Carrasco's homer helps Naturals edge Drillers

SPRINGDALE -- Dennicher Carrasco struggled to make contact in his first two at-bats on Friday night, but the third baseman came through with a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth to help Northwest Arkansas climb back to the .500 mark.

Carrasco's 441-foot blast was the difference to give the Naturals a 4-3 win over Tulsa in Double-A Central baseball action at Arvest Ballpark.

Northwest Arkansas (13-13) got all its offense via the long ball, but Carrasco's shot -- his second of the season --wa the biggest.

"I prepared my mind walking to the plate saying 'Don't miss the fastball,'" Carrasco said. "The first was a fastball outside. I said 'OK, this is my pitch."

He didn't miss it. Carrasco crushed a fastball that was up in the strike zone for a two-run homer to give the Naturals the lead.

Reliever Josh Dye took care of the rest. The left-hander pitched 2.1 shutout innings to notch his third save. He allowed just one hit, struck out two and walked two.

Dye has now gone eight straight appearances without allowing a run.

Naturals manager Scott Thorman has grown accustomed to seeing Dye mow down the opposition, having managed him in the past years, too. But he also credited Andres Nunez with also throwing well in relief.

"Josh has been tremendous all year for us," Thorman said. "He's been good for me for a lot of years actually. I thought Nuny (Nunez) did a really good job, too, in the middle of the game to bridge the gap. He came in a tough situation, second and third nobody out and got out of it."

Nunez (4-0) picked up the win, allowing a run on three hits over 2.2 innings. He struck out one and didn't walk a batter.

Travis Jones went 2-for-3 to lead the Naturals' attack. Romer Cuadrado and Ryan Noda had three hits each for Tulsa.

The Drillers broke on top with a two-out RBI-single from Noda in the top of the third. They chased Naturals starter Jon Heasley with three straight hits to start the top of the fifth. Jeren Kendall's double off the right-field wall pushed Tulsa's lead to 2-0.

Nunez then came on to get the next three batters to limit the damage, stranding runners at second and third.

Northwest Arkansas came back to tie the game in the bottom of the inning as Travis Jones and Rudy Martin hit back-to-back solo hone runs.

But again Tulsa responded in the top of the sixth on Cuadrado's two-out run-scoring single just out of the reach of Naturals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. Carrasco had the last shot though, which proved to be the game-winner.