Chuck Taylor got a little wet Friday night, but the Arkansas Travelers' left fielder did not mind a bit.
Taylor singled down the right-field line in the 10th inning to score Joey Wong from second base and give the Travs a 3-2 victory over Tulsa in front of 7,668 at Dickey-Stephens Park.
The Travs snapped a five-game losing streak to the first-place Drillers and won for only the second time in the their past nine games.
Taylor got a hero's welcome after his game-winning ground ball, taking a soaking from his teammates who chased him down between first and second base.
"That felt good," Taylor said. "We got this game over with and I get to go home. I didn't want to be here all night."
Arkansas appeared to be on its way to a 2-0 victory but the surging Drillers staged a two-out rally. Down to their last strike against Travs closer Zac Curtis, Drillers' right fielder Blake Gailen reached on an infield single. Two pitches later, Peter O'Brien -- who was playing his first game since July 31 and who was 0 for 3 prior to his last at-bat -- sent a game-tying home run over the left-field wall.
"We haven't had a whole lot of things go right for us recently, but I really appreciate the fact that we've kept fighting," Arkansas Manager Daren Brown said. "We've been in some games where things didn't always work out, but even down to two strikes and two outs and [Tulsa] gets an infield single and a home run, we came right back at them and got the job done."
Curtis (1-2) remained in the game and retired the Drillers in order in the top of the 10th. Wong drew a leadoff walk from Brian Moran (0-1) in the bottom half of the inning. Braden Bishop put down a sacrifice bunt and reached on a a throwing error by Moran. Taylor followed by hitting a one-strike pitch that got by O'Brien at first base.
"[Moran] threw me a slider on that first pitch, and I thought he was going to go back to it," said Taylor, who had also doubled in the eighth inning. "I chopped it into the ground because I was a little late with my swing. I got a good piece on it and I got a lucky bounce."
O'Brien's home run spoiled a fine outing from Travs' starter Lindsey Caughel, who allowed only three hits in seven innings. Caughel struck out five and walked one. He outdueled Tulsa starter Scott Barlow, who struck out nine and walked two in six innings.
"[Caughel] dealt. He pitched his butt off tonight," Taylor said. "It sucks that he didn't get the win, but he pitched well. He put up a whole bunch of zeroes for us."
"I thought he kept the ball down and mixed his pitches up," Brown said of Caughel. "He located his fastball. He thew a good game against [Tulsa] last week, but he ran into an issue in the seventh inning where he gave up three homers in a span of four hitters. Tonight, he had command of his pitches and threw well."
Marcus Littlewood belted a home run for the second night in a row to give the Travs a 1-0 lead in the second inning. Arkansas increased its lead to 2-0 in the fifth when Kyle Waldrop's two-out double scored Wong, who had started the inning with a walk.
Ryan Kelly, who entered in relief of Caughel, gave up a one-out walk and a single in the eighth, but he got Errol Robinson to ground into a double play.
Sports on 08/05/2017