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TL1 Northwest Arkansas Naturals

Blewett Strong, Liddi Clutch in Naturals 8-2 in Frisco

August 17, 2018 - Texas League (TL1)
Northwest Arkansas Naturals News Release


FRISCO, Texas - Right-hander, Scott Blewett, worked seven strong frame to earn his third straight win and Alex Liddi delivered a trio of two-out RBIs in the Naturals 8-2 win over the Frisco RoughRiders at Dr. Pepper Ballpark on Friday night.

Blewett (8-6, 5.11 ERA) followed up his complete-game winner over the RoughRiders from last Friday night at Arvest Ballpark with his third straight quality start. Frisco tallied a pair of runs in the third inning and had four hits on Blewett through the first two and one-third innings; but the reigning Texas League Pitcher of the Week settled in.

The big right-hander fired no-hit baseball over his final four and two-third innings, surrendering just the two runs on four hits with a pair of walks while fanning five hitters in the start.

Frisco starter, Yohander Mendez stymied the Naturals through the first four innings, holding the bats to just two hits with five punchouts. But halfway through the second time through the line-up, the offense picked up. Liddi skied a 2-1 pitch from Mendez out to deep leftfield where Michael O'Neill lost the ball in the lights. The hit landed 15 feet behind the Frisco outfielder and Liddi streaked into third with his second triple of the season.

Two batters later, Alfredo Escalera tagged a 2-2 offering 373 feet, according to TrackMan statistics, beyond the leftfield wall to tie the game in the fifth inning with his second home run in last seven games.

With Mendez out, reliever, Cole Wiper (0-3, 8.22 ERA) took over in the sixth. Samir Duenez looped a double down the leftfield line, moved to third on a Wiper wild pitch - one of four wild pitches uncorked by the Frisco staff on the night - setting up the two-out single by Liddi. The 30-year old Italian scorched a broken-bat single under the reaching glove of third baseman, Juremi Profar to bring home the go-ahead run, pushing the Naturals in front, 3-2.

The scored held until the top of the eighth inning. Reliever, CD Pelham retired the first two batters of the inning; but Duenez singled to left, Kelvin Gutierrez tapped a single into shallow center and after a Pelham wild pitch move both men into scoring position, Liddi came through with a two-out, two-run single to right to make it a 5-2 Naturals' lead.

Anderson Miller followed the Liddi single with a base-hit up the middle to score Liddi from third who moved to second on a throw to the plate and to third on another wild pitch. That made the score 6-2.

Northwest Arkansas (60-63/25-28) scored twice more in the ninth inning in a wild frame that involved an ejection of Frisco reliever, Anthony Gose who threw two pitches to Xavier Fernandez with the second getting him ejected by plate umpire, Brian Walsh.

The Natuarls' bullpen combination of Cristian Castillo and Andres Machado threw a scoreless eighth and a perfect ninth, respectively to notch the club's 60th win of the season.

Blewett has now won three straight starts and is 4-0 in his last five appearances. The right-hander owns a 3.00 ERA over his last 30.0 innings of work with a 1.10 WHIP.

Erick Mejia doubled in his final at-bat in the ninth to extend his hitting streak to a season-high 11 games while Jecksson Flores finished hitless in five at-bats to snap his streak at 15 games. Flores laced a line-drive towards center in the first inning, only to see it speared by the shortstop, Michael De Leon.

Escalera finished with two hits in the contest and has hit safe in seven straight games batting .423 over his current streak. Fernandez finished 1-for-3 and has now hit safe in seven consecutive, as well.

With three more RBIs tonight, Liddi now has 22 total against Frisco and has a 10-game hitting streak against the RoughRiders this season batting .419 with five home runs, five doubles and a triple for a .930 slugging average against the South Division opponent.

The middle-game of the three-game set will feature a pair of prospective left-handers for the two clubs: Foster Griffin (8-12, 5.07 ERA) will hunt for his sixth straight winning decision in Saturday night's game. The southpaw is 5-0 with a 1.44 ERA over his last five starts. Left-hander, Taylor Hearn (1-1, 6.30 ERA) will take the ball for the second straight game against the Naturals. Northwest Arkansas tagged Hearn for six runs on nine hits over four and two-third innings on Friday night at Arvest Ballpark last week.

Join the Voice of the Naturals, Benjamin Kelly, with a 6:45 Indigo Sky Casino Pregame Show leading up to the 7:05 p.m. first pitch on the flagship station of the Naturals, 92.1-FM, the Ticket and across the Naturals' Radio Network.

Follow the Northwest Arkansas Naturals on Facebook and Twitter @NWANaturals all throughout the year by using the hashtag #NaturalPastime and #CrowntoCrown for all of our up-to-date information on the 2018 season of Naturals baseball.

The Northwest Arkansas Naturals are the Double-A Texas League Affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. The Naturals play at state-of-the-art Arvest Ballpark in Springdale, Ark. For more information, including statistics, ticket options, and more, please visit NWANaturals.com, and follow us on Twitter @NWANaturals and Facebook.com/Naturals.

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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.

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