TL1 Northwest Arkansas Naturals

Series Preview: Missions Pitchers Cart Top ERA to Springdale

Published on July 3, 2008 under Texas League (TL1)
Northwest Arkansas Naturals News Release


The San Antonio Missions have looked in recent weeks like they may be gearing up for a second half run that could help them defend their 2007 Texas League Championship. Certainly if pitching is key to winning championships, the Missions have it in abundance. Though the Missions haven't forayed into Northwest Arkansas since the first three games in Arvest Ballpark history back in April, the Naturals remember them quite well from their trip to Nelson Wolff Municipal stadium last week, which saw Northwest Arkansas plate just one run over three days as they were swept by San Antonio behind dominating performances from the Missions' pitching staff. Coming off a momentum-building sweep in Corpus Christi that followed, the Naturals will look now to extract some revenge on San Antonio in hopes of gaining some ground in the Texas League's North Division.

San Antonio may not appear to be a flashy group on paper when you stack their roster up next to your Baseball America prospect list, but some of the prospects are looming large on this squad. San Antonio currently boasts five of the San Diego Padres' top 30 prospects: LHP Steve Garrison (#6), and RHP Will Inman (#7), both acquired last July from the Milwaukee Brewers in the deal that sent major league reliever Scott Linebrink to Milwaukee, 1B Kyle Blanks (#10), RHP Matt Buschmann (#21), and OF Chad Huffman (#22). They also come with three SEC alums who may be familiar to Diamond Hog fans: Buschmann and OF Mike Baxter, who were Vanderbilt Commodores, and OF Josh Alley, a former Tennessee Volunteer.

No matter what the prospect rankings indicate, the Missions can stand by the fact that as of the beginning of this series, four members of their starting rotation, Garrison, Inman, Stephen Faris, who the Naturals face Thursday, and Buschmann, are in the top five in the Texas League in ERA. Three of them are in the top five in strikeouts, and Inman, who, along with Garrison makes the Linebrink trade from last summer look like an outright heist, has 97 strikeouts, nearly 20 more than the 79 his teammate Buschmann, who ranks second in the loop, has. As a team, their pitching staff has a 3.46 ERA, which is over three quarters of a run better than the second-best pitching staff in the loop (the Arkansas Travelers, 4.25 ERA). The Missions have struck out 698 hitters, more than any other squad in the league, and allowed 57 homers, second-fewest in the loop. And as the summer gets warmer, their pitching staff gets hotter - the squad posted a super-stingy 1.89 ERA in June, a month in which the Missions also hit .278 (their best month so far) and won 20 of 27 games. The only thing that would seem to potentially stop this group would be callups, as some baseball insiders believe their parent club San Diego could be on the verge of a fire-sale as they have spent most of 2008 as non-competitive cellar-dwellars in the National League West. With their home, Petco Park, having a place as one of the NL's best pitchers' parks, the Padres may be tempted to bring some of their nascent power arms up to the show to see how they fare on baseball's highest stage.

Pitching matchups for this series will see Naturals righty Julio Pimentel start Thursday opposite Missions right-hander Stephen Faris. Southpaw Rowdy Hardy will go for the Naturals on Friday against right-hander Manny Ayala, and the series will wrap on Saturday night with righty Blake Johnson versus right-hander Will Inman.

The Northwest Arkansas Naturals are the Double-A Texas League affiliate of the Kansas City Royals and play at state-of-the-art Arvest Ballpark, located in Springdale. The Naturals have a toll-free ticket hotline (1-877-444-2637) for fans to purchase Naturals tickets. Our website also offers fans the opportunity to purchase tickets online and avoid lines at the ticket windows by printing their tickets at home or at the office.

Check out the Northwest Arkansas Naturals Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Texas League Stories from July 3, 2008


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central