Naturals Blank Drillers 1-0
May 5, 2008
A frustrating road trip continued for the Tulsa Drillers Sunday afternoon. Despite out-hitting the Northwest Arkansas Naturals 8-4, the Drillers suffered a 1-0 loss at Springdale's new Arvest Ballpark. It was the fifth loss in six games during the Drillers trip to the state of Arkansas. Three of the losses were decided by one run, while the other two defeats were by only two runs each. Overall, it was the ninth loss in the last ten games for Tulsa. Sunday's lack of offense ruined an outstanding effort by starting pitcher Tomas Santiago. The right-hander allowed only the one run on three hits in seven innings of work. The loss dropped Santiago's season record to 1-2 despite him having a 3.00 ERA. The only run of the game scored in the bottom of the fourth inning when Jose Duarte led off with a double, the first hit of the game against Santiago. After a ground ball out moved him to third, Juan Richardson brought Duarte home with a base hit to left field. Tulsa had only one runner advance as far as third base in the game and that came in the eighth inning. Corey Wimberly singled with one and then stole second base. After Chris Nelson grounded out, Wimberly advanced to third on a wild pitch. The Drillers missed a chance to tie the game when Matt Miller flied out to end the inning. Naturals starter Blake Johnson gained to improve his record to 2-2. He allowed six hits and did not walk a batter in six innings. Roman Colon got his first save of the year with three shutout relief innings. Jeff Kindel was the long bright spot offensively for the Drillers. The first baseman finished with three hits in four at-bats. The Drillers will attempt to snap their losing streak Monday night in the third game of their four-game series with the Naturals. Alan Johnson (1-3, 5.09 ERA) will pitch for Tulsa against Carlos Rosa (3-2, 1.32 ERA) of Northwest Arkansas. First pitch will be at 7:00PM.
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