Travelers Run Past Drillers
July 8, 2025 - Texas League (TL)
Tulsa Drillers News Release
Tulsa Drillers leadoff hitter Taylor Young
(Tulsa Drillers, Credit: Elisa Chavez)
North Little Rock, AR - The Tulsa Drillers struggles at North Little Rock's Dickey-Stephens Park continued Tuesday night with a 6-4 loss to the Arkansas Travelers in the first game of a six-game series between the two teams. With the defeat, the Drillers have lost seven of the eight games they have played at Dickey-Stephens this season.
Over the last four years, Tulsa has gone just 5-21 in Arkansas against the Travelers.
The Drillers got off to a fast start in Tuesday's defeat, taking an early lead. The game's first batter, Taylor Young, drew a leadoff walk and moved into scoring position with a swipe of second base. Yeiner Fernandez brought him home with a run-scoring single.
The Travelers answered in the bottom of the second, and it came from Lazaro Montes. Montes, playing in just his 13th Double-A game since his promotion to Arkansas, hit his fourth home run to lead off the second and tie the game at 1-1.
Two more runs in the third put the Travs in front, and they used stolen bases to produce both. Michael Arroyo led off with a base hit, stole second and scored on single from Bill Knight. Like Arroyo, Knight moved into scoring position by stealing second base, then scored on hit by Montes.
The same formula allowed Arkansas to up its lead to 4-1 in the bottom of the fifth. Blake Rambusch singled, stole second and scored on another single from Knight.
The Drillers trimmed their deficit to just one run in the sixth inning. John Rhodes led off with a double and came home on Chris Newell's triple. Newell scored to make it 4-3 on Kendall Simmons' ground out.
The Travs got the two runs back in the bottom of the seventh against reliever Jeisson Cabrera. A hit batter, a walk and a wild pitch set up a two-run single from Hunter Fitz-Gerald.
Young reached base for the fourth time in the game when he drew a leadoff walk to open the ninth. After advancing all the way to third on a ground out by Kole Myers, Young scored on another hit by Fernandez.
With Fernandez on base and the potential tying run at the plate, a ground out and a fly out ended the threat.
Tulsa stranded ten runners on base in the loss.
INSIDE THE GAME
*The Drillers continued to struggle to contain teams on the base paths, allowing four stolen bases, with three leading directly to runs scored. For the season, Tulsa has allowed 180 stolen bases, the most among all 30 Double-A teams.
*Young finished with a pair of hits to extend his hitting streak to ten straight games. It is the longest hitting streak for a Tulsa batter this season.
*Fernandez had three hits in the game, all singles. It was his fifth three-hit game of the year, most on the team. Fernandez is also tied with Ezequiel Pagan for the most multi-hit games on the team with 20.
*Tulsa starting pitcher Peter Heubeck was tagged with the loss, allowing the four runs in five innings. He allowed seven hits, but did not walk a batter while striking out eight, just one shy of a season high.
*Griffin Lockwood-Powell did not play in the game, keeping his on-base streak active at 35 straight games. The last time that Lockwood-Powell did not reach base in a game that he played was on April 19.
*The double by Rhodes in the sixth inning continued his hot streak. He has hit safely in five straight games and in eight of his past nine.
*With the win, the Travelers took a 7-6 lead in the season series between the two teams.
*The Drillers lost a couple of key players before the start of the series in North Little Rock. Pitcher Ronan Kopp and outfielder Jose Ramos were transferred to Triple-A Oklahoma City by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Kopp had not allowed an earned run in his last 19 2/3 innings, a stretch of 15 games. Ramos departs with 46 career home runs with the Drillers, just four homers shy of tying the franchise record. He had not homered since May 7.
UP NEXT
The Drillers and Travelers will be back in action on Wednesday night with the second game of their six-game series. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. at Dickey-Stephens Park, and the starting pitchers are expected to be:
Tulsa - LHP Jackson Ferris (4-5, 5.54 ERA)
Arkansas - LHP Reid VanScoter (4-1, 5.06 ERA)
Images from this story
 Tulsa Drillers leadoff hitter Taylor Young (Elisa Chavez) |
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