Delta Cleary Jr. rocketed a single down the right-field line on the first pitch he saw from Mark Peterson. Seconds later, Jose Rivera scored and Cleary Jr. was mobbed by his teammates at first base.
The tide appears to be turning for the Tulsa Drillers, who won in walk-off fashion on Cleary Jr.'s single last night in a 6-5 ball game.
Now the Drillers will carry a four-game winning streak into tonight's game against Northwest Arkansas at ONEOK Field.
Here are some news and notes from Tuesday night's contest front of 4,676 in downtown Tulsa:
- For Cleary Jr., the walk-off winner was his second in 13 months with the Drillers. Last season on July 28, Cleary Jr. singled home Tyler Kuhn in Tulsa's 9-8 victory over Arkansas.
"It's always good to walk off," Cleary Jr. said after last night's game.
- Tulsa (67-65) is five games below .500 (29-34) in the second half of the season. But the Drillers seem to be finding the stride they've been looking for with the Texas League playoffs starting next Wednesday.
"If we lose, we're going to lose going out hard," Cleary Jr. said. "We know we have the playoffs to get ready for, so we're taking this game not as though it doesn't matter to us, but more so as a lesson to get ready for the playoffs."
"I've said all along that I didn't want to be playing our best baseball in July or even at the beginning of August," Tulsa manager Kevin Riggs said. "Now is when we need to start clicking, and we seem to be doing that right now."
- Cleary Jr. has bounced back and forth between the lead-off spot and the No. 9 hole for the Drillers this season. Cleary Jr. is now hitting .258 (33 for 128) at the top of the order. The game-winning hit also raised Cleary Jr.'s average with runners in scoring position to .263 (20 for 76).
"Even if I'm in the one-hole or nine-hole, I know what I bring to the table," Cleary Jr. said. "And if I'm not getting it done there, I know I have other players to back me up."
- Taylor Featherston's three-RBI night was his 14th multi-RBI game of the season.
- Brandon Finnegan, Kansas City's first pick in this year's draft, has gone from TCU to Northwest Arkansas in a short span of time. There are also reports the Finnegan could join the Royals in September.
On Tuesday night, however, he suffered the loss after pitching 1 1/3 innings. He allowed two runs (neither were earned) on three hits — none of which were hit all that hard. His bad fortune was magnified when he struck out Brian Humphries to begin the ninth inning, only to have Humphries reach on a passed ball.
- It's been a mostly-forgettable season for Tulsa starter Richard Castillo. He didn't factor into the decision in the series opener against Northwest Arkansas, but he did watch his earned run average increase from 5.28 to 5.32. Back-to-back home runs — both of which were no-doubters — by Juan Graterol and Parker Morin in the seventh brought Castillo's night to abrupt halt on 97 pitches.
"I thought Castillo did a nice job, and I thought we left him in there a little too long," Riggs said. "He did a good job, though, for us, to be honest with you — except for those two homers there. I think he was just out of bullets."
Walk-off wins for Tulsa in 2014:
- April 3- Corpus Christi - 5-4 - Taylor Featherston scores on wild pitch in the 11th
- May 13 - Springfield - 5-4 - Brian Humphries sac fly scores Ryan Casteel in the 8th
- June 15 - Springfield - 4-3 - Cristhian Adames single scores Tyler Massey
- June 27 - San Antonio - 1-0 - Tayler Featherston walk-off HR in 14th
- June 29 - Corpus Christi - 4-3 - Brian Humphries single scores Tyler Massey
- June 30 - Corpus Christi - 8-7 - Brian Humphries single scores Joey Wong
- Aug. 26 - NW Arkansas - 6-5 - Delta Cleary Jr. single scores Jose Rivera
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