Potomac loses Game One, 4-0
Winston-Salem's pitchers shut down the P-Nats bats for a 4-0 win in Game One
Winston-Salem’s Stephen Sauer pitched masterfully for eight innings to lead the Dash to a 4-0 victory over the Potomac Nationals in Game One of the Mills Cup Finals.
Sauer was perfect through five innings, keeping the ball down and in the infield with four strikeouts, a lineout, a popup, and nine grounders. The 24-year-old would eventually give up five hits and no walks before turning the ball over to closer Tyson Corley for a 1-2-3 ninth and a combined shutout.
Danny Rosenbaum got his second Game One series start and almost immediately got into trouble with the first of two errors by Robby Jacobsen and a walk before rolling a double-play ball and striking out Winston-Salem’s cleanup hitter Seth Loman. After a scoreless second, and two-hit third, Winston-Salem got on the board first with an Ozzie Lewis solo HR to take a 1-0 in the fourth.
Rosenbaum would last for 4⅓ innings before leaving with runners on 1st and 3rd in the fifth, an unusually quick hook by manager Gary Cathcart who called upon A.J. Morris to clean up the mess, which he did with by returning a tapper back to the mound to Derek Norris and inducing a liner to short.
The sixth inning was not as kind to Morris as shaky defense combined with timely hitting loaded the bases and the Dash grinded (grounded?) out two runs in the process to take a 3-0 lead. Joe Testa took the hill in the seventh and gave up the fourth and final Dash run with a leadoff double by Kenny Williams Jr. and an RBI single by Loman.
Jose Lozada collected the first Potomac hit with a leadoff single in the sixth and took second on a Nick Moresi swinging bunt and third on Chris Curran single to right. Sean Nicol, however, grounded out to end the threat. Tyler Moore became the second runner stranded after he narrowly missed an opposite-field home run in the seventh. And in the eighth, back-to-back singles by pinch-hitter Sean Rooney and Curran went for naught as pinch-hitting Francisco Soriano couldn’t get the clutch hit.
Trevor Holder will be asked to split the series as the Game Two starter against Winston-Salem’s Dylan Axlerod takes the hill with hopes of giving the P-Nats the poison pill and a trip to Woodbridge with 2-0 lead.
Thanks, Sue. I know there was a ton of flack last year over the drafting of Holder, but he could erase at least some of that with a big step up on Tuesday. The PNats need that game tomorrow big time.
Sue, I note that many bloggers mention Tyler Moore’s age, 23, as of last January, as a negative, but recently drafted Moldenhauer out of UT will be 23 this month and others are almost 23, so being 23 doesn’t seem like it’s a factor in re confering “prospect” status on a player. What’s your take on Moore’s future?
He’s played his way from “organizational guy” to prospect. Maybe that’s just “fringe” or a Grade-C or whatever you want to use to denote that he’s less of a sure thing in a game where sure things are widely predicted but rarely realized.
My take is that he’s going to need to start taking some walks and reduce his strikeout rate about 10-15%. Most of his success can be attributed to simply laying off bad pitches early in the count and getting more 2-0 and 2-1 counts versus 0-1 and 0-2 counts. Pitchers are now trying to go inside with soft stuff to negate his power and to his credit, he’s starting to flare the ball the other way when necessary (e.g. move a runner at second over to third).
At the next level, he’s going to be facing guys that have better control (not to mention better stuff) and won’t be as likely to give in on those 2-1 and 2-0 counts. Tyler eats fastballs for breakfast, but can still be had with breaking pitches. That will be what folks will be watching for next April/May in Harrisburg.
@Sue
Great update on Moore. Out of the guys getting dissed by the scouts lately, I’m much higher on Milone than Tyler Moore. And I’m much higher on Norris than either one, last night’s golden sombrero notwithstanding. One of the other things about Moore is that he’s not a neutral or plus defender at 1B and can’t move positions if his bat regresses to make him less of an option at the hot corner.
Better question right now: how do you rank Bloxom, Marrero, and Moore at this point? If you’re reluctant to rank, what questions have to be answered by each?
Marrero, Moore, Bloxom is the order. Now, if only we could have Marrero’s eye, Moore’s power, and Bloxom’s glove in the same body…
Norris is still probably going to be the best of the bunch… Yes, he struck out four times, but three times looking. That kind of patience is rare for a 21-y.o. and his power is not that far behind Moore’s.
Sue, you think they’re going to move Norris to 1st? Hasn’t his defense made some of the strides necessary? I hear the passed balls are down and he just gunned down a basestealer and he’s supposedly over 50% throwing out runners.
No. His footwork still needs improvement, he still boxes the ball around, but he’s got too good an arm to waste at 1B. He’s better now than he was five months ago and better than he was the two times I saw him in Hagerstown in ’09