Tulsa, OK – Big innings have recently plagued the Tulsa Drillers, and that was again the case on Wednesday afternoon in a loss to the Springfield Cardinals. Tulsa scored in three straight innings to take an early lead, but the Cardinals erased it with a five-run fifth inning. The Redbirds held the lead the rest of the way and posted a 9-4 victory at ONEOK Field.
It was the third straight loss for the Drillers and their second straight to Springfield.
The five-run inning continued a recent trend as Tulsa surrendered a five-run frame in the opening loss of its losing streak, followed by a four-run inning in Tuesday night’s defeat.
For the second straight game, the Cardinals took an initial lead with an early, multi-run inning. A leadoff walk, followed by a base hit and an error, gave the Redbirds runners and second and third with no outs. Tulsa starting pitcher Patrick Copen retired the next two batters to come close to escaping the jam, but Noah Mendlinger lined the first pitch of his at-bat into right field for a two-out, two-run single.
The Drillers responded by scoring in each of the next three innings to go in front. In the bottom half of the second, Zyhir Hope struck out, but he reached safely when the strike-three pitch skipped to the backstop. Following a walk and another wild pitch, a single from Griffin Lockwood-Powell scored Hope to pull Tulsa to within 2-1.
In the third, Josue De Paula drew a leadoff walk and Kyle Nevin followed with a single to center. De Paula scored to tie the game when Elijah Hainline grounded a single into right field, and Nevin crossed the plate with the go-ahead run when Chris Newell grounded into a force out.
Tulsa upped its lead to 4-2 with another run in the fourth. Sean McLain drew a leadoff walk, advanced to second on Springfield’s third wild pitch of the game and to third on an error on a failed pickoff attempt. De Paula brought him home with a bloop single to left.
Springfield’s big fifth inning erased the Tulsa lead. A leadoff walk from Copen set up a two-run homer from Chase Davis that tied the game.
The next batter, Ryan Campos singled, and after a strikeout, Travis Honeyman also singled. Jeremy Rivas cleared the bases with his opposite-field, three-run homer that put the Cardinals in front 7-4, and the lead would hold.
Mendlinger and Davis added run-scoring hits in the top of the eighth for the Cards before Kendall George doubled and scored for Tulsa in bottom half of the eighth to complete the scoring.
GAME NOTES
*The two home runs in the fifth inning were a rarity against Copen. It was just the eighth and ninth home runs that the right-hander has surrendered in his professional career, and four of those have come in his last two starts.
*Springfield stole four bases in the game and has stolen seven bases in the first two games of the six-game series between the two teams. Tulsa opponents have 62 steals against the Drillers in 35 games this season with an 86% success rate.
*Lockwood-Powell was the only Tulsa batter with more than one hit in the game, finishing 2-3 with a walk. He extended his hitting streak to four straight games.
*McLain was hitless in the game but his fourth-inning walk extended his on-base streak to 13 straight games.
*Copen was charged with seven runs, six earned, in 4.1 innings and was tagged with the loss, dropping his record to 3-2.
*Cam Day was a pitching bright spot for the Drillers. He did not allow a hit nor a run in his 2.2 relief innings. The outing extended his shutout streak to eight games and 11.2 innings. Day has not surrendered a run since April 18.
*Christian Suarez worked a scoreless ninth inning.
UP NEXT
Tulsa’s home stand and series with the Cardinals will continue at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday evening at ONEOK Field. The starting pitchers for that contest are expected to be:
SPR – RHP Chen-Wei Lin (1-2, 3.97 ERA)
TUL – LHP Wyatt Crowell (3-1, 7.11 ERA)