FRISCO ROUGHRIDERS (20-14) NORTHWEST ARKANSAS NATURALS (16-16) Texas Rangers Kansas City Royals GAME #35 • SUNDAY, JUNE 13 • 6:05 P.M. Riders Field • Frisco, TX RHP A.J. Alexy (1-0, 1.10) vs. RHP Stephen Woods Jr. (1-4, 11.00) Video: MiLB.tv • Audio: Riders Baseball Network: RidersBaseball.com, MiLB First Pitch App RIDERS FALL TO NATURALS ON SATURDAY NIGHT: The Northwest Arkansas Naturals took down the Frisco RoughRiders 6-2 on Saturday night from Riders Field. The Riders combined for RIDERS VS. NATURALS seven hits, scoring two runs in the contest. Following the early pair of runs from the Naturals, Riders infielder Ryan Dorow delivered 2021 ...................................................2-3 his fifth homer of the year to left center field in the fourth, trimming the lead to 2-1 in favor of Northwest Arkansas. An inning later in the fifth, Frisco added another run on an RBI double from Anderson Tejeda as J.P. Martinez scored the Riders second run of the in Frisco ....................................2-3 game, knotting the game up 2-2. The Naturals added two runs in the sixth and one in the seventh and eighth innings pushing their in Springdale ..........................0-0 advantage to 6-2. The RoughRiders sent Jake Latz to the hill and he turned in four innings in a decision while allowing two earned All-time ........................................81-68 runs on four hits. Tyler Phillips (1-1) was on the hook for his first loss of the season after throwing a third of an inning, allowing one in Frisco ...............................44-31 hit and two earned runs. Robert Garcia (1-0) earned his first win of the year, tossing one inning out of the Naturals bullpen. in Springdale .....................37-37 THE STEELE OF THE GROUP: RANGERS TOP 30 PROSPECTS The Riders Steele Walker has been on fire from the plate since the calender moved to June. He has reached in all eight June games, hitting .333 (10-for-30)/.375/.633 with three home runs, six RBIs and six runs scored. The Riders outfielder has collected back-to-back 3. RHP Cole Winn multi-hit games in the first two days of the series with Northwest Arkansas. Walker is well on pace for his career high of 10 home 7. RHP Hans Crouse runs in a season, which he accomplished in 2019, hitting all of them with the High-A Winston-Salem Dash as part of the White Sox 8. INF Davis Wendzel organization. If Walker were to play 100 games this season, he is on pace for a 23-home run season. 9. INF Sherten Apostel 11. OF Steele Walker COLOSSAL APOSTEL: Sherten Apostel has been swinging a hot bat for the Riders over the last few games. Since June 5th, Apostel is hitting .360 (9-for- 16. RHP Ronny Henriquez 25)/.433/.720 over seven games with three home runs and five RBIs. On Thursday, he collected two solo homers, marking his sixth 19. RHP Yerry Rodriguez multi-hit game in his minor league career. He became the third player to hit two bombs in a game this season for the Riders (Bubba 23. RHP A.J. Alexy Thompson on May 6th against Midland and Josh Stowers, who also accomplished the feat on Thursday against Northwest Arkansas. According to MLB Pipeline THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SECOND PLACE: The RoughRiders enter their 35th game of the season on Sunday having never been anywhere but first place in the Double-A Central RECORD THROUGH 34 GAMES South Division in 2021. The Riders own a slim 1.5 game lead on Midland and San Antonio in the South after a loss last night and San Antonio beating Midland. Frisco has the second-best run differential in the Double-A Central (+25). The last time the RoughRiders 2021 ................................................ 20-14 finished the season with a positive run differential was 2014 (+104), also their last winning season. 2019 ................................................ 19-14 Best record ..............(5/26) ...........13-5 POWER SURGE: Worst record ...........(5/15) ............. 6-4 The RoughRiders have not flexed their muscles much in 2021, but over their last nine games, the Riders have crushed 18 home runs, including 10 in their last three games, their best stretch of the season. Even with this surge, the Riders are seventh in the Double-A 120-game pace ......................... 71-49 Central (10 teams) with just 34 home runs this year. Northwest Arkansas leads the way with 53 (also first in Double-A). The Riders on on pace for 120 home runs this season. The franchise record for team home runs is 176 (2007) while the fewest was 68 (2010). TEDDY FUN FACT OF THE DAY NOT JUST JOSHING YOU: He is the only president ever known Outfielder Josh Stowers has been crushing the baseball for Frisco over the last week. In his last nine games, he is batting .308 (8-for- to have inked his body. Roosevelt 26)/.471/.808 with one double, four home runs, five RBIs and eight walks. Out of the four homers, three have come in the last three games. During the stretch, Stowers has raised his batting average from .069 to .182 (113 points) and his OPS from .401 to .821 (420 had a large image of his family crest points). His OPS of 1.621 since June 5th is second best in the Double-A Central and fifth in Double-A (among those with at least five right across his chest. games played). STARTING IT OFF ON A GOOD NOTE: Dating back to May 9th, the Riders starters over 24 games only allowed seven runs over 90.0 IP (0.70 ERA) while striking out 108 COMMUNICATIONS batters and just walking 28. During that stretch, the overall Riders starters’ ERA dropped from 6.11 to 1.69. On Tuesday, Cole Winn allowed five earned over his 3.2 innings, the worst Riders start since May 8th, Sal Mendez allowed six earned over his three innings Compiled by Zach Bigley on Wednesday and Hans Crouse allowed three more runs over four innings on Thursday. Even after those three outings, the Riders starters ERA sits at 2.59 on the season, the second-best in Minor League Baseball (Hudson Valley second at 2.48). For credentials, game notes, media guides and more, visit RidersBaseball.com/Media UPCOMING PITCHING PROBABLES or email [email protected] DATE TIME OPPONENT RIDERS STARTER OPPOSING STARTER June 14th OFF DAY @RidersBaseball June 15th 6:35 p.m. at Corpus Christi Hooks TBD TBD June 16th 6:35 p.m. at Corpus Christi Hooks TBD TBD June 17th 4:05 p.m. at Corpus Christi Hooks TBD TBD RIDERS HORSESHOES Sherten Apostel: L7G: .360 (9-for-25)/.433/.720 with 3 HR, 5 RBIs... 5 hits from 5/20-6/3 (12G) before 9 hits in last seven games Jordan Procyshen: 8G hitting streak ended on Thursday: .385 (10-for-26)/.515/.692 w/ 2 2B, 2 HR, 8 RBIs, 5 BB, 7 K, 7 RS Diosbel Arias: L17G: .323 (20-for-62) with 2 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 6 BB, 7 K, 1 SB...Tied with Dorow for most mult-hit games (9) Josh Stowers: L9G: .308 (8-for-26)/.471/.808 with 1 2B, 4 HR, 5 RBIs, 8 BB, 9 K...1st 2 HR game of MiLB career on Thursday Jax Biggers: L7G: .083 (2-for-24)/.154/.125 with 1 2B, 2 BB, 7 K, 1 RBI... Played at 2B (23G), 3B (1G) and LF (3G) for the Riders Anderson Tejeda: 2-for-5 w/ go-ahead solo HR in Riders debut on Friday...Started season with Rangers, going 1-for-16 over 5G Ryan Dorow: Hits in 19 of last 21G: .372 (29-for-78)/.437/.667 with 8 2B, 5 HR, 15 RBIs, 13 RS, 1.103 OPS... Hitting .270 in June Bubba Thompson: L15G: .311 (19-for-61)/.400/.475 with 2 2B, 1 3B, 2 HR, 8 RBIs, 7 BB, 12 RS, 4 SB...4th HR of season on Friday J.P. Martinez: L5G: .444 (8-for-18) w/ 1 2B, 1 HR, 4 RBIs, 3 BB, 4 RS, 1.190 OPS... Avg from .162 to .221, OPS from .514 to .656 Steele Walker: 8G On-Base Streak: .333 (10-for-30)/.375/.633 with 3 HR, 6 RBIs, 2 BB, 6 RS, 1 SB...Team-high six home runs this season Melvin Novoa: Returns from playing for Team Nicaragua (collected one hit)...5G for Riders: .333/.500/.667 with HR, 3 RBIs Matt Whatley: Hit 1st home run of season on Thursday... .349 OBP second on team among those with at least 20G played ROUGHRIDERS STARTING PITCHER SINGLE-GAME HIGHS A.J. ALEXY Season Highs HT: 6’4 WT: 195 IP ..................................... 4.1 (6/6 vs. AMA) H ........................................ 3 (6/6 vs. AMA) BATS: Right THROWS: Right R ...................................1 (2x; 6/6 vs. AMA) AGE: 23 BIRTHDAY: April 21, 1998 21 ER ................................1 (2x; 6/6 vs. AMA) # BB ........................................2 (5/9 vs. MID) BORN: Honey Brook, Pennsylvania SO .......................................6 (5/30 at MID) RESIDES: Career Highs Honey Brook, Pennsylvania IP ..............................7.0 (8/23/18 vs. LWD) ACQUIRED BY RANGERS: H ............................. 7 (3x; 7/26/18 at GVL) R ............................. 6 (3x; 4/27/18 vs. DEL) Traded to Rangers from Dodgers on July 31, 2017 RHP ER .......................... 7 (2x; 4/27/18 vs. DEL) with two other players for RHP Yu Darvish BB ............................. 4 (10x; 5/1/19 at MB) (1-0, 1.10 ERA) SO ...................................12 (5/4/18 at WV) YEAR TEAM LEV W-L ERA G GS SV IP H R ER BB K HR HBP BK WP WHIP 2016 AZL Dodgers ROK 1-0 4.61 7 3 0 13.2 17 8 7 3 12 2 1 1 0 1.46 2017 TOTAL - 3-7 3.53 24 24 0 94.1 59 39 37 52 113 6 9 2 8 1.18 Hickory A 1-1 3.05 5 5 0 20.2 13 7 7 15 27 3 1 0 1 1.35 Great Lakes A 1-6 3.67 19 19 0 73.2 46 32 30 37 86 3 8 2 7 1.13 2018 Hickory A 6-8 3.58 22 20 0 108.0 89 50 43 52 138 5 8 0 5 1.31 2019 Down East A+ 0-3 5.12 5 5 0 19.1 14 12 11 13 23 1 2 0 1 1.40 2021 Frisco AA 1-0 1.10 5 3 0 16.1 8 2 2 3 17 2 1 0 0 0.67 MINOR LEAGUE CAREER 11-18 3.58 63 55 0 251.2 187 111 100 123 303 16 21 3 14 1.23 REPERTOIRE VS.