The Tulsa Drillers have been the Texas League's best team over the past six weeks while jumping into the thick of the first-half North Division race.
But don't expect anyone in the visitor's clubhouse at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock to say much about it.
Willie Calhoun hit a two-run home run in the sixth, and Kyle Garlick hit a two-run home run in the seventh to snap a lengthy slump and spark the Drillers to a 4-3 victory over the Arkansas Travelers in front of 3,096 fans Thursday night.
The victory was Tulsa's 12th this month, 27th since May 6 and kept its half-game lead over Springfield with four games remaining on the first-half schedule.
"We haven't talked any at all about the race," said Calhoun, whose sixth-inning home run was his 14th of the season. "We just try to come out every day and have fun and compete every day, and that's what our team is doing. That's all we can ask for."
It worked Thursday after a slow start, which the Drillers faced after Eric Aguilera's two-run home run in the first and five solid innings from Travs starter Victor Alcantara.
Alex Yarbrough singled, and Aguilera's home run to left-center field off Tulsa starter Jeremy Kehrt gave the Travs a 2-0 lead. It was Aguilera's team-leading ninth home run.
The score held through five innings, while Alcantara held Tulsa to 1 hit, walked 2 and never let a batter reach second base while striking out 4. Alcantara did all that while pitching out of the wind-up for the first time in three years, pitching coach Scott Budner said. Arkansas Manager Mark Parent said it was Alcantara's decision to do so, and if he wants to continue, he'll be allowed.
"He looked really good," Parent said. "This is the first time I really looked at him as a future starter."
Alcantara gave up a double to Andrew Toles with one out in the sixth before Calhoun, a 5-8 second baseman, turned on a high change-up for a home run to right-center field to tie the game at 2-2.
"He's a really good pitcher, one of the best in the league," Calhoun said of Alcantara, whose ERA dropped to 3.93. "We just had to hit his mistake pitches and we did."
Tulsa took a lead in the seventh on another home run, this one from Garlick, who was 4 of 34 before the at-bat. It came after Josh Roenicke walked Cody Bellinger to lead off the seventh, and Garlick's first home run of the season made it 4-2. It was the second outing as a Trav for Roenicke, 33, who signed a minor-league contract with the Los Angeles Angels in the offseason. He had a 2.65 ERA in 10 appearances at Class A Inland Empire before being promoted this week.
"We think he can learn from today; he hasn't been hit around in awhile," Parent said of Roenicke, who pitched in six Major League seasons for four teams. "He'll remember that the higher you get, people hit mistakes."
The Travs got one more run in the seventh, when Jabari Henry led off with a home run to left field, his sixth of the season. Considered a pitcher's park since it opened in 2007, Dickey-Stephens is again at the bottom of the Texas League for home runs. Even after four there Thursday, the 39 hit are the fewest in the Texas League.
"Usually, you can see the flag is blowing out and it still doesn't go anywhere," Henry said. "But tonight, we could put it in the air to left field and it would fly. To right, you had to get a hold of one. We're just putting it where the wind is blowing, I guess, and it's taking the balls over the fence."
Sports on 06/17/2016