By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
The Arkansas Travelers are getting games played again, now the trick is to get some games won.
The Travelers dropped their fourth straight Thursday, losing 4-2 at Tulsa before 5,704 at ONEOK Field while the Drillers won their fifth in a row.
Mike Daniel hit a two-run home run for Tulsa, in first place in the Texas League North, and Tim Wheeler doubled twice, scored and drove in a run. Luis Jimenez represented most of the Travelers’ offense with a two-run home run.
Arkansas left-hander Trevor Reckling (0-4) continued to be the team’s hard-luck pitcher as he got the loss.
He entered with an ERA under 3.50 but left still seeking his first victory thanks in part to the lack of run support after giving up three runs in six innings.
Reckling suffered his latest hardships in the first when outfielder Ryan Mount misplayed a Wheeler fly ball for a double. Wheeler later scored on a groundout.
Daniel hit his two-run homer off Reckling in the second. With the score 3-2, Wheeler hit an RBI double off Travelers reliever Loek Van Mil in the seventh.
Drillers closer Dustin Molleken worked the ninth for his first save.
Jimenez gave the Travs all their runs in the fourth when he homered to drive in Mount, who walked, to make it 3-2. Arkansas had base runners erased or stranded in the first, second and third innings.
Reckling finished with five walks and five strikeouts. Tulsa starter Rob Cahill got the victory after scattering four hits, with a walk and three strikeouts, in six innings.
The Travs, who have endured multiple rainouts, last won when they beat Northwest Arkansas on April 29. The Naturals beat the Travelers the next night and then the teams were rained out on Sunday and Monday.
Tulsa hit three home runs in a 4-2 victory that opened the series on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Tulsa broke a tie with a three-run rally in the seventh on the way to an 8-4 victory, though Arkansas center fielder and Los Angeles Angels top prospect Mike Trout had three hits in the game.
Garrett Richards (2-1), pitching not far from his hometown of Edmund, Okla., got the loss on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Matt Shoemaker got the loss after giving up home runs to Scott Beerer, Willin Rosario and Wheeler.
The Angels released Travelers outfielder/designated hitter Marvin Lowrance and assigned infielder Matt Cusick to take his spot. Drafted by the Montreal Expos in the seventh round of the 2004 draft, Lowrance, 26, hit .150 with two RBI in 12 games with the Travs.
Lowrance spent seven years in the Washington Nationals/Montreal Expos organization, reaching Class AAA Syracuse last year.
In eight seasons in the minors, Lowrance has 83 career home runs and 319 career RBI.
His best season came in 2008 when he hit .275 with 20 home runs and 63 RBI in 121 games with Class A Potomac and Class AA Harrisburg. The Expos became the Nationals in 2005.
Cusick, 25, was taken by the Houston Astros in the 10th round of the 2007 draft.
The Astros traded him to the New York Yankees in 2008 and assigned him to their Class A Tampa, Fla., team.
