Drillers spoil debut for Naturals’ Manaea

SPRINGDALE — Sean Manaea’s Double-A debut for Northwest Arkansas didn’t go so well.

Tulsa knocked out the big left-hander in the fourth inning and went on to defeat the Naturals 6-0 Monday in Texas League action at Arvest Ballpark. A crowd of 2,975 withstood a rain delay for Manaea’s debut following his promotion from Class A-Advanced Wilmington.

The former first- round draft pick pitched into the fourth, but did not retire a batter and left shortly after No. 9 hitter Ali Solis hit a tworun double to put Tulsa ahead 4-0. Manaea (6-foot-5 and 245 pounds) allowed six hits and three earned runs with three walks and five strikeouts.

Tulsa countered with a dominant performance from right-hander Jharel Cotton (41), who pitched seven scoreless innings and allowed only three hits. Cotton struck out 10 and did not walk a batter.

Lars Anderson went 3 for 5 with singles in his first two appearances to help Tulsa to a 2-0 lead after three innings. The Drillers added two more runs in the fourth inning with the help of a throwing error by Manaea on a potential double-play ball at second base. He also walked two batters before a wild pitch ended his night and brought on reliever Mark Peterson.

The Drillers went ahead 5-0 in the fifth after a double by Yadir Drake and RBI single from Adam Law off Peterson. The five-run lead was more than enough for Cotton, who threw 92 pitches with 62 of them for strikes.

SHORT HOPS

Left fielder Alex Liddi and shortstop Gabriel Noriega combined on a fine defensive play in the third inning to cut down a Tulsa runner trying to score from second base. Liddi fielded a hit by Brian Burgamy and threw to Noriega, who fired on one hop to catcher Zane Evans, who was waiting to apply the tag on Ronald Torreyes.

Manaea, 23, played at Indiana State and was the 34th overall selection by the Kansas City Royals in the 2013

Major League Baseball Amateur draft. His promotion to Double-A marked his third minor league stop this season.

Brett Eibner (Arkansas) and Andy Ferguson (Arkansas State) combined to lead Triple-A Omaha to a 3-0 victory over Nashville Sunday. Eibner went 3 for 4 at the plate while Ferguson pitched four scoreless innings to earn the win.

Extra Bases: Monday’s game was delayed by rain for one hour and 15 minutes. It took 27 Naturals employees to pull the large tarp off the infield and roll it into position in foul territory behind third base. … The Naturals were outhit 13-3 after being outhit 11-5 in Sunday’s 8-1 loss to Tulsa.

On Deck: The series will continue at 7:05 p.m. today with left-hander Cody Reed (1-2, 4.57 ERA) going for the Naturals against right-hander Ross Stripling (1-2, 6.00 ERA) for the Drillers.

Today’s Promotion: Buy one, get one free tickets for Arvest Bank customers and buck- a- brats for $ 1 at the Johnsonville grill cart.

On The Air: KQSM 92.1FM, The Ticket

On The Web: www.nwa naturals.com