LITTLE ROCK — Paul McAnulty homered for the second consecutive game and extended his RBI streak to 13 consecutive games to lead the Arkansas Travelers to a 5-2 victory over the Tulsa Drillers on Friday night at Oneok Field in Tulsa.
The victory was the Travs’ ninth in their past 12 games and came just hours after they lost two starting pitchers in a trade the Los Angeles Angels made with the Milwaukee Brewers.
Travs starters Johnny Hellweg and Ariel Pena were sent to the Brewers along with shortstop Jean Segura, who spent most of the season with the Travs before being promoted to the Angels last week, for starting pitcher Zack Greinke.
None of the defections affected Friday’s lineup, as Matt Oye (4-5) started and held the Drillers to 2 runs on 5 hits and struck out 8 over 7 innings.
McAnulty, who has 17 combined home runs this year at Class AAA Salt Lake and Class AA Arkansas, scored two runs and his eighth-inning home run set the final score.
Roberto Lopez gave the Travs a 2-0 lead in the first inning with his home run that also drove in McAnulty off Drillers starter Josh Outman.
The Travs added two more runs in the fourth when Darwin Perez, who turned 23 on Friday, doubled home Ryan Mount and Alberto Rosario to make it 4-0.
The Drillers scored their only runs in the seventh when Jimmy Cesario hit an RBI double and Jose Gonzalez hit a run-scoring single off Oye.
Oye got out of the inning, and reliever Ryan Chaffee pitched around two hits for a scoreless eighth. Kevin Johnson pitched around a walk in the ninth to earn his 13th save.
Sports, Pages 21 on 07/28/2012