TEXAS LEAGUE

New Traveler off to productive start

David Fletcher didn't set a gauge for his first full season in professional baseball.

The new Arkansas Travelers' infielder is fine with it ending as just the second player from the Los Angeles Angels' 2015 draft class to reach Class AA, though.

Fletcher hit RBI singles in his first two at-bats as a Traveler on Wednesday night, leading them to a 5-1 victory over the San Antonio Missions in the second game of a doubleheader at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock.

The Missions won the first game 5-2 before Fletcher, hitting leadoff and playing shortstop, singled in Zach Welz in the second inning and drove in Wade Wass in the fourth inning. Fletcher, a sixth-round draft pick out of Loyola Marymount last year, got those hits in Class AA, a level he never set as a goal this season.

"Just tried to get better every day, and let things happen as they happen," he said. "Everything is going to happen the way it's going to happen and you don't have much control over it."

Fletcher did fine Wednesday going with the flow, an approach he used at Class A Inland Empire, where he hit .275 with 15 stolen bases in 78 games. He was promoted to Arkansas on Sunday, following infielder Tim Arakawa as 2015 draftees to reach that level.

His 2-for-3, 2 RBI game helped the Travs split the doubleheader. They lost the opener when Gabriel Quintana hit a three-run home run to break a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning of a 5-2 victory for the Missions. Quintana also homered in the second game.

"That's a strong kid," Arkansas Manager Mark Parent said. "He one-handed it. He's strong. We saw him down there, and he was hitting line drives all over the place, just grown-man stuff."

That was the one mistake Travs' starter Jordan Kipper made. The right-hander has been one of the Texas League's most dependable pitchers all season and entered Wednesday with a chance to become the league's second 12-game winner. He pitched well enough to earn it, until the sixth-inning home run.

"Right now, it's not the best, but I guess I'll take some time, and reflect on the game and try to find the positives," said Kipper, who was 4-0 with a 1.99 ERA over his past five starts. "Work on the negatives, and keep improving the positives a bit."

Parent gave Kipper credit for a strong outing outside of the home run, and Parent's confidence allowed Kipper to start the top of the seventh inning. Trailing 4-1, Kipper got Josh VanMeter to fly out to right field, but he then walked Nelson Ward. Edward Paredes relieved Kipper once the base runner reached.

"He didn't seem like his heart was in it," Parent said. "For me, I felt that way. And we couldn't afford to give up any more."

The Travs made it worse on themselves in the seventh after Kipper departed. With Paredes on the mound, Ward stole second base, but the throw from catcher Anthony Bemboom went into center field. Ward made it to third base, and when center fielder Bo Way casually threw the ball in, Ward broke for home and slid in easily.

"Guys just mailing it in, I guess," Parent said. "I don't know what it was. It was the lob ball in from the center fielder, from Bo, and they just kept him coming. There's not much to say about that other than it's not a very good effort."

Way homered to right field in the bottom of the seventh, his second of the season, but it wasn't enough for the Travs to snag a victory. They've lost five of their past eight games, are now 5-9 in August, and are 1 ½ behind first-place Northwest Arkansas in the second-half standings.

Today’s game

ARKANSAS VS. SAN ANTONIO

WHEN 7:10 pm.

WHERE Dickey-Stephens Park, North Little Rock

RADIO KARN-AM, 920, in central Arkansas

WEBSITE travs.com

PITCHERS Travelers: Alex Blackford (RHP, 7-6, 3.24); Missions: Seth Simmons (RHP, 1-3, 2.17)

PROMOTIONS Clunker car night

TICKETS Gates open 1 hour before first pitch. Box $13, reserved $9 ($6 children), general admission $7 ($5 children)

THE WEEK AHEAD

TODAY San Antonio, 7:10 p.m.

FRIDAY Corpus Christi, 7:10 p.m.

SATURDAY Corpus Christi, 7:10 p.m.

SUNDAY Corpus Christi, 6:10 p.m.

MONDAY Off

TUESDAY at Tulsa, 7:05 p.m.

WEDNESDAY at Tulsa, 7:05 p.m.

Sports on 08/18/2016

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