Lamb all set for a Naturals home debut

Springdale, AR – John Lamb is set to start tomorrow night’s game at Arvest Ballpark, the home field of the Northwest Arkansas Naturals at 6:00pm CT. This will mark the first start for Lamb in front of the home crowd since his promotion to the Texas League affiliate of the Kansas City Royals organization.

I am more nervous than normal and not because of his last performance during his Class AA debut on the road last weekend in Springfield, MO where he allowed more earned runs than his season has grown accustomed too. My concerns are based on the Naturals having literally pounded the Arkansas Travelers in tonight’s contest by a final score of 14-4.

My experience around the game has taught me one thing for certain. Rarely does a team have a repeat performance of offensive prowess in back to back games against the same team. All I can hope for is that John Lamb pitches well enough to give his new team a chance to win and that there are enough hits left in the Naturals bats to get one more run than the Travelers.

Danny Duffy (1-1, 4.09) pitched very well tonight while his team pounded out 18 hits and 14 runs during the second game of the series. Rowdy Hardy (4-1, 4.07) came in for two scoreless innings of work and was followed by Patrick Keating (1-1, 3.14) whom held off he Travelers in the ninth inning to secure the big win for the Naturals.

Everyone in the line-up received a hit and many had multiple hits, for the Royals Class AA team, except for Chris McConnell the Naturals short-stop.

Hope the Naturals can renew my faith that a professional baseball team can have back-to-back games of offensive dominance and take the third game of the series from the affiliate team of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.