Gomez and Cardinals Snap Tulsa’s Perfect Road Start
SPRINGFIELD, MO – The Tulsa Drillers belted a season-high four home runs Thursday night in Springfield, including two from Michael Busch, but it was not enough offense to produce a win. Springfield got a big night at the plate from Moises Gomez to overtake an early Drillers lead and claim
SPRINGFIELD, MO – The Tulsa Drillers belted a season-high four home runs Thursday night in Springfield, including two from Michael Busch, but it was not enough offense to produce a win. Springfield got a big night at the plate from Moises Gomez to overtake an early Drillers lead and claim a 9-6 win for the Cardinals at Hammons Field. The loss was the first in six games on the road for Tulsa this season.
The game began positively for the Drillers. They jumped to a quick lead in the top of the first inning as Busch belted his first home run of the night. Andy Pages followed with a double and later came home on centerfielder Chase Pinder’s throwing error to give Tulsa a 2-0 lead.
The red-hot Gomez singled and scored in the bottom of the second inning for Springfield to cut the lead in half, but Busch answered in Tulsa’s half of the third. The Drillers second baseman hit his second homer of the game and his fifth of the season to restore the two-run margin.
Gomez struck again in the bottom of the fourth with his seventh home run of the year, and one out later, Chandler Redmond hit his first of the season to tie the game at 3-3.
The home run display continued in the top of the fifth when James Outman belted his fifth home run to give Tulsa a 5-3 lead.
The game got away from the Drillers in a disastrous bottom half of the fifth. Delvin Perez singled and Pinder doubled before a wild pitch from Tulsa starting pitcher Gus Varland brought home Perez. A single by Matt Koperniak tied the score and ended the night for Varland.
Reliever Alec Gamboa issued a walk before Gomez drove home two more with a double that give Springfield its first lead. An infield ground out from Redmond plated the fifth run of the inning and gave the Cardinals an 8-5 lead.
The two teams traded runs in the sixth. Ryan Ward hit his third homer of the year for the Drillers, but Delvin Perez singled and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly from Pinder to give the Redbirds another three-run lead.
It would prove to be the final offense of the night in a game that featured a combined six home runs.
HIGHLIGHTS AND HAPPENINGS:
*The loss was the first this season for the Drillers away from ONEOK Field after winning their first five road games. Only once in at least the last 35 seasons had they won their first five road games of the year and that came in 2006. They had never won their first six during that time.
*The four home runs for the Drillers were a season high. Four of their first five hits in the game cleared the fence.
*Busch finished 2-3 and raised his season average to .333. Pages also had two hits to extend his hitting streak to four straight games. He is now hitting .310 on the year.
*Springfield’s Perez stole three bases in the game.
*Gomez finished 3-4 with three runs scored and two runs batted in. He finished a triple short of the cycle and is now 9-13 in the first three games of the series. The 23-year-old is not listed among the Top 30 St. Louis Cardinals prospects.
*Reliever Melvin Jimenez worked a scoreless eighth inning for Tulsa.
*The defeat snapped an overall three-game winning streak for the Drillers. It matched their longest streak of the year.
*Despite the 15 runs, the game took only 2 hours and 22 minutes.
UP NEXT:
The six-game series between the Drillers and Cardinals will continue with game four on Friday night in Springfield. Starting time at Hammons Field is set for 6:35 p.m. The pitching matchup will be:
Tulsa – RHP Clayton Beeter (0-0, 3.18 ERA)
Spr – RHP Kyle Leahy (0-1, 7.71 ERA)