Tulsa Drillers' Jayson Langfels returns to the bag to beat the throw to Arkansas Travelers first baseman C.J. Cron in the second inning of the opening game of the Texas League playoffs on Wednesday. MICHAEL WYKE/Tulsa World
Arkansas Travelers first baseman C.J. Cron missed his first chance at postseason play as a pro due to injury in 2011.
Two years later, Cron made the most of his pro playoff debut on Wednesday night at ONEOK Field. Cron belted two homers and had four RBIs to lead the Travelers past the Tulsa Drillers 8-3 in Game 1 of the best-of-five Texas League’s North Division finals before 3,728 fans.
Cron’s bat kept the Travs on fire as they won their ninth straight game.
“It’s huge, a good start for us,” Cron said. “Consistency has been the key for us (during the streak). The last eight games were awesome and we really wanted to carry it over.”
In a year where many of TL’s top hitters are first basemen, Cron was not an end-of-season all-star selection and has often been overlooked even though he was a Los Angeles Angels first-round draft choice from the University of Utah in ’11.
Cron, however, has put together an impressive year as he tied for the TL lead with 36 doubles, was second in hits (142 ), second in extra-base hits (51), fifth in RBIs (83) and fifth in total bases (222) as he batted .274 with 14 homers.
Drillers manager Kevin Riggs predicted a few days ago that mistakes would be magnified during the playoffs and that certainly occurred in Wednesday’s opener.
Tulsa third baseman Jayson Langfels booted a potential double-play grounder that would have allowed pitcher Christian Bergman to work a scoreless first inning. Instead, the miscue led to four runs.
“The ball to Langfels he catches nine out of 10 times,” Riggs said.
With runners at the corners, Cron followed with a three-run, opposite-field homer that carried over the right-field wall into the Travs’ bullpen. Robbie Widlansky then hit a monster homer that went high over the right-field wall and bounced across Elgin Avenue.
“We’ve faced him (Bergman) a bunch so I kind of knew what he had coming at me for the most part,” Cron said. “I hit a fastball and I was just trying to get the runner in, and fortunately it went out.”
Tulsa, which lost a 6-0 lead in the playoff opener last year, scored an unearned run on Kyle Parker’s two-out single in the third, but that rally was cut short by Cristhian Adames’ baserunning error that resulted in him being thrown out at third base.
“The little things bit us,” Riggs said.
In the fourth, Langfels’ two-out RBI single made it 4-2 and it appeared that the Drillers might pull off a similar comeback in a playoff opener as Springfield did to Tulsa in 2012.
But instead Travelers lefties Michael Roth and Nick Maronde, who both have pitched in the majors this year, combined to retire the next 13 batters. Roth, who pitched seven innings, has won five consecutive starts.
Arkansas increased its lead to 5-2 as Randal Grichuk hit his 10th homer in 17 games at ONEOK Field this year. Cron’s second homer of the night made it 6-2 in the sixth.
It was an unusual night for Bergman, who pitched 5 2/3 innings and allowed six runs on only five hits, but four were homers. Bergman was 2-1 with a 4.57 ERA in seven previous starts against Arkansas. He was second in TL homers allowed with 25.
“The identity of this ballclub is we pitch, play defense and situationally execute,” Riggs said. “We did none of the three tonight. It’s very frustrating, but it’s only one game.”
Barry Lewis 918-581-8393
Barry.lewis@tulsaworld.com
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