Drillers Unable To Pull Off Comeback Against Cardinals

Tulsa fell behind Springfield early and couldn't manage to overtake the Cardinals, falling 4-3 to their division foes, their third loss of the four-game series.

With two outs on the board, Oscar Taveras doubled to left field and two at-bats later, Audry Perez singled to right field to bring Taveras home to take a 1-0 lead. However, Tulsa tied the game in the bottom of the second on a Michael Mitchell RBI single to center field to bring Kent Matthes home.

Springfield retook the lead in the top of the fourth, sparked by Greg Garcia solo home run to lead off the inning. Xavier Scruggs doubled in the following at-bat, and two batters later Kolten Wong reached on a fielding error, allowing Scruggs to score and take a 3-1 advantage.

Chris Swauger knocked a solo home run in the top of the fifth to push the Cardinals' lead to 4-1.

Tulsa attempted to mount a comeback, started in the bottom of the fifth. Josh Rutledge sent a two-out double to left field and advanced to third on a wild pitch in the next at-bat. Angelys Nina knocked a fly ball single to right field to bring Rutledge home to cut the lead to two runs.

The Drillers continued to push in the bottom of the sixth, with back-to-back singles putting Tim Torres on third, followed by a sacrifice fly from Michael Mitchell to bring Torres across the plate to cut the lead to one run.

However, Springfield retired nine of the next 10 batters to end the game and the threat from Tulsa.

Richard Castillo (4-0) picked up a win for his outing, giving up three earned runs on eight hits and striking out seven in his six innings of service. Dan Houston (6-5) picked up a loss, giving up all four earned runs on seven hits in five innings.

Tulsa will be back in action in an afternoon matchup Sunday, kicking off a four-game series against Northwest Arkansas at 2:05 p.m.