Tulsa - There was good and bad news for the Tulsa Drillers Monday night.  The bad news came in the form of a 12-4 loss to Northwest Arkansas at Drillers Stadium.  The good news came from Springfield, Missouri where the Arkansas Travelers defeated the Cardinals 2-0.
 
The two results keep the Drillers and Cards in a first-place tie atop the North Division standings with identical 37-32 records with only one game remaining in the first-half of the season.  The Naturals kept their title hopes alive with the win and are now only one game behind the leaders.

 
Tulsa will host Northwest Arkansas in the first-half finale at 12:05 PM Tuesday afternoon.  Regardless of the outcome of that game, the Drillers will have to wait until the conclusion of Tuesday night’s meeting between the Cardinals and Travelers to learn their fate.
 
A Tulsa win and a Springfield loss would give the Drillers the title.  A Tulsa loss and a Springfield win would give the Cards the title.  If both the Drillers and Cardinals win on Tuesday, their meeting on Friday in Tulsa will determine the first-half winner.
 
A Tulsa loss and a Springfield loss on Tuesday would create a three-way tie for the first-half title.  In that scenerio, the Drillers and Naturals would play what would amount to an elimination game on Wednesday with the loser being eliminated from the first-half race.  The next meeting between that game’s winner and the Cardinals would determine the first-half winner.   
 
In Monday’s loss to the Northwest Arkansas, the Drillers fell behind early and never led.  Jordan Parraz gave the Naturals a quick 1-0 lead with a solo home run in the top of the first inning against Tulsa starter Greg Smith.
 
The Naturals added another solo home run in the second inning when Vance Wilson, a former major leaguer with the Mets and Tigers, extended the Naturals lead to 2-0.
 
The Drillers cut the lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the second inning after Michael Paulk led off with a double and scored on a broken bat single by Ryan Harvey.
 
Northwest Arkansas responded in the third inning with a lead off double by Ed Lucas and a run-scoring double by Corey Smith.  Jeff Bianchi plated Smith with a soft grounder up the middle to put the Naturals up 4-1.
 
The Naturals extended their lead to 5-1 in the fourth inning.  Cody Strait doubled and moved to third on a single by Ed Lucas to put runners on the corners with two outs.  With Kurt Mertins batting, the Naturals attempted a double steal and were successful when Tulsa catcher Mike McKenry was unable to throw out Lucas at second base.
The Drillers fought back once again with a sacrifice fly by Daniel Mayora in the bottom of the fourth inning to cut the Naturals lead to 5-2.
 
A six-run sixth inning by the Naturals ended any Drillers hopes of a comeback.  Chris McConnell and Lucas both had bunt singles to start the inning and McConnell eventually scored on a throwing error by shortstop Danny Sandoval.  After a single that scored a runner, a fielding error by third baseman Darin Holcomb allowed another run to score before a single by Bianchi plated one more runner.
 
With two outs in the inning and runners on second and third, Strait doubled down the third base line to score the final two runs of the inning and put the Naturals up 11-2.
 
They added one more run on a sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh, and Tulsa’s added two more runs late in the game on a home run by McKenry and a run-scoring single by Paulk to make the final scored 12-4.
 
Northwest Arkansas starting pitcher Dan Cortes (5-6) threw six strong innings to pick up the win.  Cortes allowed three runs on five hits with four strikeouts.
Smith (0-1), who started 32 games for the Oakland A’s last season, took the loss in his Tulsa debut.  The lefthander gave up eight hits and five runs in three and one-third innings of work.  Recovering from injury, he was limited to only 60 pitches.
 
In Tuesday’s important match up, Esmil Rogers (6-2, 2.84 ERA) will take the mound Tulsa against Anthony Lerew (4-3, 4.61 ERA) of the Naturals.  First pitch is scheduled for 12:05 PM at Drillers Stadium.

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