MISSIONS EVEN SERIES WITH 9-1 WIN OVER NATURALS

SAN ANTONIO - Under the hot sunshine at Wolff Stadium on Monday afternoon, the San Antonio Missions beat the Northwest Arkansas Naturals, 9-1 to even the three-game series at a game each.
San Antonio (7-4) plated four runs on four hits in the third inning against Naturals' starter, Foster Griffin (1-1, 3.09) and took control from then on. Griffin finished 2.2 innings, allowed four runs, three earned, on five hits with two walks and one strikeouts. Left-hander, Sam Selman , notched the final out of the third and pitched a perfect fourth inning with two strikeouts.
Northwest Arkansas (4-7) got on the board in the top of the fifth frame to trim the Missions lead to 4-1. Anderson Miller reached on a fielding error by San Antonio first baseman, Josh Naylor and moved to second after Nate Esposito's single to leftfield. Following a sacrifice bunt from Nicky Lopez to move both runners up, designated hitter, Salvador Perez brought home Miller from third with a sacrifice fly to leftfield for the club's lone tally on the day.

The Missions tacked on four runs during the fifth frame to take an 8-1 lead and added a ninth run in the sixth inning to make it a 9-1 ballgame.
Pedro Fernandez worked 1.2 innings of relief and allowed one run. Left-hander, Jake Kalish pitched the seventh and eighth frames and retired six of the seven hitters faced with two strikeouts to complete his outing.
Centerfielder, Donnie Dewees , extended his hitting streak in the fourth inning with a two-out triple. Dewees is now 9-for-23 (.391) during his current stretch. Nicky Lopez has hit safely in five straight contests going 1-for-2 this afternoon and Samir Dueñez singled in the ninth frame and has tabbed at least one hit in nine of his first 11 games.
The Naturals are 2-3 on the current six-game road trip.
Northwest Arkansas looks to clinch its first series win in San Antonio since 2015 when the Naturals took the final two games of the series in mid-August. It would be just the club's third series win in the Alamo City since the team's inception in 2008. The 2011 Naturals took two-out-of-three from the Missions in early-July for the team's first series win at the Wolff. Northwest Arkansas is 19-41 against the Missions in San Antonio in franchise history.
Right-hander, Zach Lovvorn (0-0, 5.87) takes the hill for his second start of the road trip and third start on the year. He'll be opposite of former Natural and current San Diego Padres rehabber, left-hander, Matt Strahm .
Lovvorn has twice pitched against San Antonio in his career. The 23-year old made his Double-A debut against the Missions on Opening Day, 2017 at Arvest Ballpark and struck out eight hitters over six innings of one-hit baseball. He made a relief outing in July v. San Antonio and pitched 2.1 innings of shutout relief.
With Strahm starting in Game 3, he will be the fifth left-handed starter to face the Naturals through the first 12 games of 2018. Northwest Arkansas is 1-3 against left-handed starters this season.
Join the Voice of the Naturals, Benjamin Kelly, with a 6:45 p.m. pregame show, leading up to first pitch on 92.1 the Ticket and the Naturals Radio Network at 7:05 p.m.
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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