Travs' offense sputters again

The good news for the Arkansas Travelers on Sunday night came in the first inning when Maikol Gonzalez walked and scored on Alex Yarbrough's single to give the Travs an early lead.

The bad news came in the eight innings that followed, when the Travs failed to score again to continue a dismal homestand in an eventual 4-1 loss to the Midland RockHounds in front of an announced crowd of 4,162 at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock.

Gonzalez' run ended a scoreless streak of 15 consecutive innings, but the next eight innings were similar to the previous four games in which a punchless offense made it difficult for solid pitching and defense.

"Deja vu, huh," Arkansas Manager Phillip Wellman said.

The Travs entered a six-game homestand last Wednesday carrying a five-game winning streak in which they hit .341 in games at Midland and Frisco. But since returning to Dickey-Stephens, they have maintained a season-long trend of struggling to hit at their home park, one that has always been friendly to Texas League pitchers since it opened in 2007.

Arkansas, held to 6 hits Sunday, is batting .157 with 7 runs scored over its past 5 games, dropping its season averages at Dickey-Stephens to .209 and 2.6 runs per games. Factoring in all games, the Travs are hitting .244 and average 3.7 runs per game.

"However many excuses we make, we've got to play half of our games here," said Yarbrough, who went 2 for 4 on Sunday. "Yeah, it's a tough hitters park. Definitely, at other parks in the league you can see the ball, you pick the ball up and it definitely carries better. But, no, we can't make excuses."

Wellman, in his first season as Arkansas manager, spent the previous three seasons as hitting coach at Texas League-rival Springfield and said the difficulties of hitting at Dickey-Stephens weren't discussed much. When asked if the struggles of hitting at home have turned into a mental issue for his players, Wellman said he couldn't say.

"You've got to ask them about that," he said. "Ask them if they're weak. ... Because I refuse to buy into that. ... If you can hit, you can hit anywhere. So I refuse to buy into that."

Yarbrough's single to left field in the first scored Gonzalez to give the Travs a 1-0 lead, and starter Nate Smith (4-2) held the RockHounds to 2 runs on 5 hits in 6 innings to take the loss. D'Arby Myers' RBI single in the third tied the game at 1-1 and Jefry Marte's home run to left field put Midland up 2-1 in the sixth.

The RockHounds tacked on insurance runs in the eighth off Jairo Diaz, the last coming on an RBI triple by Max Muncy. Travs pitchers have a 3.40 ERA this homestand, but no victories to show for it.

"It's frustrating for everybody," Wellman said. "Everybody in this office, everybody in this clubhouse. Yeah, it's terribly frustrating."

The Travs couldn't couldn't advantage of a Sunday matchup against reliever Deryk Hooker, who mas making a spot start because Drew Granier was sent to Class AAA Sacramento. Hooker held the Travs to 1 run on 3 hits in 3 innings, and three other relievers held them to three hits over the final six innings.

Wellman and shortstop Eric Stamets both said there were more quality at bats Sunday than in previous games this week, but the results ended up being the same.

"We're not getting 2 and 3 hits a game, we're getting 6 and 7 and 8," said Stamets, who was 1 for 3 on Sunday. "We're working our way up that way. Any positive that you can take. This game is too hard to look negatively on anything."

Sports on 07/07/2014

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