SPRINGDALE — Northwest Arkansas left-hander Mike Montgomery finished a rough season with another rough outing Saturday afternoon.
Montgomery gave up four home runs, including two in the first inning, as the Tulsa Drillers defeated the Northwest Arkansas Naturals 6-2 before a crowd of 3,904 at Arvest Ballpark.
It was the fifth consecutive poor start for Montgomery, who is 0-4 with an 8.20 ERA over that span. Despite striking out 6 and walking just 1 in 6 innings, Montgomery (2-6) allowed 6 runs on 8 hits.
“When he had to make a good pitch, he left the ball out over the plate and gave up the long ball,” Naturals Manager Brian Poldberg said. “I thought one was wind-blown, but the other three were hit pretty well.”
Montgomery was ratedby Baseball America before the season as the No. 1 prospect in the Kansas City Royals organization, but he went just 3-6 with a 5.69 ERA with Class AAA Omaha before being demoted to Class AA Northwest Arkansas. He had a 6.67 ERA in 10 starts with the Naturals.
Corey Dickerson, Mike Zuanich, Kiel Roling and Lars Davis hit home runs for Tulsa. Drillers starter Joe Gardner (8-8) did not walk a batter and allowed six hits over seven scoreless innings.
“We had a good day swinging the bat,” Tulsa Manager Duane Espy said. “We had favorable hitting conditions today with the wind blowing out like that. We were able to hit some balls well and get them in the air.”
The Drillers tagged Montgomery for three runs in the first inning. Dickerson led off with a deep home run toright, and Zuanich launched a two-run shot to right to give Tulsa a 3-0 lead.
Nolan Arenado led off the third with a single, and Roling followed by blasting a long home run well beyond the left-field bullpen to extend the lead to 5-0.
“Getting off to a slow start hurt,” Poldberg said of Montgomery. “He did have some good innings in there, but it just wasn’t consistent.”
Davis hit the Drillers’ last home run, a sixth-inning shot to center that made it 6-0.
The Naturals scored their only runs on a two-run home run by Brian Fletcher off former Natural Tim Sexton in the eighth inning.
Today’s game TULSA AT NW ARKANSAS WHEN 6 p.m. Central WHERE Arvest Ballpark, Springdale RADIO KQSM-FM, 92.1, Northwest Arkansas INTERNET naturals.com PITCHERS Tulsa: Brandon Hynick (RHP, 6-3, 2.31 ERA); Northwest Arkansas: J.C.
Sulbaran (RHP, 0-3, 9.95 ERA) SHORT HOPS The Kansas City Royals promoted Naturals catcher Manny Pina to the majors and right-hander Ethan Hollingsworth to Class AAA Omaha on Saturday. Pina batted .260 with 5 home runs and 20 RBI in 131 at-bats for the Naturals this year, and Hollingsworth was 3-8 with a 4.17 ERA in 23 appearances, including 6 starts.
THE WEEK AHEAD TODAY vs. Tulsa, 6 p.m.
MONDAY vs. Tulsa, 1 p.m.
End of season
Sports, Pages 23 on 09/02/2012