Naturals Drop Season Finale
Last updated Monday, September 1, 2008 7:09 PM CDT in Sports
By Paul Nielsen
THE MORNING NEWS
SPRINGDALE -- Some red flags have been raised the last two days for Northwest Arkansas.
Manager Brian Poldberg isn't overly concerned that the Naturals dropped their final two games of the regular season, including Monday's 5-3 loss to Tulsa before 5,074 at Arvest Ballpark. After all, Northwest Arkansas won the Texas League North Division second-half championship Saturday.
But a lack of production from starters Rowdy Hardy Sunday and Julio Pimentel during Monday's loss wasn't what Poldberg was looking for heading into the postseason.
After Hardy lasted 3 2/3 innings in Sunday's 9-5 loss to Tulsa, Poldberg said he needed Pimentel to have a quality outing. Part of Poldberg's thinking was the Naturals bullpen needed rest but he also wanted Pimentel to build on his last outing.
Pimentel gave the Naturals five innings of work, but the results were vastly different from his one-hitter in 7 1/3 innings of work in a 3-0 win Wednesday against Arkansas.
Pimentel gave up eight hits, including six the first two innings, and four earned runs to go with three walks and six strikeouts to move to 7-13.
"The last two days I gave the position players a break and I think the starters took a break," Poldberg said. "It wasn't as quality as I hoped it would have been. Hopefully, we will get this behind us."
But the two losses can't be blamed on the pitching alone as the Naturals had just nine hits the last games, including five Monday.
"We didn't get a key hit when we needed it but we still had a fighting chance," Poldberg said.
Jeff Kindel gave the Drillers a 1-0 lead in the first inning with an RBI single. Dexter Fowler hit a two-out, two-RBI double in the second and Chris Nelson plated Fowler with a single for a 4-0 lead. All four of the Drillers' first four runs crossed with two outs.
Cody Clark hit an RBI single in the Naturals fifth and Jose Duarte drew a bases loaded walk to cut the lead to 4-2. Cory Aldridge made it a 4-3 game with a sacrifice fly in the sixth.
Tulsa added an insurance run in the seventh when Fowler tripled and scored on Chris Nelson's single.
"We wanted to finish strong," said Tulsa manager Stu Cole. "The guys came out and played hard. We got some big hits with two outs with guys in scoring position."
Northwest Arkansas (42-28) will have an afternoon workout today before departing for North Little Rock this evening. The Naturals face Arkansas in the first game of the North Division playoff series Wednesday at 7:10 p.m.
Game 2 of the best-of-5 series will be played Thursday at Dickey-Stephens Park before the series switches back to Springdale on Friday. Games four and five will be played Saturday and Sunday, if necessary, at Arvest Ballpark.
Note: The Honolulu Advertiser reported Monday that former Naturals first baseman Kila Kaaihue will be called up to Kansas City today and will be in uniform when the Royals play Oakland today at Kaufmann Stadium.
NATURALS NOTES
Northwest Arkansas Naturals at Arkansas Travelers
WHEN: 7:10 p.m. Wednesday WHERE: Dickey-Stephens Park, North Little Rock
ON THE HILL: Northwest Arkansas-Dan Cortes, 10-4, 3.78 ERA; Arkansas-Daniel Davidson, 1-0, 2.93 ERA
TV: None
ON THE AIR: KURM-AM 79
Gustav
Contingency plans are in the works if rain from the remnants of Hurricane Gustav impacts the start of the Texas League North Division playoff series between Northwest Arkansas and Arkansas in North Little Rock. The current schedule has Arkansas hosting games Wednesday and Thursday with Game 3 moving to Springdale on Friday.
If Wednesday's game is rained out, then the best-of-5 series would be pushed back a day. That means the first postseason game ever at Arvest Ballpark would be Saturday at 1 p.m. with games Sunday and Monday if necessary.
If both Wednesday and Thursday are rained out, the two teams would play a doubleheader on Friday. That means Saturday' start time in Springdale would be pushed back to 7 p.m. If Wednesday is a wash out, the travel day, which is scheduled for Monday, between the division series' and the championship series would be scrapped.
Naturals general manager Eric Edelstein said the above scenarios have come about during discussions among Texas League officials and that nothing is set in stone at this point.
"Nothing has be formally sent down to us," Edelstein said. "Lot of different scenarios but nothing has been formally declared by the league."
Edelstein also said that the schedule wouldn't be changed based on weather forecasts and that all decisions would be game-time decisions.
Aldridge, Wood Earn Honors
Outfielder Cory Aldridge has been named as Texas League Player of the Week and right-hander Blake Wood has been named Texas League Pitcher of the Week for the week of August 25-31.
Aldridge, who shares the award this week with San Antonio first baseman Kyle Blanks, hit five homers and drove in 17 runs in seven games, nearly doubling his season RBI output.
Wood was named as the league's pitcher of the week for the second time this year. He pitched six scoreless innings, allowing just two hits in a Naturals rout of the Drillers on Aug. 25. Saturday, in his second start of the week he pitched three scoreless innings of one-hit ball before a rain delay cut his day short. The Naturals would go on to win that game and clinch the Texas League second-half North Division title.
Rotation
Blake Wood (5-7, 5.30 ERA) will start Game 2 of the series while Rowdy Hardy (6-11, 4.97) will start Game 3 in Arvest Ballpark. Julio Pimentel (7-12, 5.52) will be the Game 4 starter but the starter for Game 5 hasn't been announced. Regular starter Blake Johnson (10-9, 4.85), who missed his last start, is nursing a shoulder contusion and his status is day-to-day.
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