The Arkansas Travelers have grown accustomed to receiving quality, if not dominant, starting pitching while trying to keep pace in the Texas League playoff race.
The other elements keep tripping up the Travs, and it happened again on Sunday at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock.
Arkansas, which has lost 10 of 11, wrapped up a 1-5 homestand with a 1-0 loss to San Antonio
The latest setback wasn't because of Arkansas starter Albert Suarez, who held the Missions to 5 hits and 1 unearned run over 7 innings while striking out 6.
Suarez said he drew inspiration from the Travs' current position in the Texas League North Division standings.
"Every day, you're like 'Whoa, we have a chance today, let's get after it,' " Suarez said. "Then, whatever happens, happens. It's baseball."
Suarez and his fellow starters have done everything they can to help keep the Travs in the race. They trailed the Springfield Cardinals by one game heading into Sunday.
Travs starters have pitched at least five innings in each of the past 11 games -- the Travs' only victory in that stretch came Thursday night against Corpus Christi -- and have only allowed more than three earned runs once during the stretch while compiling a 2.73 ERA.
"Starting pitching is everything," Travs Manager Bill Richardson said. "It's a commodity in the big leagues. It's good to get these quality starts, and now we've just got to figure out how to finish them."
Sunday, the problem was San Antonio right-hander Bryan Rodriguez, who beat Arkansas for a third time this season. Rodriguez held the Travs to 4 hits and struck out 3 over 6 innings. The Travs' only real threat came in the fifth, when Drew Maggi and Cal Towey singled and moved to second and third on Anthony Bemboom's sacrifice bunt.
But Sherman Johnson struck out and Chad Hinshaw grounded out to end the threat. The Travs didn't get another hit, and Rodriguez lowered his ERA to 0.63 in three starts against the Travs.
"He was able to get breaking balls over ahead in the count and behind in the count," Missions Manager Rod Barajas said. "That's one thing he doesn't do very consistently. When you have both of those things going, he's going to have success."
San Antonio scored in the third when Adolfo Reina reached on an infield single and advanced to second on a throwing error by Maggi. Luis Domoromo delivered an RBI single up the middle for the game's only run.
Suarez held the Missions to three more hits and relievers Nate Hyatt and Danny Reynolds didn't allow another run over two innings. But the Travs, unable to generate anymore offense, suffered their 11th shutout loss of the season.
The Travs are off today before beginning a three-game series at Corpus Christi on Tuesday. They're now hoping a change of scenery can help their hitting catch up to their pitching and keep them in a pennant race.
"I'm telling you, once we put it both together we're going to be all right. And we will," Richardson said. "We've been like this all year. We need to get that first one, add another one and keep rolling."
Sports on 08/17/2015