Tag Archives: Rehab Starts Are Overrated

Sunday Afternoon in Woodbridge

  By Luke Erickson | August 22, 2010 - 7:10 pm | Sunday Afternoon In Woodbridge, Uncategorized
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The Winston-Salem Dash reasserted themselves as the class of the Carolina league with a 9-8 victory (and a series win) over Potomac today. But with a four-run eighth and the tying run being cut down at the plate in the ninth to end the game, Potomac let it be known that this may not be the last time these two teams meet in 2010.

The allure of a rehabbing pitcher is a great marketing tool to draw casual fans to a minor-league, but regular readers of this space already know that rehab starts are overrated. This Sunday was no exception.

Despite the threat of rain, Yunesky Maya took the mound in Potomac and looked every bit the pitcher who hadn’t faced experienced professional hitters in more than a year. And make no mistake: This Winston-Salem team can hit. As a team, they’re averaging a line of .287/.351/.432 in a league where the median is .260/.330/.386

Maya’s command was spotty, but he got hitters out the first time through the lineup while fiddling with both his pitches (fastball, slider, curve) and his arm angle (overhand and three-quarters). At times his motion was fluid, but more often than not, he was slow and deliberate. The most impressive of his pitches was his curve, which he threw at two distinctly different speeds.

The second time through the lineup, the Dash took advantage of Maya’s rust as the first six batters reached base in the fourth inning before he retired the No.9 hitter by strikeout, as the Dash scored five runs on five hits and two walks during the inning. The fifth inning wasn’t any better, as the cleanup hitter smacked a long solo HR to right field and the second batter walked before he was lifted with no outs by manager Gary Cathcart.

Maya’s final line: four-plus innings, six runs (all earned) on seven hits, with three walks and four strikeouts.

Put in a 6-1 hole by a rehabbing pitcher, the Potomac offense did not, however, roll over. They would mimic their opponents in the sixth with a walk and four singles sandwiched around a strikeout by Jose Lozada, who smacked a would-coulda-grand slam for a very loud strike one, to cut the lead to 6-3.

Winston-Salem answered right back with three runs in the seventh to go back up 9-3. Like a punch-drunk boxer, the response would come late, in the bottom of the eighth. With one out, Lozada doubled, Jerome Walton singled to score him for a 9-4 tally, then Francisco Soriano walked to load the bases for Chris Curran.

Curran blistered a ball down the first base line that the first baseman was unable to handle — a questionable ruling as an error — but a play that sent home both Walton and Soriano to narrow the gap to 9-6. Sean Nicol’s infield single off Dash closer Tyson Corley would complete the four-run rally, Winston-Salem 9, Potomac 7 after eight full innings.

In the bottom of the ninth, Potomac would rally once again with one out. Sean Rooney doubled to left, Lozada singled to move him to third, and Walton singled to score Rooney. Soriano would fly to right, Lozada tagging to take third. A wild pitch sent Lozada scampering home for the possible game-tying run, but the catcher got a strong rebound and gunned it to Corley for the tag, the third out, and a 9-8 final in favor of the Dash.

The loss, combined with a Wilmington win in Lynchburg, reduces the Potomac lead back to 1½ games as the Blue Rocks come to town tomorrow for a three-game showdown. Trevor Holder is set to take the hill against Aaron Crow, the Washington Nationals No. 9 draft choice that went unsigned in 2008.

Last Night In Woodbridge

  By Luke Erickson | August 10, 2010 - 8:21 am | Last Night In Woodbridge, Uncategorized
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Thunder and lightning suspended this game at 8-2 last week, and Potomac used every bit of that anomaly to come away with an 8-7 score-that-counts-as-a-win in the first game played last night in Woodbridge.

Lynchburg’s three pitchers that took the mound on Monday shut down the Potomac offense, limiting them to just four hits and two walks by (who else?) Derek Norris while striking out nine batters.

Meanwhile, Marcos Frias, who had been pitching last Wednesday, resumed the game and immediately gave up two runs to cut the deficit from 8-2 to 8-4. He would settle down and retire eight of nine before surrendering a solo home run in the sixth, his team- and league-leading 16th of the season. It was now 8-5, Potomac.

Clayton Dill would follow Frias on the mound in the eighth and surrender a double to right, and suffer an error by Jose Lozada before getting a double play ball, which plated another run, shaving the lead to 8-6 for Potomac.

Justin Phillabaum took the ball in the ninth, and also gave up a leadoff double. But like Dill, he got two groundball outs, the first sending the runner to third, the second scoring him on a bullet down the LF line that Dan Lyons snared and fired across the diamond for out #2. After a two-out single, Phillabaum induced a fly to right field and sigh of relief from the stands, with the game in hand for an 8-7 victory.

Garrett Mock took the hill in Game Two, and did little to disprove the NationalsProspects.com mantra that rehab starts are overrated, coughing up a two-out, two-run blast to admittedly red-hot Denis Phipps (home run #8 since being demoted from AA Carolina) in the first inning, hitting two batters and surrendering eight hits over our innings. He also gave up a run in the fourth, his final inning of work.

It could have been worse were it not for a terrific relay on a two-out double to deep CF by Lynchburg’s Justin Greene. Speedsters Chris Curran and Francisco Soriano showed off their arms with a strong throw from the warning track to shallow and a bullet to the plate. Norris blocked the plate, absorbed the hit, and then glared at the baserunner — opposing catcher Jordan Wideman, who broke the catcher’s code by not sliding — before flipping the ball towards the mound, the body language roughly translated as: Is that all you got?

Unfortunately, the great defensive play did not spark the offense, which went down 1-2-3 for the next four innings. Newly acquired reliever Joe Testa worked the final the final three innings, the last of which saw him get roughed up for two runs on three hits.

With the split, Potomac’s lead over second-place Wilmington drops to just one game again. Adrian Alaniz is the scheduled starter for Potomac in today’s noontime barbeque ballgame, opposed by Curtis Partch for Lynchburg.

Last Night In Woodbridge

  By Luke Erickson | July 17, 2010 - 9:09 am | Last Night In Woodbridge, Uncategorized
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Folks who showed up an inning late, missed a whole lot of action. So did the folks who went home early, as the Potomac Nationals somehow prevailed 8-7 despite spotting the Kinston Indians three runs early and two runs late.

Rehab starts are overrated. It’s not just a snarky tag, it’s a cold, hard truth about minor-league baseball. Tyler Walker was the latest to victimize the fans at Woodbridge put teeth into this saw, walking four and striking out two while facing just seven batters in the top of the first inning. He was charged with three runs, as reliever Patrick McCoy walked one and struck out one in his brief, and undoubtedly unexpected appearance.

To their credit, the P-Nats showed their mettle by immediately loading the bases on a Josh Johnson single, a double by Steve Lombardozzi and a walk by Derek Norris. T.J. McFarland, a Carolina League All-Star, got taken to the woodshed by Tyler Moore, courtesy of a grand slam to left-center to give Potomac a 4-3 lead.

Marcos Frias, the announced starter online, came on to start the second and sporting a much-improved changeup, blanked the Kinston nine for the next three innings. McFarland reverted to form and matched Frias’s goose eggs.

The Indians would lead off the fifth with back-to-back singles, then went small-ball with a sacrifice bunt and a high chopper to first to tie the game at 4-4. Norris and Moore would go back-to-back with doubles to reclaim the lead at 5-4.

Kinston chased Frias in the sixth with two more runs, but the 21-year-old nearly escaped the jam. A single, walk, and a sacrifice-turned-single loaded the bases with nobody out. Frias only struck out three in his 4⅔ innings, but two of them came in this inning when he needed them most. A pitch-to-contact pitcher, Frias couldn’t get the grounder he needed from Kyle Bellows who singled to put the Indians ahead, 6-5.

“Dolla” Bill Rhinehart tied the game with a leadoff home run to right-center in the bottom of the sixth which is where it would stay until two outs in the ninth… when lightning was spotted and play was halted for 36 minutes.

The folks who remained were then treated to an improbable tenth inning. The Indians took the lead at 7-6 on a walk, sacrifice, and a single and nearly went up by two, but for Robby Jacobsen gunning down a runner for the third out.

With one out, the PNats got runners on first and second via a hit batsmen and a walk, and then the weirdness set in. Rhinehart grounded to first for what would have ordinarily been a 3-6-1 double play, except Kinston first baseman Nate Recknagle struck the runner at first base, Jacobsen, and the ball rolled into left field, allowing the lead runner to tie the game at 7-7.

Kinston’s throw from left was cut off and Rhinehart was caught in a rundown, the putout going 7-6-3-1. Jacobsen, who had taken third after the ball hit him, took home just as Rhinehart was tagged out, leaving the Indians on the short end of an 8-7 score.

With the win, Potomac goes two games over .500 for the first time the season at 11-9, three games behind Wilmington. Brad Peacock (3-9, 4.09) makes his first start since his complete-game shutout on July 5th (his turn had been missed at the Fenway Futures game rainout) as the Nationals look to take the series. Joey Mahalic (3-4, 4.15) takes the ball for Kinston.

Last Night In Woodbridge

  By Luke Erickson | July 15, 2010 - 8:05 am | Last Night In Woodbridge, Uncategorized
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Jordan Zimmermann threw four solid but not spectacular innings of work, but took the loss last night thanks to poor defense and a weak offense. No, that’s not a cut & paste from a ’09 WaPo game recap, but it sure seems like one, doesn’t it?

As many minor leaguers do against rehabbing major leaguers, once they realize that they have no hope of getting ahead in the count — which was evident when Zimmermann dispatched Kinston’s leadoff hiter Lucas Montero on three pitches — they sit on the fastball and hope for the best. The next batter doubled, took third on a groundout to first, and came in on an error charged to shortstop Jose Lozada on an olé by Tyler Moore.

Zimmermann retired six of the next seven batters with ease before running into a little bit of trouble in the fourth. Back-to-back singles put runners on first and second with one out, but Zimmermann caught the lead runner leaning and got a break on some high-school-ego baserunning. Jeremie Tice doubled to the wall in right-center but speedy CF Chris Curran was just a step behind and gunned the ball to Steve Lombardozzi, who threw a one-hop seed to catcher Derek Norris. Kinston’s manager saw this and put up the stop sign, but Juan Diaz ran through it and was out by 25 feet.

As was the case in the previous rehab start in Woodbridge, Zimmerman’s velocity was there, his control was decent, but the pitches were just a little up in the zone — enough for High-A hitters to get decent wood on them.

The change of pace from fireballer (Zimmermann) to control artist (Alaniz) did not disrupt the Indians in the fifth, as the first three batters he faced tripled, doubled, and singled off him for the second and third runs of the night. Alaniz would settle down and pitch three scoreless innings, finishing the night with a halfway decent line of two runs allowed on six hits over four innings.

The PNats got their lone run in the bottom of the sixth, as a Derek Norris was hit by a pitch (you already know it was on his left arm, right?) and took second on wild pitch. Tyler Moore drove him in with the only solidly hit ball of the night, an opposite-field double to right.

With the loss, Potomac falls to back to .500 at 9-9 in the second half. A.J. Morris is projected to make his return to the rotation, opposed by Kinston’s Austin Adams for today’s noontime tilt.