Naturals Welcome Second Round with South Division

May 21, 2014 - Texas League (TL) Northwest Arkansas Naturals Springdale, Ark. - The Northwest Arkansas Naturals (16-27) head back home to Arvest Ballpark for a six game homestand with the San Diego Padres Double-A Affiliate San Antonio Missions (20-24) Wednesday to Friday, and then the Houston Astros Double-A Affiliate Corpus Christi Hooks (23-21) come to Springdale on Saturday. Wednesday night marks the first game of the second round with the south division, previously hosting Midland and Frisco in early April.

The Naturals luck has certainly changed as of late at Arvest Ballpark, in large part to quality pitching. Naturals' starters have tossed three quality starts in their past five home games. Pitching, along with new addition Orlando Calixte, have helped the Naturals take four out of their last five home games. Despite missing a little over a month to start the season, shortstop Calixte has been back for all of nine games and has already walked-off the Naturals twice.

After dropping their previous two games in Tulsa, the Naturals send Sam Selman, the Kansas City Royals 12th-ranked prospect (Baseball America), to the mound tonight in hopes of ending their two game skid, while putting an end to the Missions three game win streak. In order to do so, however, he and the rest of the Naturals pitching staff must quiet the Padres first and sixth best prospects in their farm system, catcher Austin Hedges and outfielder Rymer Liriano respectively.

During the Missions current three-game winning streak, Liriano has gone 6-11 with one home run, five runs batted in, five runs scored and two stolen bases. He leads the Missions with 10 home runs on the season. Hedges, meanwhile, has batted .378 with two home runs and nine RBI in his last 10 games.

Despite these two hitters, the Missions rank last in the Texas League having scored only 163 runs, while batting a league worst .222. Corpus Christi, on the other hand, ranks second behind only the Midland RockHounds in both team batting average (.262) and runs scored (218).

The Hooks are led by the Astros seventh ranked prospect (MLB.com) Delino DeShields, Jr. The son of the former big leaguer, Deshields has four home runs on the season. His speed, however, will be what the Naturals must keep an eye on this Memorial Day Weekend. He has 12 stolen bases in 2014, and has swiped 152 bases between 2012 and 2013.

RHP Angel Baez has declared the bullpen's manifesto as dominate and stingy over the past seven games with the 23-year old right-hander representing the party. Baez has not allowed an earned run over the course of his last 15.1 innings of work while the Naturals bullpen holds an ERA of 2.59 throughout the seven-game stretch.

The runs that have come against the Naturals bullpen came in bulk with Tulsa plating three in the bottom of the eighth on Sunday and Arkansas knocking a three-run home run in the eighth inning on May 15.

Other members of the 'pen supporting the unit's platform are recent additions RHP Wilking Rodriguez and RHP Matt Murray. Rodriguez, a 24-year old Venezuelan, earned his first win of the season on May 17 against Tulsa tossing his obligatory one inning of work. He has allowed just two baserunners in his last three outings (3 IP) with one reaching on an error. Murray - a recent call-up from Hi-A Wilmington - logged two perfect frames on Friday, May 16 in the Naturals 3-1 defeat to the Tulsa Drillers.

San Antonio Missions (San Diego Padres) (20-24) v. Northwest Arkansas Naturals (16-27) - May 21 thru May 23

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Naturals Welcome Second Round with South Division