Drillers Fall on Another Walk-Off from the Cards
Springfield, MO – Springfield’s Bryan Torres was a one-man wrecking crew Saturday night at Hammons Field. Torres plated all three runs for the Cardinals, including a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning, to hand the Tulsa Drillers a 3-2 loss. The defeat was the fifth straight
Springfield, MO – Springfield’s Bryan Torres was a one-man wrecking crew Saturday night at Hammons Field. Torres plated all three runs for the Cardinals, including a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning, to hand the Tulsa Drillers a 3-2 loss.
The defeat was the fifth straight for the Drillers. Four of the losses have come at the hands of the Cardinals, and three of those have come via walk-off wins for the Redbirds in their final at-bat.
The Drillers never led in Saturday’s loss, and for a good part of the night, they were held without a base runner. Springfield starting pitcher Quinn Matthews retired Tulsa’s first 19 hitters in the game.
Mathews worked with a slim lead as the Cardinals scored a single run in the third inning off Tulsa starter Orlando Ortiz-Mayr and another in the fifth.
In the third, Dakota Harris led off with a base hit and scored the game’s first run on a one-out double from Torres.
In the fifth, Jeremy Rivas singled with two outs and moved into scoring position when Ortiz-Mayr was called for a balk. That set up a second run-scoring hit for Torres as he grounded a single into right field to plate Rivas and up the Cardinals lead to 2-0.
Tulsa’s Damon Keith ended the perfect game bid from Mathews in the seventh inning. With one out, Keith belted a 2-2 pitch over the fence in left field for his 13th home run of the season to cut the Cards’ two-run lead in half.
It remained a 2-1 game until the Drillers were gifted a run in the top of the ninth inning. Pinch-hitter Brendon Davis drew a leadoff walk from reliever Jack Ralston. After Noah Miller flied out, Ralston attempted a pickoff of Davis at first, but his throw skipped into foul territory, allowing Davis to race to third base.
Keith took advantage of Ralston’s gift and delivered a sacrifice fly that plated Davis to tie the game.
Any hopes of a comeback win for the Drillers were ended by Torres in the bottom of the ninth. Tulsa reliever Ryan Sublette retired the first two batters of the inning, bringing Torres to the plate. Sublette jumped ahead in the count 1-2, before Torres lofted a fly ball to deep left field. Keith raced to the fence and made a valiant attempt at a game-saving catch, but the ball just cleared the fence for only the second homer of the season for Torres, setting off another on-field celebration from the Cardinals.
INSIDE THE GAME
*It was the second one-run loss of the series for the Drillers. Eight of their past 13 games have been decided by one run, and they have a 5-3 record in those eight.
*The heroics from Torres overshadowed another outstanding outing from Ortiz-Mayr. The Tulsa starter allowed just two runs in 5.2 innings. He did not walk a batter and struck out five. Ortiz-Mayr has now gone at least five innings in 12 straight starts, dating to June 12. In that streak, the right-hander has a 2.96 ERA. In addition, he has now thrown a career high 113.1 innings this season.
*Mathews gave up just two hits and one run in his 7.2 innings. The Stanford product now leads all of Minor League Baseball with 180 strikeouts this season.
*Tulsa matched a season low with just two hits in the game. It is fourth time this season that the Drillers have been limited to two hits with the previous three all coming against Arkansas.
UP NEXT:
The Drillers and Cardinals will meet again on Saturday night in game five of their six-game series. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. at Hammons Field and the starting pitchers are expected to be:
Tulsa – RHP Chris Campos (1-1, 3.19 ERA)
Springfield – RHP Max Rajcic (9-9, 4.54 ERA)