TL Tulsa Drillers

Two Runs Not Enough for Drillers

July 26, 2023 - Texas League (TL)
Tulsa Drillers News Release


TULSA, OK- It was case of missed opportunities for the Tulsa Drillers on Wednesday night. The Drillers out-hit Springfield 9-5, but it was the Cardinals who secured a 3-2 victory at ONEOK Field.

Of the Drillers' nine hits, only one went for extra bases. In addition, they stranded at least one runner on base in six straight innings, from the third through the eighth.

Unlike the previous night's victory when the Drillers never trailed, they fell behind early. With one out in the top of the first inning, Mike Antico tripled and scored the game's first run on a double from Pedro Pages.

Springfield doubled its lead to 2-0 in the third inning. Victor Scott II singled, stole second, and after a walk to Antico, stole third on the front end of a double steal. Pages picked up his second RBI of the night with a sacrifice fly.

The Drillers got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fifth when Yusniel Diaz doubled and scored on a base hit by Kody Hoese. They had a chance to make it a bigger inning when Austin Gauthier singled with two outs for the third hit of the inning, but Hoese was thrown out after rounding too far past second base.

The two teams traded runs in the eighth inning, but again the Drillers missed a chance to score more. After Arquímedes Gamboa doubled in Springfield's third run in the top of the inning, the Drillers responded in the bottom half of the eighth.

Jorbit Vivas drew a leadoff walk and came around to score when Jose Ramos and Imanol Vargas followed with consecutive singles. With runners at first and second, the Drillers failed to capitalize as Eddys Leonard popped out and Diego Cartaya grounded into an inning-ending double play.

It would be the Drillers' final chance as they were set down in order in the bottom of the ninth for the first time since the second inning.

HIGHLIGHTS AND HAPPENINGS:

*Orlando Ortiz-Mayr was the surprise starting pitcher for the Drillers, replacing scheduled starter Nick Nastrini. In his fourth appearance with Tulsa, Ortiz-Mayr worked 3.2 innings and was charged with two runs on three hits and three walks. The loss dropped his Double-A record to 1-2.

*Leonard singled in the sixth inning to extend his on-base streak to 25 straight games, the longest such streak this season for a Tulsa player and the fourth longest in the Texas League this year. It is the longest on-base streak for a Driller since Michael Busch reached safely in 27 straight game during the 2021 season.

*After stealing four bases in the series opener, the Cardinals stole five more and are a perfect 9-9 in steal attempts in the series. The Drillers have now allowed a total of 159 steals this season with attempted stealers achieving an 86.0% success rate.

*The Tulsa bullpen combined to limit the Cards to just two hits over the final 5.1 innings but did issue five walks.

UP NEXT:

Game three of the six-game series between the Drillers and Cardinals will be played Thursday night at ONEOK Field. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. and the starting pitchers are slated to be:

Springfield - RHP Brandon Komar (1-6, 6.03 ERA)

Tulsa - RHP Nick Frasso (1-3, 3.13 ERA)

Check out the Tulsa Drillers Statistics



Texas League Stories from July 26, 2023


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central