Drillers Unable to Overcome Strong Pitching in 3-0 Loss

Newson6.com

TULSA, Okla. – The Tulsa Drillers finished on the wrong side of a pitchers' duel Sunday in a 3-0 loss to the Frisco RoughRiders.

Christian Friedrich started for Tulsa and Richard Bleier for Frisco, and neither was particularly impressive at the start of the game. Both hit batters with pitches in the first inning, and Frisco scored an unearned run in the first thanks to two different fielding errors and a sacrifice fly by Michael Bianucci.

The Drillers (28-26) had runners on first and third with one out in the second inning, but in the next at-bat the runner at third was cut down at the plate to keep them off the board. But both pitchers settled down after that, and Tulsa did not have another legitimate scoring threat until the ninth inning.

As both pitchers began cruising, the score remained 1-0 until the eighth inning. The RoughRiders (31-24) managed to chase Friedrich with two consecutive singles, and Joe Torres entered in relief. Torres then walked the first batter he faced to load the bases with one out.

After a popup, Guilder Rodriguez recorded an infield single to score one run and keep the inning alive. Leonys Martin followed with an RBI single of his own, but Bronson Sardinha threw out the next runner at home plate to keep the score 3-0.

The Drillers threatened in the ninth inning, when a walk and single put two runners on base with two outs. Michael Mitchell stepped to the plate as the potential tying run, but struck out swinging to end the game.

Friedrich finished with a loss despite holding Frisco to two earned runs on seven hits in 7.1 innings. Bleier pitched seven shutout innings and allowed just four hits to earn his first win of the season.

Tulsa now has lost each of the first games of the series and will try to avoid a sweep in the finale at 12:05 p.m. Monday.