For inspiration, the Tulsa Drillers can look to last year's San Francisco Giants.
The Drillers dropped the first two games at home to Arkansas and face a 2-0 deficit in the best-of-five Texas League's North Division finals with three remaining three games in Arkansas.
It's improbable that Tulsa will win the series, but not impossible. San Francisco looked horrible in dropping its first two playoff games at home to Cincinnati last year in the best-of-five National League Division Series. But San Francisco rallied and won the World Series.
Tulsa is a streaky team and one win could spark a similar comeback. Tulsa plays much better at Arkansas than it does against the Travelers at ONEOK Field. Arkansas outfielder Randal Grichuk is Superman in Tulsa, but just average against the Drillers at Dickey-Stephens Park.
In Game 3 on Friday, Tulsa will start its hottest pitcher, Eddie Butler.
Across the state, the Oklahoma City RedHawks face a similar situation in its Pacific Coast League semifinal series against Omaha.
In a bit of irony, the Oklahoma City-Omaha series has a connection, Brian Sanches, to the last time the Drillers won a playoff series in 2002.
In the '02 playoff opener, Sanches was a last-minute emergency starter for Wichita as a replacement for highly touted prospect Wes Obermueller. Tulsa had lost nine in a row, but tattooed Sanches to ignite a series sweep.
In this year's PCL playoff opener, Sanches was a last-minute emergency starter for Omaha as a replacement for highly touted prospect Yordano Ventura. Sanches, however, had a different result this time with 5 2/3 scoreless innings in a 3-1 win.
By the way, Sanches has more major league wins in his career, 13, than Obermueller did, 11.
Strange things happen in baseball as we have seen this week when St. Louis' Matt Adams became the first major league player ever to hit two home runs in a game in the 14th inning or later.
And this week also saw a Tulsa-born battery for the first time in major league history -- Miami pitcher Brian Flynn and catcher Koyie Hill.
So it's not impossible, just unlikely, that the Drillers can pull off a comeback at Arkansas...
Broken Arrow graduate and Arizona Diamondbacks top prospect Archie Bradley improved to 15-5 overall this season with a win in a Southern League playoff opener for Double-A Mobile on Thursday night. Bradley allowed seven hits and two runs in seven innings for a 3-2 win over Mississippi. He walked one and struck out four as he threw 68 of his 104 pitches for strikes.
Bradley has won seven consecutive starts and is 13-5 at Mobile after starting the season at Single-A Visalia.
Follow Barry Lewis on Twitter.
PUT ON YOUR GAME FACE: Visit the Tulsa World's Sports Extra for complete coverage of the Drillers, OU, OSU, TU, high school sports and the OKC Thunder.
