LITTLE ROCK — It has been a grind for the Arkansas Travelers lately. But that's a good thing.
The Travelers continued their power hitting ways with two home runs to support Fernando Rodriguez's best start, taking a 6-0 victory over the Northwest Arkansas Naturals before 7,881 at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock on Saturday.
Catcher Tim Duff hit a tworun drive in the fifth and designated hitter Ben Johnson added a three-run home run in the eighth as Arkansas won its seventh consecutive and closed within two games of the first-place Naturals in the Texas League North Division. The Travs improved to 6-4 in the season series.
Most of the credit for the offense Saturday was given to hitting coach Eric Owens' pregame hitting regimen known as the "Grinder." Even Rodriguez (3-4), who pitched a complete game and earned his first career shutout with eight strikeouts and five hits allowed, tipped his cap to the Grinder.
"Every day they come out at 2:30 to the cages and they hit for hours," Rodriguez said. "And they still take batting practice after that. So they're not getting tired. They're working on things but they're still coming out and they're aggressive in the game."
Right fielder Jordan Czarniecki tripled and scored on left fielder Cliff Remole's single in the second. Arkansas continued to show its newfound power stroke when Duff followed Remole's leadoff single in the fifth with a his second home run, a high drive onto the left-field berm to make it 3-0.
"It's a little hitting station that E.O. puts us through," Duff said of the Grinder. "It's kind of gotten its own personality as of late but it's just a hitting station he puts us through to get us hitters right and help us swing the bats a little bit."
Center fielder Adam Greenberg beat out an infield hit, stole second and took third on an error in the eighth, and Michael Collins drew Julio Pimentel's first walk. Johnson, a switch hitter batting right, then hammered his ninth home run high and justinside the right-field foul pole to make it 6-0.
The home runs were Arkansas' sixth and seventh in three games in what is supposed to be a pitcher's ballpark. But Arkansas, and its recent opponentsSpringfield and now Northwest Arkansas, have hit a combined 10 in the past six games.
Sports, Pages 40 on 05/18/2008