Drillers Eek Out 6-5 Win

The Tulsa Drillers did on Saturday what they couldn’t do on Friday, hold on to a ninth-inning lead.  The Springfield Cardinals ninth-inning rally was turned away on Saturday night at Drillers Stadium in Tulsa, as the Drillers held on for a 6-5 victory over the Springfield Cardinals.

With runners at first and second with only one out, Dan Moylan lined into a game-ending double play, giving Jentry Beckstead, who blew a save on Friday night, his third save of the year.

Down by a run in the ninth inning, Gabe Johnson and pinch-hitter Tyler Minges picked up back-to-back singles with one out.  Moylan, who knocked in the game-winning runs against Jentry Beckstead the night before with a three-run double, ripped a pitch that was headed for the alley in left-center field.  Shortstop Doug Bernier made a leaping catch, then stepped on second base to get the out on Gabe Johnson for the game-ending double play. 

Tied at 4-4 in the bottom of the seventh, Chris Iannetta and Tony Miller went back-to-back, the second time in the series that Tulsa has connected for back-to-back homers.  The pair of solo shots against Jeremy Cook (3-6) gave Tulsa a 6-4 lead.

Aaron Herr’s solo bomb against Tulsa reliever Yusuke Arakawa (4-3), brought Springfield to within a run at 6-5 in the eighth inning. 

The Drillers took a 4-0 lead against Cards starter Chris Lambert, scoring a run in the first and then three more in the fourth.  Lambert went six innings, allowing four runs, three earned on just five hits. 

Travis Hanson’s two-run homer in the fifth made it 4-2.  For Hanson, the homer extends his career-high to 16.  The Cards tied the game on Gabe Johnson’s two-out, two-run single in the seventh, knotting the game at 4-4.

The loss for the Cardinals is their fourth in the last five games, dropping them to 15-20 in the second half.  They are still four games behind first-place Wichita in the East Division.