Springdale, AR – For most of this season the Tulsa Drillers have led all of Double-A baseball in home runs hit, and Wednesday night at Northwest Arkansas they hit four more to pad their lead. Logan Wagner accounted for two of the blasts, his first two-homer game at the Double-A level, as the Drillers powered their way to a 10-1 over the Naturals at Arvest Ballpark.
Tulsa has now hit 193 home runs on the season. It is just three homers from matching the franchise record of 196 long balls hit during the 2022 season.
The Drillers have won seven of their past eight games. They have 85 victories on the season, the most of any team in Minor League Baseball this season. It is also the most in franchise history and the most for a Tulsa professional team since the Triple-A Oilers won 95 games in the 1968 Pacific Coast League season.
Josue De Paula got the Drillers off to a good start, hitting his 27th home run in the top of the first inning.
The Naturals tied the score with a run of their own in the bottom half of the first. With two outs and the bases empty, Spencer Nivens singled and Daniel Vazquez doubled him home to tie the score at 1-1.
Another home run put the Drillers back in front in the fourth inning. Griffin Lockwood-Powell singled with one out, and Wagner followed with his fifth Double-A homer to put Tulsa in front 3-1.
The lead swelled to 6-1 when the Drillers scored three more runs in the seventh inning against a former major league pitcher. James McArthur, who has pitched in 75 big league games with Kansas City but none since the 2024 season as he recovers from an elbow fracture, came on and quickly retired the first two hitters of the inning.
The third batter of the frame, Sean McLain, belted his seventh home run of the season well over the left field fence for the first run of the inning.
Jose Izarra followed with a base hit, then stole second base and moved to third when the throw down to second sailed into centerfield. He scored the second run of the inning on an infield single from Taylor Young. De Paula followed and narrowly missed his second home run of the game, but settled for a double that scored Young to complete the three-run inning.
Wagner struck again in the eighth inning to account for the game’s final run. His second homer of the night, and his sixth at the Double-A level, upped the lead to 7-1.
De Paula collected his third RBI of the game with a bases-loaded walk in the top of the ninth. Jake Gelof followed with a ground-rule double that plated two more runs to account for the final score.
After starting pitcher Aidan Foeller worked the first 2 1/3 innings, four Tulsa relievers combined to hold the Naturals scoreless on just one hit over the final 6 2/3 innings.
Alex Walsh followed Foeller to the mound and picked up his first Double-A win in just his fourth appearance in professional baseball. Walsh, who was pitching in college at Jacksonville University earlier this year, retired all eight batters he faced, including three on strikeouts. The lefthander signed as a minor league free agent with the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 27, 2026.
GAME NOTES
*Overall, Wagner now has 22 home runs combined between the High A and Double A levels. He finished with three hits in Wednesday’s win, his first three-hit game at the Double-A level.
*De Paula now has 104 RBI and 106 runs scored this season. It is the third most runs scored in the 49-season history of the Drillers franchise and tied for the third most RBI.
*Aidan Foeller made his sixth start on the mound since joining the Drillers and worked 2 1/3 innings, allowing one run on four hits. He did not walk a batter and struck out two. His Double-A ERA is now 1.57 in 28 2/3 innings pitched.
*After Walsh worked 2 2/3 relief innings, Christian Suarez allowed just one hit in his two shutout innings.
*Jacob Kmatz closed it out by retiring all six batters he faced in two scoreless innings. Kmatz now has a 1.53 ERA in 12 games with the Drillers and a 23:2 strikeout to walk ratio.
*Gelof now has 98 runs batted in on the season, just two from joining De Paula with 100 RBI on the season. The Drillers have never had two players collect 100 RBI in the same season.
UP NEXT
The Drillers and Naturals will play the third game of their six-game series on Thursday night at Arvest Ballpark. First pitch is again scheduled for 7:05 p.m. and the starting pitchers are expected to be:
Tulsa – TBA
Northwest Arkansas – RHP Grant Gambrell (1-3, 6.23 ERA)