The beauty (and agony) of baseball is that every day is a new chance to forget yesterday. After striking out twice yesterday, Bryce Harper buried his inglorious two-K debut and served up an opposite-field single in his first at-bat today as the Nationals escaped a shaky 9th to beat the New York Mets, 5-3. Harper went 1-for-2 overall and fielded two doubles, the second of which was not fielded cleanly according to NatsNQ (via Twitter).
Danny Espinosa started again at second base, with Chris Marrero at first base, filling in for DH Adam LaRoche (shoulder soreness). Espinosa knocked in two with a two-run HR in the bottom of the Nats’ four-run fourth inning and laid down the tag on a strike-em-out-throw-em-out DP in the previous half-inning. Marrero singled twice in two at-bats out of the #9 hole and did not make an error.
Other notable prospects…
- Corey Brown once again spelled Nyjer Morgan in CF, rapping an RBI single in the bottom of the 7th, but left the game after a collision at home plate while trying to score on an grounder to 1B by Harper.
- Derek Norris replaced Ivan Rodriguez and went 1-for-2, popping to short in his first at-bat and singling to 3B in his second AB
- Cole Kimball pitched a scoreless sixth inning, walking one and striking out one. The stadium’s radar gun was inoperative so no word on how hard he was throwing.
The Nationals remain in Viera tomorrow for an afternoon tilt against the Florida Marlins.
Top first base prospect Chris Marerro went 2 for 2.
Just bolded the prospect names in the story… does that help? Seem to recall Mr. Oliver doing that, too.
Just an extra reminder … everyone else seems to have ignored that …
Gotcha. I myself have been guilty of the “but he doesn’t hit for power” but you’re right: Let’s not lose sight of the fact that Chris Marrero can hit.
per Baseball America, Nationals signed Sam Brown as a minor league free agent. He was an unsigned 7th round draft pick out of HS. Drafted/signed by Rangers in 2009
“you can check out, but you can never leave”.
was there kimball 91-93