MLN - THE RAW FEED - www.mlntherawfeed.com -

TULSA - The Tulsa Drillers returned home Tuesday night from a 7-game road trip and a familiar storyline continued.  For the fourth time in the past five games, the Drillers took an early lead only to lose to a late rally.  In Monday's loss, Tulsa took carried a 2-0 lead into the seventh inning but saw the Arkansas Travelers come-from-behind for a 5-4 win.
 
The Drillers actually rallied from a two-run deficit with a two-run eighth inning, but Wil Ortiz homered off Ryan Mattheus to lead off the top of the ninth to give the Travs the 5-4 lead.
 
Travs' reliever Rafael Rodriguez pitched around an error in the bottom of the ninth to close out the victory.
 
The starting pitchers, Chaz Roe for Tulsa and Amalio Diaz for Arkansas, were the stories early in game, keeping it scoreless through the first three innings.
 
The Drillers finally cracked the scoreboard in the fourth inning.  Jeff Kindel got Tulsa going with a single to center field.  Daniel Carte followed with an infield single that Nate Sutton could not come up with for the Travs.  Justin Nelson then smashed a single to center that scored Kindel.  On the same play, Nelson made a big turn at second and was caught in a rundown, Justin was able to stay in the rundown long enough to allow Carte to score, giving the Drillers a 2-0 lead.
 
Arkansas came to life in the seventh inning.  Brian Stavisky reached on a bunt single to pitcher Roe, and Ben Johnson followed with a single to center field.  Mark Trumbo then layed down a sacrifice bunt, moving Stavisky to third and Johnson

to second.  Will Ortiz followed with a grounder to third baseman Gary Cates, and he was able to gun down Stavisky at the plate.  It looked as if Roe was going to escape the inning, but Chris Pettit belted a three-run homer over the left field wall to give the Travs a 3-2 lead.
 
They added an insurance run in the eighth on a Stavisky's 15th homer of the season, a solo shot to right-center field.
 
Tulsa rallied to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth.  Tony Blanco led off with a single, and one out later, Daniel Carte singled to left.  Justin Nelson then drove a ball deep to right field that hit the very top of the wall.  The double scored Blanco and moved Carte to third with the tying run.  Gary Cates followed with a ground ball to short that brought Carte home to tie the game at 4-4.  
 
The tie quickly disappeared with the home run by Ortiz to begin the ninth.
 
The loss overshadowed a good outing by Roe.  The right-hander pitched 7 2/3 innings, allowing eight hits and four runs while striking out five.  
 
Mattheus was tagged for the loss, dropping his record to 2-4.
 
The win for Rodriguez improved his record to 2-3.  
 
Eric Young Jr. pushed his hit streak to seven games with a 1 for 4 night for the Drillers, while Justin Nelson extended his to four games.  Nelson finished 2 for 4 with 2 runs batted in.
 
Game two of the four-game series is scheduled for Wednesday evening at Drillers Stadium.  First pitch is at 7:05PM as the Drillers send Alan Johnson (4-12, 5.07 ERA) to the mound, while the Travs will counter with Daniel Davidson (1-0, 1.91 ERA).

If you like the daily news of the Raw Feed, SUBSCRIBE TODAY to the nation's only alternative professional sports magazine, SZ, with original features and great action photography in baseball, hockey, basketball, and football. Just $11.99 per year for an e-zine like youʼve never seen!