LITTLE ROCK — The improved offense that has marked the past month for the Arkansas Travelers disappeared Tuesday night.
The Travelers squandered a solid outing from starting pitcher Trevor Reckling, dropping the first of a threegame set with the Springfield Cardinals 4-0 before 4,229 on a drizzly night at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock.
Reckling, a left-hander starting his sixth game since being transferred from Class AAA Salt Lake, did an admirable enough job, striking out 10 and giving up 3 hits over 6 innings. The bullpen didn’t exactly melt down after Reckling either, with relievers Jeremy Haynes and Jeremy Berg compiling a combined five more strikeouts.
“I’m not happy we struck out 10 times against Reckling and 15 times total,” Springfield Manager Ron Warner said. “But we executed when we had to. Every time you face a quality guy like Trevor, you figure it’ll be a low score.”
Yet the Cardinals made their few offensive opportunities count. Xavier Scruggs hit a first-pitch home run to right field in the top of the secondinning, giving Springfield a one-run lead.
In the eighth, the Cardinals extended the lead to 2-0 when Matt Carpenter came through with an RBI single off Haynes. Jose Garcia later doubled down the left-field line to score Scruggs in the top of the ninth. Daryl Jones followed that with an RBI double of his own.
On most nights, that’s not enough.
“We had chances early in the game with runners in scoring position,” Travs Manager Bobby Magallanes said. “But we didn’t get any in there. We really weren’t squaring many balls up.”
Springfield left-hander Nick Additon scattered 4 hits over 6 innings, striking out 5.
“You’ve got a left-handed pitcher with a good slider and a good change,” Magallanes said.“We chased a lot of pitches out of the zone.”
Watching the offense struggle wasn’t what Magallanes was expecting, not with the Travelers finally seeing some longabsent stability in the lineup. Infielder Andrew Romine was making his first start at Dickey-Stephens in over a month after a lengthy stay on the disabled list, and three of Arkansas’ first three hitters entered Tuesday batting over .300.
Outfielder Jeremy Moore, who came into the game hitting .299, was given the night off.
“That’s why I’m not worried about it,” said Magallanes, pointing to the improved offensive numbers. “We’ll come back and get after it.”
Sports, Pages 20 on 07/28/2010