Frazier Out-Duels Oye; Drillers Win 2-1
Published on June 15, 2012 under Texas League (TL1)
Arkansas Travelers News Release
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Matt Oye and Parker Frazier squared off against one another in old-fashioned pitcher's duel on Friday night at Dickey-Stephens Park as the two made hits hard to come by and made runs even harder to attain. Unfortunately for Oye and the Arkansas Travelers, a two-run fifth inning by the Tulsa Drillers would be too much to overcome as the Drillers, thanks to seven shutout innings from Frazier, would go on to win by a score of 2-1.
Until that fifth inning where the Drillers (38-28) broke through for a pair of runs, Frazier and Oye combined to allow only three hits, with Oye only being responsible for one of the three hits.
Consecutive walks to Tim Torres and Jose Gonzalez to start the top of the fifth inning put Oye in a jam. Oye's strikeout of Mike Mitchell would get past his battery-mate, Carlos Ramirez, for a wild pitch that allowed Torres to advance to third base, putting runners on the corners with one out. John Rutledge, who struck out his previous two at-bats against Oye, delivered a sacrifice fly to centerfield for the game's first run. Angelys Nina followed in the ensuing at-bat with a triple to left-centerfield that scored Gonzales. That would be the end of the night for Oye, who save for the fifth inning, was effective. Caleb Graham would come on in relief of Oye and collected a called strikeout of Nolan Arenado to end the fifth inning.
Frazier's one inning of trouble was the third inning. In that frame, he drilled Darwin Perez in the back with a fastball to start the inning. He then issued a one-out walk to Renny Osuna to move Perez into scoring position. Perez would advance to third base on the following batter as Ryan Mount flied out to centerfield. A line drive off the bat of Roberto Lopez that was snared by Drillers' second baseman, Nina, ended the Travs' threat.
From that inning until his final pitch, Frazier went into cruise control retiring 14 out of the last 15 men he faced, including 13 in a row starting with the Mount fly out. The final line of Frazier reflected seven innings pitched, three hits given up, zero runs, one walk, and two strikeouts.
With Frazier out of the game, the Travs (25-41) would put together a rally in the eighth inning. Perez led off with a single and Jean Segura followed with a walk to give the Travs two base runners on at the same time for first time since the third inning. Osuna successfully sacrificed Perez and Segura up 90-feet for the heart of the Traveler lineup. Swinging at the first pitch, Mount grounded out to Rutledge at shortstop with neither runner attempting to advance. During Lopez's at-bat, Josh Sullivan, who started the eighth inning on the mound for the Drillers, uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Perez to score the Trav's first run and cut the deficit to 2-1. Segura would also advance a base and was now on third base as the tying run. Sullivan would bear down and get Lopez to chase a breaking ball out of the zone to escape the inning.
A pair of strikeouts by Drillers' closer, Coty Woods, highlighted a perfect bottom of the ninth inning as Woods secured his 11th save of the season. In the process, the win also clinches the Drillers at least a tie for the Texas League North Division First Half crown.
Game three of the four-game series is set for a 7:10 pm start on Saturday, June 16th. The probable starters are AJ Schugel (3-5, 2.96) for the Travs and Edwar Cabrera (6-4, 3.25) for the Drillers.
Texas League Stories from June 15, 2012
- Frazier Out-Duels Oye; Drillers Win 2-1 - Arkansas Travelers
- 'Riders Claim First Half South Division Title - Frisco RoughRiders
- Cardinals Beat Naturals 5-2 - Springfield Cardinals
- Cardinals Even Series - Northwest Arkansas Naturals
- Game Notes, June 15 at Frisco - Corpus Christi Hooks
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