Reset finds Travs in familiar rut

TEXAS LEAGUE NATURALS 3, TRAVELERS 1

The Texas League standings reset when the season’s second half began Tuesday night at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock, but the Arkansas Travelers carried over their first-half struggles in a 3-1 loss to the Northwest Arkansas Naturals.

Travs batters went 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position, unable to back a second quality start in three games by their starting pitcher, and the Travs now have lost six consecutive games.

Naturals left-hander Foster Griffin (4-1, 2.30 ERA) earned the victory by pitching 62/3 innings while allowing 7 hits, 1 earned run, 1 walk and 6 strikeouts before an announced crowd of 6,787.

Griffin, the Kansas City Royals’ No. 20 prospect according to MLB.com, outdueled Travs starter Tyler Herb (5-4, 3.60), whose2three earned runs spanned 7 /3 innings — his second longest start of the season.

The Naturals scored two runs with RBI singles in the first and second innings, and second baseman Jack Lopez eventually scored in the fifth after he reached first on a bunt that rolled to a stop directly atop the left-field foul line.

The Travs scored their only run on a sacrifice fly by outfielder Chuck Taylor in the fifth.

The Travs have scored five runs through three games of the four-game series, when the team scored 27 in the first three games against the Naturals from June 10-12.

“We kind of had a real team meeting after they kicked us in our last series at home,” said the Naturals’ Griffin, who didn’t pitch in the previous series. “Mainly it was to attack the zone. We were falling behind [in the pitch count] last series, and we didn’t really establish the inside. They were really comfortable in the box. What we had to do is stand them up a little bit with the inside fastball, and that opened up the outside corner.”

The game plan may be working, but the Travs hitting

struggles started in Springfield, when the losing streak began Thursday.

The Travs’ best hitters have not been able to lift their team during the drought. The Travs have scored just 12 runs in six games, and the team’s top five RBI hitters have driven in seven of those runs. But they are hitting for a combined .242 average (31 percentage points lower than the team average) and slugging a combined .295 (84 percentage points lower than the team average).

And when the hits come, runs usually do not. The team is 4 for 43 (.093) with runners in scoring position.

During the streak, Tyler Marlette has gone 8 for 13 (.615) and outfielder Kyle Waldrop has gone 6 for 18 (.333), but the two hitters have combined for just 3 RBI. Chuck Taylor, who on June 8 had a Texas League-leading .362 batting average, is now seventh in the league with a .313 average.

The numbers are significantly different than the previous eight games — a stretch in which the Travs went 7-1.

The team’s top five RBI hitters batted a combined .324 (51 percentage points higher than the team average) and slugged a combined .627 (248 percentage points higher than the team average). Together, they drove in 23 runs during the run, and the rest of the team followed with 41 additional runs. The Travs were 35 for 90 (.389) with runners in scoring position.

The Naturals made their change, and now the Travs will have to make their own.

“It’s a game of adjustments,” Taylor said.