Tulsa, OK – For seven inning on Thursday night at ONEOK Field, the Tulsa Drillers second-half, offensive struggles continued. They were scoreless and held to just two hits, but a pair of home runs and a ninth-inning wild pitch produced three late runs and give the Drillers a 3-2 walk-off win.
It was the first win of the second half for the Drillers after they had dropped the first two games of the half by scoring a total of two just runs on eight hits across the two defeats.
The early innings of Thursday’s matchup featured an entertaining pitching matchup.
Tulsa starting pitcher Christian Zazueta was dynamic in his Double A debut. The Mexico native worked five impressive innings, allowing just one hit and zero walks while striking out eight.
For the Hooks, major leaguer Ronel Blanco made an injury-rehabilitation start from the Houston Astros. Blanco, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery, worked 3 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing two hits and two walks with two strikeouts.
The game remained scoreless until the Hooks produced the first run in the top of the sixth inning. Wyatt Crowell relieved Zazueta and retired the first batter he faced before a pair of singles put two runners on base. Back-to-back walks forced in a run and gave the Hooks a 1-0 lead.
A walk and a run-scoring single from Jason Schiavone in the eighth upped the margin to 2-0.
Mike Sirota finally put Tulsa on the scoreboard with a solo home run in the bottom half of the eighth.
Trailing 2-1 and down to their final three outs, Kole Myers delivered another solo home run on the first pitch in the bottom of the ninth to tie the score at 2-2.
On the pitch following the blast from Myers, Frank Rodriguez lined a single into center to put the potential winning run on base. After Joe Vetrano worked a walk, Jose Izarra laid down a sacrifice bunt that moved the runners to second and third for Josue De Paula.
After a called strike, the second pitch to De Paula was low and inside and skipped past Hooks’ catcher Schiavone and back to the backstop, allowing Rodriguez to come home with the game-winning run.
The Drillers five hits in the game, three of which came in the final two innings, were their most in three second-half games. The three runs also marked the high of the half.
Tulsa was held to four hits in each of the first two games of the second half, both of which were 10-1 losses.
GAME NOTES
*Sirota drew a walk in the bottom of the first inning to quickly extend his on-base streak. He ended up reaching bas first times in the contest with two walks, a hit by pitch and his eighth-inning homer. Sirota has now reached base safely in all 31 games he has played with the Drillers. Prior to his promotion to Double-A Tulsa, he had reached base in his final 30 games with Great Lakes, giving him an overall 61-game, on-base streak. It is the longest on-base streak in professional baseball this season. The all-time record in Minor League Baseball is 74 straight games.
*Jake Gelof also extended his on-base streak with a single in the first inning. Gelof has reached base in 35 straight games. That represents the longest on-base streak this season in the Texas League when just counting league games.
*Crowell worked four innings in relief of Zazueta and was credited with the victory to improve his record to 5-4. The lefthander has got the win in each of his last two games and has allowed just two runs over his last 13.0 innings pitched.
*Defensively, the Drillers turned three double plays in the game.
UP NEXT
The Drillers and the Hooks will continue their series on Friday night at ONEOK Field. Starting time is set for 7:05 p.m. and the pitching matchup is expected to be:
Corpus Christi – TBA
Tulsa – RHP Adam Serwinowski (5-2, 5.31 ERA)
