Most nights, Dickey-Stephens Park is far from a hitter's paradise. Nobody, not even the old-timers, are quite sure why.
Perhaps it's the wind blowing off the Arkansas River that's just a couple of hundred yards behind the right-field gates. Or maybe it's the spacious outfield with deep power alleys.
That was far from the case Friday night as the Arkansas Travelers and Tulsa Drillers combined to launch six home runs in North Little Rock. Although the Travs managed three of the six blasts, it was not enough to overcome an otherwise sluggish offensive outing, losing 7-3 with just five hits and 14 strikeouts on the night.
The loss, which dropped the Travs to 12-9, marked the first time they'd lost more than two in a row It was the fifth consecutive game in which they failed to score more than three runs.
"You're going to have these [stretches]. That's the beauty of this game," Travs catcher Brian O'Keefe said. "There are going to be times when you have slides like this, there are going to be times when you win 10, 12 in a row. The biggest thing is making sure that we're going through our process and our plan. When we get away from it, that's when you see stuff like this."
O'Keefe got the home runs started in the bottom of the second, sending a solo shot to the deepest part of the park in right-center.
The Drillers answered with back-to-back jacks in the next half-inning -- the first of which sent Travs center fielder Connor Lien head-over-heels into the Tulsa bullpen.
Tulsa made it 3-1 in the fourth when Jacob Amaya went yard, then added three more in the fifth as the Drillers knocked around Travs starter Penn Murfee with four consecutive singles, ending the lefty's night after 4 2/3 innings of work.
Although Murfee struck out 6 and walked just 1, the 3 home runs and 6 runs on 8 hits raised his ERA to 6.75 for the season as the 2018 33rd-round pick of the Mariners suffered his first loss.
"Our goal is to throw balls in the zone and make them swing," Travs Manager Collin Cowgill said. "Get quick outs on 0-0 counts and 0-1 counts, and when we do that, we're good. When we don't do that, we're not very good."
O'Keefe attributes much of the Travs' recent struggles to a poor approach at the plate. One of Arkansas' only two non-homer hits came via a Bobby Honeyman single to lead off the fifth.
Two of the next three batters struck out, stranding him at first, and the only runner in scoring position the rest of the night was Honeyman, who doubled into the left-field corner with two away in the bottom of the ninth.
It doesn't help that just four Travs in the Friday lineup were hitting better than .250 on the season.
"They've got some really good arms that we've seen the first couple of nights," O'Keefe said of the offensive woes. "I don't think we've done ourselves any favors at the plate. We're losing our approach too frequently and struggling to get back to it. ... When you have that many strikeouts and so little traffic on the base paths, they're over there and very comfortable.
"It's tough to score runs when you're living and dying by solo home runs, so collectively as an offense, we just need to stick to our approach and be a little more disciplined in the box."
Today’s game
ARKANSAS TRAVELERS VS. TULSA DRILLERS
WHEN 6:10 p.m.
WHERE Dickey-Stephens Park, North Little Rock RADIO KARN-AM, 920, in Central Arkansas WEBSITE travs.com PITCHERS Travs: RHP Devin Sweet (1-0, 3.45); Drillers: RHP Michael Grove (0-2, 10.22) TICKETS $12 box (available in pods of 1, 2, 4, 6); $8 reserved (available in pods of 1, 2, 3, 4, 6); $6 general admission. Available only online at travs.com; no in-person sales.
PROMOTIONS Team photo giveaway, kids run the bases
THE WEEK AHEAD
TODAY vs. Tulsa, 6:10 p.m.
SUNDAY vs. Tulsa, 2:10 p.m.
MONDAY OFF TUESDAY at Wichita, 7:05 p.m.
WEDNESDAY at Wichita, 7:05 p.m.
THURSDAY at Wichita, 7:05 p.m.
FRIDAY at Wichita, 7:05 p.m.