Pitching Carries RedHawks to Easy Victory

Originally Published: Jun 13, 2010 7:24 PM CDT

Corey DeMoss
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

OKLAHOMA CITY – Tanner Scheppers pitched well in his introduction to the starting rotation, and the Oklahoma City RedHawks defeated the Albuquerque Isotopes 6-2 Sunday.

Scheppers, who is one of the top pitching prospects in the Texas Rangers’ farm system, pitched four innings, giving up only two hits and striking out two. The RedHawks’ coaching staff held him to limited action in order to ease him into the starting rotation and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

As Scheppers was doing his job, Oklahoma City (34-28) took advantage of mistakes to take a quick lead. The Isotopes (32-29) committed two costly errors in the bottom of the first, both of which resulted in unearned runs. Chris Davis, Ryan Garko and Chad Tracy each drove in runs, giving the RedHawks a 3-0 advantage.

OKC stretched the lead to 4-0 on a lead-off home run by Tracy in the fourth inning, and then added another run in the fifth thanks to a sacrifice fly by Mitch Moreland.

Albuquerque finally got on the board in the sixth thanks to a solo home run by Xavier Paul, but Tracy launched his second homer of the game in the bottom of the inning to bring the lead back to 6-1. The Isotopes added one more run in the seventh, but were set down in order in the final two innings to end any hope of a comeback.

Because Scheppers did not pitch the required five innings, Evan Reed (1-0) was credited with the win. The only hit he gave up in two innings of work was Paul’s solo home run.

Vicente Padilla (0-1) was credited with the loss after giving up four earned runs on eight hits in 5.2 innings. Padillo was making his first rehab start since going on the 15-day disabled list with soreness in his throwing elbow.

Sunday’s game marked the end of a four-game series between the two teams, which they split 2-2. It was the only time in the series OKC’s pitchers held the Isotopes to less than six runs.