers lead quickly disappeared when the first five Naturals hit safely off starting pitcher Brandon Durden to start the top of the sixth inning. The streak began with three consecutive singles from Derrick Robinson, Johnny Giavotella and Eric Hosmer that loaded the bases.
With a large group of friends and family in attendance, Fields made it four straight hits and erased the Drillers one-run lead when he dropped a liner into left field that plated Robinson and Giavotella.
With runners at first and second, Clint Robinson produced the fifth straight hit with a hard grounder that just got by a diving Jeff Kindel at first base. Hosmer scored on the hit to put the Naturals in front 3-1.
Durden avoided further damage when Fields was thrown out at the plate trying to score on a groundball from Paulo Orlando.
From there, the pitchers again took over. Tulsa put runners on base in both the sixth and seventh innings against Johnson but could not push across a run.
Patrick Keating blanked the Drillers over the final two innings to collect his 10th save of the season.
Durden only suffered from the one tough inning. In seven innings, he allowed the three runs on seven hits.
Fields joined the Royals during the winter, but he has missed all of the major league regular season after injuring his hip during spring training. His go-ahead single was his only hit of the game. Fields has now played in nine games during his rehab stint with the Naturals and is hitting .419 with four extra-base hits and five runs batted in.
Tulsa was limited to only five hits in the game, with Beerer accounting for two of them.
The two teams have now split the first two games of their series, and Monday night's finale now takes on even more importance for the Drillers. The pitching matchup will feature Cory Riordan (7-5, 4.15 ERA) against Mike Montgomery (5-3, 3.33 ERA) of the Naturals. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05PM at ONEOK Field.
The ONEOK Field Ticket Office will open at 9:00AM on Monday. Tickets are also available at TulsaDrillers.com 24 hours a day.
Texas League Stories from August 29, 2010
- Shooting From The Hip - Midland RockHounds
- Fields Leads Naturals Over Drillers - Tulsa Drillers
- Jenkins Pushes Frisco Past Midland-8.29.10 - Frisco RoughRiders
- Naturals Use Big Sixth Inning to Get by Tulsa - Northwest Arkansas Naturals
- Early Homers, Lack of Clutch Hitting Doom Travs - Arkansas Travelers
- Cardinals Hot Pitching Burns Travs 3-1 - Springfield Cardinals
- 'Riders Blanked By Midland Saturday - Frisco RoughRiders
- Naturals drop opening game in Tulsa - Northwest Arkansas Naturals
- RockHounds win over Rangers - Midland RockHounds
- Two Big Innings Undo Travs - Arkansas Travelers
- Tulsa Gains Ground On Naturals With Win - Tulsa Drillers
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