DeLoach rocked early, settles down
Tyler DeLoach heard all about how his new home park was friendly to pitchers, which gave the 23-year-old right-hander a bit of confidence as he took the mound Saturday night for the first time at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock.
“Everybody has been calling it a graveyard,” DeLoach said, “that the ball is hit pretty hard and they don’t get out.”
It took seven pitches for DeLoach to learn differently as Corpus Christi’s Teoscar Hernandez turned on a 2-0 fastball for a home run to left field that landed on North Willow Street and quite possibly was the farthest ball hit at the park this season. Then Colin Moran hit another home run to right field in the second inning.
But DeLoach settled in as the wind died down and struck out a season-high 10 batters through five innings in the Travs’ 4-3 victory over the Hooks in front of an announced crowd of 6,284.
After falling in a 3-0 hole after two innings, the Travs scored four runs in the second on five consecutive hits highlighted by Drew Heid’s two-run triple to center, and DeLoach held the Hooks to two hits over his final three innings.
“After we scored four, its like he said, ‘OK, let me get the ball down and in,’ and he did,” Arkansas Manager Phillip Wellman said.
DeLoach was promoted to Class AA Arkansas on July 31 after spending the first four months of the season at Class A Inland Empire, where he had a 3.21 ERA and led the California League with 122 strikeouts. DeLoach doesn’t possess overpowering velocity, relying more on placement than power.
“There’s nothing to it, just attack the hitters and go after them,” DeLoach said. “It worked to my favor that they swung and missed. I’m not trying to go out there and strike everybody out, but obviously it’s nice when you rack up a few.”
DeLoach earned his second Class AA victory when the Travs scored all four of their runs in the second inning off Hooks starter Brady Rodgers.
Rodgers retired the first four batters he faced before Matt Long, Michael Snyder and Kaleb Cowart singled, the last of which scored Long to make it 3-1. Heid’s line drive then went over the head of Hernandez in center field for a triple that scored Snyder and Cowart to tie the game, and Eric Stamets’ grounder got past a drawnin infield for a double that scored Heid for a 4-3 lead.
Rodgers and reliever David Rollins kept the Travs in check after that, allowing only three more hits and not allowing a runner to reach second base.
It was similar to the Travs’ victory Friday night, when they scored all three runs in the first three innings of a 3-2 victory. Wellman said he doesn’t mind when the runs come as long as they continue their best run of success this season.