Last Night In Woodbridge
Destin Hood undoes a poor relief outing with a walkoff single
What happens when a stoppable force meets a moveable object?
In a game that neither team played particularly well, the Potomac Nationals scored single runs in the last three innings to not lose, 3-2 against the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. The two teams combined to leave 19 men on base, collecting just nine hits between them as the pitchers issued 11 walks and the fielders committed five errors.
Myrtle Beach’s Barret Loux, who had beaten Potomac in his previous outing last Wednesday, was the most dominant pitcher of the night. He allowed just an infield hit to Jeff Kobernus in the first inning and struck out 10 over five and 2/3rds innings, mixing in a decent fastball (~88-92) a good change (~80-82) and slow curve (~73-77) that kept the P-Nats bats off-kilter.
Potomac’s Danny Rosenbaum started slow but finished strong, walking three batters in the first three innings, but retiring the last 10 in a row. He is still having difficulty commanding his pitches but got the pot of gold with a rainbow curve to Jeff DiFazio for a called third strike to escape a bases-loaded jam in the third.
The game was scoreless until the bottom of the seventh, when Sandy Leon drew a leadoff walk and Myrtle Beach threw away the ensuing sacrifice attempt and handed Potomac the lead with a wild pitch and send the would-be sacrificer, Jose Lozada, to third. There he would stay after a groundout and two strikeouts (with a walk and steal by Jeff Kobernus sandwiched in-between) ended the inning.
The second Potomac run was much more earned, rulebook or otherwise, as Steven Souza doubled to right to lead off the eighth, and newly activated Justin Bloxom sacrificed him to third. J.P. Ramirez slapped a burner to the drawn-in shortstop for the infield hit and RBI.
With Pat Lehman unavailable after a two-inning stint on Sunday, manager Matt LeCroy sent Adam Olbrychowski out for the ninth to secure the win. Three batters later — a flyout, a walk, and a two-run homer — the two teams were tied at 2-2. Olbrychowski would leave three batters later after what was ruled a two-base error and a walk followed a tapper back to the mound. Joe Testa retired the only batter he faced with a caught-looking strikeout.
Down 2-2, the P-Nats were staring at extras when Chris Curran singled with one out, took second when pinch-hitter Francisco Soriano drew a walk, and went to third when Jeff Kobernus beat out a would-be double play ball. Destin Hood sent him home with the gamewinner, an infield hit to deep shortstop that he beat, securing the 3-2 win.
The two teams resume play today with a Tuesday matinee, as Mitchell Clegg is scheduled to pitch against Robbie Ross.
MB with an early 1-0 lead if not for Curren’s throw home to nail tagging-up MB runner. Probably battling his whole baseball career against the size/weight bias, but no stopping the Harper train from taking over CF. Curren-Harper-Hood in OF?
down 2-2??? a bit fatalistic don’t you think :>0
You never saw the movie “Harvard beats Yale 19-19”.
Thanks, Mark. I was afraid I might have missed my audience with that reference.
Maybe I missed it, but I’m searching for the current situation of Roberto Perez, the 19-yr old 2B who posted good numbers in the GCL last year. Where is he now?
At this point, if you don’t see a player on the restricted list, you can presume he’s in that lovely limbo known as “Extended Spring Training.”
And that ExST list is still a bit cumbersome – By my tally, all of the following are on it… (by position)
CA (3)- Miguel Perez, Jeremy Mayo (briefly with POT), Sam Palace.
SS (2)- Justino Cuevas, Nick Arata.
OF (2)- Derrick Philliphs, Rick Hughes.
DH/OF (1)- Russell Moldenhauer.
SP (1)- Tanner Roark; Both Sammy Solis & Jack McGeary are injured & accounted for.
RP (1)- Hector Nelo; Oliver Perez, Atahualpa Severino, Rafael Martin, Zech Zinicola, Patrick Arnold & Dean Weaver have all been noted at some point as recovering from injuries of various degrees of severity.
As Sue_D notes, there are also players on the Restricted list – Jorge Hernandez (DSL RP-50G), Juan Diaz (DSL SP-50G), Hector Taveras (CA-25G), & Adrian Nieto (CA-50G).
Roberto Perez still shows in the system as a two-time FIL invitee (2009-10) – based on age, he might project to start the season in Auburn.
@joemtg, more likely scenario would be Hood/Curran/Harper most nights with JP Ramirez and Higley slipping in here and there depending on their hitting. Looks like Harper could jump start Potomac’s offense perhaps? Have to see … But so perhaps could the Groovin’ Aruban and Blake Kelso. Freitas continues to prove he may be an excellent offensive catcher in the offing … defensively the jury is still probably out.
So, there are lots of potential promotions who could be headed for Woodbridge in the coming weeks. To make space guys have to be DL’ed, released or promoted in turn to Harrisburg as Stephen King was?
Sue, how close was that rainbow curve to an Eaphus pitch?
Not at all – a little literary license there. It was more of a “slow bender,” the kind that looks like a changeup until the last 1/10th of a second.