Arkansas' Pitching Downs Drillers

Pitcher Drew Carpenter spent most of this season in the Colorado Rockies organization as a member of the Triple A Colorado Springs Sky Sox starting rotation. The Tulsa Drillers wish he were still in the Rockies' system.

Sunday night, in only his third start for the Arkansas Travelers, Carpenter allowed only four hits and one run in six innings as the Travs topped Tulsa 7-2 at North Little Rock's Dickey Stephens Park.

The loss was the second straight for the Drillers. But despite the defeat, they were able to split their four-game series with the Travelers.

The outing for Carpenter was his second strong performance against Tulsa. The right-hander also beat the Drillers on July 11 at ONEOK Field with a similar pitching line, allowing only four hits and one unearned run in six innings. In his two outings against Tulsa this month, Carpenter has surrendered only 8 hits and 1 earned run in a combined 12 innings. The veteran has pitched in parts of six seasons in the majors with Philadelphia, Toronto and San Diego.

The Travelers staked Carpenter to an early in Sunday's game with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third inning against Tulsa starter Sean Gallagher. Randal Grichuk plated the first run with a double, and Robbie Widlansky brought Grichuk home with a two-out base hit that made it 2-0.

Dustin Garneau cut the deficit in half with a solo homer in the top of the fourth. It was the catcher's eighth home run of the year.

It would be as close as Tulsa would get as the Travelers got the run back in the fifth, then put the game away with a four-run sixth inning.

In the fifth, Jimmy Swift singled and eventually scored on another base hit by Widlansky.

The Arkansas leftfielder struck again in the sixth, capping the four-run outburst with his third run-scoring hit of the night that put the Travelers in front 7-1.

The Drillers added a consolation run in the seventh when Tyler Kuhn walked and scored on a base hit by Jayson Langfels.

Widlansky finished 3-5 with three runs batted in, while second baseman Taylor Lindsey added three more hits for the Travelers.

Tulsa was limited to only six hits in the game, with two coming from Garneau.

Gallagher allowed 11 hits and 7 runs in 5.2 innings pitched. The loss dropped his record to 4-5.

The Drillers will continue their road trip with a three-game series in Springfield that will get under way Monday night. Tim Gustafson (5-7, 4.47 ERA) will take the mound for the opener, while the Cardinals will counter with Tim Cooney (6-5, 3.57 ERA). First pitch at Hammons Field is scheduled for 7:09 p.m.